rather retain her solitary life; yet, if the approbation of enter into a perpetual league, offensive and defensive, Elizabeth was obtained, would consent to take Norfolk- with England, and establish the reformed religion in not, as all her miseries had flowed from her marriage Scotland. Elizabeth affected to listen to these proposals, with Darnley, contrary to the Queen of England's and the matter went so far that, on the assembling of the pleasure. The duke, on his part, when it was proposed Scottish Parliament in July, Murray professed to be to him, had recommended Leicester rather, and on his quite agreeable to the liberation of Mary, but took care declining, his own brother, Lord Henry Howard. How to reject the proposals approved of by Elizabeth, far either party was sincere in these statements matters little; the promoters were urgent, and they acquiesced. The Bishop of Ross, with the apparent approbation of Murray, undertook to negotiate with Elizabeth for the restoration of the Scottish queen, on condition that neither she nor her issue should lay claim to the English throne during the life of Elizabeth; that Mary should bearing full details of the propositions laid before the Scottish Parliament, and the consent received from Bothwell in Denmark to the divorce. The marriage with Norfolk, which was the end and object of all these plottings, had never been communicated to Elizabeth; for, though Leicester had promised to impart it to her, he had not ventured to do it. Elizabeth immediately invited Norfolk to dine with her at Farnham, and, on rising from table, reminded him, in a very significant tone, of his speech when charged with such a design some time before, saying, "My lord duke, beware on what pillow you lay your head." Alarmed at this expression, Norfolk urged Leicester to redeem his promise, and speak to the queen on the subject; and this he did, under pretence of being seriously ill, whilst the queen was sitting by his bedside. The rage of Elizabeth was unbounded, but on Leicester expressing the deepest regret for his meddling in the matter, she forgave him, but sent for Norfolk and poured out on him her wrath and scorn. Norfolk expressed himself perfectly indifferent to the alliance, though so strongly recommended by his friends; but his words and manner did not deceive the deep-sighted queen. She continued to regard him with stern looks, and the courtiers immediately avoided him as a dangerous person. Leicester, who had promised him so much, lowered upon him as a public disturber. Norfolk felt it most agreeable to withdraw from Court, and his example was followed by his stanch friends Pembroke and Arundel. From Norfolk he wrote to Elizabeth, excusing his absence, and expressing fears of the acts and slanders of his enemies. Elizabeth immediately commanded him to return to London. Her first information from Murray had been increased by the treachery of that nobleman and of Leicester, who had hastened to reveal to her all the secret correspondence of Norfolk with them. His friends advised him to fly, but he did not venture on this, but wrote to Cecil to intercede with the queen. Cecil assured him there was no danger; the duke, therefore, proceeded to London, and was instantly arrested and committed to the Tower. At the same time Elizabeth joined the Earl of Huntingdon, an avowed enemy of the Queen of Scots, in commission with her keeper, the Earl of Shrewsbury, and Viscount Hertford, to secure more completely the person of Mary, who was again removed to Tutbury, and to examine her papers for further proofs of the correspondence with Norfolk. Her confidential servants were dismissed; her person was surrounded by an armed force; and her cabinets and apartments were strictly searched for this correspondence, but without effect. It is also asserted that it was determined to put her to death, if, as it was expected, the Duke of Norfolk should attempt her rescue by force. The friends of Mary blamed the duke for not taking arms for her rescue, declaring that a short time would have brought whole hosts to his standard, but Norfolk must have too well known the hopelessness of such an enterprise. The disclosure of the plot produced consternation and distrust on all sides. Murray, in revealing the correspondence with Norfolk, had not been able to escape suspicion himself. Elizabeth saw enough to believe that he had been an active promoter of the scheme; she saw still clearer that Maitland had been the originator of it; she was, moreover, incensed at the double-faced part which Murray's secretary, Wood, had been playing in the matter in London: and she ordered Lord Hunsdən, and her other agents in the north, to keep a sharp 79 on Murray, and the movements of the leading Sc te To propitiate Elizabeth, Murray determined to sacrifice Maitland: he, therefore, lured him from his retreat by some plausible artifice, when, on the demand of Lentcs, he was arrested in the council as one of the murderin of his son Darnley. Sir James Balfour, whom Lex also accused, was seized with his brother George, se of the pardon which had been granted him on this head In the midst of Murray's exultation over his succes Kirkaldy of Grange, dreading fresh disclosures, attai the house where Maitland was kept, and carried him of The truth of the assertion that had the Duke d Norfolk risen in arms he would have found extens support, was now manifested by what took place in th north of England. The fascinations of the Queen= Scots were felt by all who approached her. Her beauty and her wrongs deeply stirred the enthusiasm of the generous, and the attempts to defame her character cy resulted in raising her up hosts of friends, who regard her as a martyr to the cause of her religion. Many we the offers of service, to the utmost extent of