The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (242 page)

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after, a Dutchman, called Van Paris, accused of the heresy, which has received the name of Arianism, was condemned to the same punishment. He suffered with so much satisfaction, that he hugged and caressed the faggots, that were consuming him; a species of frenzy, of which there is more than one instance among the martyrs of that age.
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These rigorous methods of proceeding soon brought the whole nation to a conformity, seeming or real, with the new doctrine and the new liturgy. The lady Mary alone continued to adhere to the mass, and refused to admit the established modes of worship. When pressed and menaced on this head, she applied to the emperor; who, using his interest with Sir Philip Hobby, the English ambassador, procured her a

temporary connivance from the council.y

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XXXV

Discontents of the people — Insurrections — Conduct of the war with Scotland —

with France — Factions in the council — Conspiracy against Somerset — Somerset
resigns the protectorship — A parliament — Peace with France and Scotland —

Boulogne surrendered — Persecution of Gardiner — Warwic created duke of
Northumberland — His ambition — Trial of Somerset — His execution — A
parliament — A new parliament — Succession changed — The king’s sickness — and
death

There is no abuse so great, in civil society, as not to be attended 1549. Discontents of

with a variety of beneficial consequences; and in the beginnings the people.

of reformation, the loss of these advantages is always felt very sensibly, while the benefit, resulting from the change, is the slow effect of time, and is seldom perceived by the bulk of a nation. Scarce any institution can be imagined less favourable, in the main, to the interests of mankind than that of monks and friars; yet was it followed by many good effects, which, having ceased by the suppression of monasteries, were much regretted by the people of England. The monks, always residing in their convents, in the centre of their estates, spent their money in the provinces and among their tenants, afforded a ready market for commodities, were a sure resource to the poor and indigent; and though their hospitality and charity gave but too much encouragement to idleness, and prevented the encrease of public riches, yet did it provide, to many, a relief from the extreme pressures of want and necessity.

It is also observable, that, as the friars were limited, by the rules of their institution, to a certain mode of living, they had not equal motives for extortion with other men; and they were acknowledged to have been in England, as they still are in Roman catholic countries, the best and most indulgent landlords. The abbots and priors were permitted to give leases at an under-value, and to receive, in return, a large present from the tenant; in the same manner as is still practised by the bishops and colleges. But when the abbey-lands were distributed among the principal nobility and courtiers, they fell under a different management: The rents of farms were raised, while the tenants found not the same facility in disposing of the produce; the money was often spent in the capital; and the farmers, living at a distance, were exposed to oppression from their new masters, or to the still greater rapacity of the stewards.

These grievances of the common people were at that time heightened by other causes.

The arts of manufacture were much more advanced in other European countries than in England; and even in England these arts had made greater progress than the knowledge of agriculture; a profession, which, of all mechanical employments, requires the most reflection and experience. A great demand arose for wool both abroad and at home: Pasturage was found more profitable than unskilful tillage: Whole estates were laid waste by inclosures: The tenants regarded as a useless burden, were expelled their habitations: Even the cottagers, deprived of the commons, on which they formerly fed their cattle, were reduced to misery: And a decay of people, as well as a diminution of the former plenty, was remarked in the kingdom.
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This grievance was now of an old date; and Sir Thomas More, alluding to it, observes PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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in his Utopia, that a sheep had become in England a more ravenous animal than a lion or wolf, and devoured whole villages, cities, and provinces.

The general encrease also of gold and silver in Europe, after the discovery of the West-Indies, had a tendency to inflame these complaints. The growing demand in the more commercial countries, had heightened every where the price of commodities, which could easily be transported thither; but in England, the labour of men, who could not so easily change their habitation, still remained nearly at the ancient rates; and the poor complained that they could no longer gain a subsistence by their industry. It was by an addition alone of toil and application they were enabled to procure a maintenance; and though this encrease of industry was at last the effect of the present situation, and an effect beneficial to society, yet was it difficult for the people to shake off their former habits of indolence; and nothing but necessity could compel them to such an exertion of their faculties.

It must also be remarked, that the profusion of Henry VIII. had reduced him, notwithstanding his rapacity, to such difficulties, that he had been obliged to remedy a present necessity, by the pernicious expedient of debasing the coin; and the wars, in which the protector had been involved, had induced him to carry still farther the same abuse. The usual consequences ensued: The good specie was hoarded or exported; base metal was coined at home or imported from abroad in great abundance; the common people, who received their wages in it, could not purchase commodities at the usual rates; a universal dissidence and stagnation of commerce took place; and loud complaints were heard in every part of England.

The protector who loved popularity, and pitied the condition of the people, encouraged these complaints by his endeavours to redress them. He appointed a commission for making enquiry concerning inclosures; and issued a proclamation, ordering all late inclosures to be laid open by a day appointed. The populace, meeting with such countenance from government, began to rise in several places, and to commit disorders, but were quieted by remonstrances and persuasion. In order to give them greater satisfaction, Somerset appointed new commissioners, whom he sent every where, with an unlimited power to hear and determine all causes about inclosures, highways, and cottages.
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As this commission was disagreeable to the gentry and nobility, they stigmatized it as arbitrary and illegal; and the common people, fearing it would be eluded, and being impatient for immediate redress, could no longer contain their fury, but sought for a remedy by force of arms.