life å fortune, which she received from chivalrous gentlezer who beheld with indignation her unworthy treatm or who doubly sympathised with her through the oppr sion of the common faith. So long as the Duk Norfolk was her great champion, she referred all t offers to him; but when he fell, and she found tw her mortal enemies appointed the guardians, or r keepers, of her person, she entertained the deepest 5 for her life, and exerted all her eloquence to rouse friends for her liberation. She dispatched secret sages-verbal ones they seem to have been, for never could be traced-to the Earl of Westmorela whose wife was the sister of Norfolk, and to the Ear. Northumberland, who had his own causes of compla against the Council. These were forwarded by the Egremont Radcliffe, brother of the Earl of Sussex. Leonard Dacres, the uncle of the late Lord Dacres, to Nortons, Tempests, Markenfields, and others wh tendered their services. She did not scruple in our r sation to assert that Cecil would never rest till he hat made away, and she wrote to demand that the tw hostile keepers should be removed, one of whom not only her own enemy, but had said at table that t Duke of Norfolk should "be cut shorter er it w long." As the autumn approached, there were rep rumours of rebellion in the north, which alarmed court of Elizabeth. On inquiry, however, no tr such a thing could be discovered, and the Ear's Northumberland and Westmoreland, when questi gave such apparently honest and satisfactory so that the Government was perplexed. Suddenly, b ever, in the commencement of October, the two eur received a summons to York on the queen's busin and the Earl of Sussex was instructed when he ....... had them, to forward them to London. The fate Norfolk, and their consciousness of their actual proceedings, determined them to disobey the sum A.D. 1569.] AN INSURRECTION BREAKS OUT. 465 of the Reformed worship from the churches, and reinstating the ancient ritual. But, unfortunately for them, their plans of action were yet so immature that they were not prepared to assume arms. Whilst consulting what course to take, the They proceeded as far as Branham Moor, where they summons of Sussex arrived, and at the same time a mustered their forces, or, as some say, on Clifford Moor, rumour that an armed force was on the march to arrest near Wetherby, where their forces were found to amount Northumberland at Topcliffe. He and his countess to 1,700 horse, and something less than 4,000 foot, but hastened to Branspeth Castle, where the Earl of West- many of them badly armed. The earls, who were moreland had already assembled around him his guests famous for their hospitality, had but little ready money; and retainers. Northumberland was still of opinion that Northumberland bringing only 8,000 crowns, and Westthey should avoid hostilities, for which they were unpre-moreland nothing at all. The Roman Catholics did not pared; but others, and amongst them the Countess of rise in their favour, as they had calculated. The insurWestmoreland, the sister of Norfolk, the Markenfields gents had sent to the Spanish ambassador, soliciting his and Nortons, demanded war. Northumberland still aid, but he referred them to the Duke of Alva, and dissented, and resolved to set out for Alnwick; but was the duke waited for orders from Philip. Their aid not detained by force, and the banner of revolt was unfurled. arriving cast a damp on the Romanists, who now, doubtThe insurgents proposed, as their first object, to ing of the expedition, lay still, or went over to the Royal march to Tutbury, and liberate Mary; and now it was army under the Earl of Sussex. To add to their convisible how necessary had been the caution of Elizabeth fusion, 800 horse, whom they had dispatched to secure in removing her to the midland counties. Had she been the Queen of Scots at Tutbury, returned with the news in the north, her rescue would have been almost certain: that she was removed thence to Coventry. They were as it was, the insurgents dared not even whisper their confounded by this intelligence, and still more by the intention, or Mary would have been hurried away south, rumours of the numerous forces raising under Ambrose if not at once to the scaffold. The war-cry of the earls Dudley, Earl of Warwick, and the Lord-Admiral, whilst was religion. They represented her majesty to be sur-Lord Hunsdon from Berwick was hastening down upon rounded "by divers newe set-upp nobles, who not onlie go aboute to overthrow and put downe the ancient nobilitie of the realme, but also have misused the quene's majestie's owne personne, and also have, by the space of twelve yeares nowe past, set upp and mayntayned a new-found religion and heresie, contrary to God's word." On this ground they called on all true subjects of the realm to come forward and help to restore the Crown, the Church, and the Government to their due condition. The northern counties, according to the assertion of Ralph Sadler, who knew them well, were so entirely papist that "there are not," he says, "in all this country ten gentlemen that do favour and allow of her Majesty's proceedings in the cause of religion." Dr. Nicholas Morton, a prebendary of York, and recently arrived from Rome with the title of Apostolic Penitentiary, had been very active in rousing them at the call of the Pope to rebellion; and it was a strong argument, furnished by Elizabeth herself, that it was lawful to take up arms against your own sovereign where your religious liberty was infringed. Elizabeth had made herself a universal champion on this side of the question. In Scotland, France, and the Netherlands, she had long and notoriously supported by her money and agents the subjects in defiance to their Governments, on the ground of invasion of their religion. What