The rising began at once in several parts of England, as if an Insurrections.

universal conspiracy had been formed by the commonalty. The rebels in Wiltshire were dispersed by Sir William Herbert: Those in the neighbouring counties, Oxford and Glocester, by lord Gray of Wilton. Many of the rioters were killed in the field: Others were executed by martial law. The commotions in Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, and other counties, were quieted by gentler expedients; but the disorders in Devonshire and Norfolk threatened more dangerous consequences.

The commonalty in Devonshire began with the usual complaints against inclosures and against oppressions from the gentry; but the parish priest of Sampford-Courtenay had the address to give their discontent a direction towards religion; and the delicacy PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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of the subject, in the present emergency, made the insurrection immediately appear formidable. In other counties, the gentry had kept closely united with government; but here many of them took part with the populace; among others, Humphry Arundel, governor of St. Michael’s Mount. The rioters were brought into the form of a regular army, which amounted to the number of ten thousand. Lord Russel had been sent against them at the head of a small force; but finding himself too weak to encounter them in the field, he kept at a distance, and began to negociate with them; in hopes of eluding their fury by delay, and of dispersing them by the difficulty of their subsisting in a body. Their demands were, that the mass should be restored, half of the abbey-lands resumed, the law of the six articles executed, holy water and holy bread respected, and all other particular grievances redressed.
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The council to whom Russel transmitted these demands, sent a haughty answer; commanded the rebels to disperse, and promised them pardon upon their immediate submission. Enraged at this disappointment, they marched to Exeter; carrying before them crosses, banners, holy-water, candlesticks, and other implements of ancient superstition; together with the hoste, which they covered with a canopy.
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The citizens of Exeter shut their gates; and the rebels, as they had no cannon, endeavoured to take the place, first by scalade, then by mining, but were repulsed in every attempt. Russel meanwhile lay at Honiton, till reinforced by Sir William Herbert, and lord Gray, with some German horse, and some Italian arquebusiers under Battista Spinola. He then resolved to attempt the relief of Exeter, which was now reduced to extremities. He attacked the rebels, drove them from all their posts, did great execution upon them both in the action and pursuit,
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and took many prisoners. Arundel and the other leaders were sent to London, tried and executed. Many of the inferior sort were put to death by martial law:
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The vicar of St. Thomas, one of the principal incendiaries, was hanged on the top of his own steeple, arrayed in his popish weeds, with his beads at his girdle.
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The insurrection in Norfolk rose to a still greater height, and was attended with greater acts of violence. The populace were at first excited, as in other places, by complaints against inclosures; but finding their numbers amount to twenty thousand, they grew insolent, and proceeded to more exorbitant pretensions. They required the suppression of the gentry, the placing of new counsellors about the king, and the reestablishment of the ancient rites. One Ket, a tanner, had assumed the government over them, and he exercised his authority with the utmost arrogance and outrage.

Having taken possession of Moushold-Hill near Norwich, he erected his tribunal under an old oak, thence called the oak of reformation; and summoning the gentry to appear before him, he gave such decrees as might be expected from his character and situation. The marquis of Northampton was first ordered against him; but met with a

repulse, in an action, where lord Sheffield was killed.g
The protector affected popularity, and cared not to appear in person against the rebels: He therefore sent the earl of Warwic at the head of 6000 men, levied for the wars against Scotland; and he thereby afforded his mortal enemy an opportunity of encreasing his reputation and character. Warwic, having tried some skirmishes with the rebels, at last made a general attack upon them, and put them to flight. Two thousand fell in the action and pursuit: Ket was hanged at Norwich castle; nine of his followers on the boughs of the oak of reformation; and the insurrection was entirely suppressed. Some rebels in Yorkshire, learning the fate of their companions, accepted the offers of pardon, and PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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threw down their arms. A general indemnity was soon after published by the

protector.h

But though the insurrections were thus quickly subdued in Conduct of the war

England, and no traces of them seemed to remain, they were with Scotland.

attended with bad consequences to the foreign interests of the nation. The forces of the earl of Warwic, which might have made a great impression on Scotland, were diverted from that enterprize; and the French general had leisure to reduce that country to some settlement and composure. He took the fortress of Broughty, and put the garrison to the sword. He straitened the English at Haddington; and though lord Dacres was enabled to throw relief into the place, and to reinforce the garrison, it was found at last very chargeable, and even impracticable, to keep possession of that fortress. The whole country in the neighbourhood was laid waste by the inroads both of the Scots and English, and could afford no supply to the garrison: The place lay above thirty miles from the borders; so that a regular army was necessary to escort any provisions thither: And as the plague had broken out among the troops, they perished daily, and were reduced to a state of great weakness. For these reasons, orders were given to dismantle Haddington, and to convey the artillery and garrison to Berwic; and the earl of Rutland, now created warden of the east marches, executed the orders.

The king of France also took advantage of the distractions among With France.

the English, and made an attempt to recover Boulogne, and that territory, which Henry VIII. had conquered from France. On other pretences, he assembled an army; and falling suddenly upon the Boulonnois, took the castles of Sellaque, Blackness, and Ambleteuse, though well supplied with garrisons, ammunition, and provisions.
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He endeavoured to surprize Boulenberg, and was repulsed; but the garrison, not thinking the place tenable after the loss of the other fortresses, destroyed the works, and retired to Boulogne. The rains, which fell in great abundance during the autumn, and a pestilential distemper, which broke out in the French camp, deprived Henry of all hopes of success against Boulogne itself; and he