was allowable to Elizabeth was, they contended, equally allowable against her. them with his garrison and Royalists from the borders. Dissension now began to appear in their ranks and amongst the leaders. The Earl of Westmoreland, who at first was the most daring, now began to hesitate; and Northumberland, who was, in a manner, dragged into the rising, on the contrary, counselled bold measures, as they had committed themselves. The result, however, was that they retreated to the Earl of Westmoreland's castle of Branspeth. They there issued a new manifesto; and as the Papists had not come forward as they expected, they now dropped the argument of religion, and took up the plea that there was a determination at Court to exercise arbitrary power over the lives and liberties of the subject, and that it was necessary to drive from her Majesty's counsels the persons who gave her pernicious advice. But this retreat had shaken the confidence of the public; and the different noblemen to whom they sent messengers followed the example of the Earl of Derby, and arrested them and sent them to the queen. The measures on the part of Elizabeth's Government were active and effectual, Orders were issued to muster a large army in the south, The Earl of Bedford was dispatched to maintain quiet in Wales. A regiment of well-disciplined troops were marched from the Isle of Wight to defend the person of the sovereign, and suspected persons were arrested. To prevent any communication with the foreign princes, the mail-bags of the Spanish and French ambassadors were stopped and examined. Leicester entreated to be sent against the rebels, but Elizabeth would not risk his precious life, and kept him near her as her chief adviser, Cecil being indisposed. The first step of the insurgents was to occupy the city of Durham. So insignificant was their number at this moment, that only sixty horsemen followed the banner of the two earls. But their appeals to rise and defend The patience of Elizabeth was greatly tried by the their ancient faith found a strong response. Mass was cautious delay of the Earl of Sussex, who was her comcelebrated in the cathedral before some thousands of mander in the north, and especially as his procrastination people, who tore up the English Bible, and destroyed the allowed the two earls to besiege Sir George Bowes in communion table. They then, continually increasing in Barnard Castle for eleven days, which then opened its numbers, marched through Staindrop, Darlington, Rich-gates. There were even insinuations that Sussex was in mond, and Ripon, everywhere turning out the apparatus secret league with the rebel earls. On the approach of the army of the Earl of Warwick, 12,000 in number, the insurgents held a council at Durham, on the 16th of December; but dissension again broke out betwixt Westmoreland and Northumberland to such a degree that the forces scattered, and the enterprise was at an end. The foot got away to their homes, and the earls fled across the border with 500 horse. Elizabeth, who is characteristically represented, in the fine old ballad of "The Rising of the North," as swearing stoutly on the first news of this rising "Her grace she turned her round about, And like a royal queen she swore- now demanded the surrender of the fugitives. Murray, by bribes and menaces, induced Hector Armstrong of Harlow, with whom Northumberland had sought refuge, to give him up; but Murray did not dare to send his captive to England, but shut him up in Mary's old prison, the castle of Lochleven, where he continued till 1572, when Morton, having become regent, surrendered him to Lord Hunsdon, at Berwick, when he was sent to York and executed. Westmoreland escaped to Flanders. The Countess of Northumberland, Ratcliffe, Markenfield, Swinburn, Tempest, and other exiles continued safe amongst the border clans of Hume, Scot, Carr, Maxwell, and Johnstone. The brave old Norton, who bore the banner of his house, which displayed "the cross, 'And the five wounds our Lord did bear,"" surrounded by his nine gallant sons, is said by the old ballad, which has been followed by Wordsworth in "The White Doe of Rylstone," to have fallen : "Thee, Norton, with thine eight good sons, Nor them their fair and blooming youth." Francis, the eldest son, who refused to fight against his sovereign, is represented as being killed in endeavouring to rescue the family banner. Other authorities, however, assert that Norton escaped into Scotland with the rest. In England no severity was spared in punishing the fallen insurgents. Those who possessed property were reserved for trial in the courts, to secure the forfeiture of their estates. These, and the fugitives together, amounted to fifty-seven noblemen, gentlemen, and freeholders, so that their wealth would form a good fund for the payment of the expenses of the campaign, and the reward of the officers and soldiers. On the poorer class Sussex let loose his vengeance with a fury which was intended to convince Elizabeth of his before-questioned loyalty. In the county of Durham he put to death more than 300 individuals, hanging at Durham at one time sixty-three constables; and Sir George Bowes made his boast that, for sixty miles in length, and fifty in breadth, betwixt Newcastle and Wetherby, there was hardly a town or village in which he did not gibbet some of the inhabitants as a warning to the rest; a cruelty, says Bishop Percy," which exceeds that practised in the west after Monmouth's rebellion; but this was not the age of tenderness or humanity." Sussex, in writing to Cecil, says, "I gesse it will not be under six or seven hundred at leaste of the common sort that shall be executed, besides the prisoners taken in the field." When the vengeance was completed, Elizabeth issued a proclamation that all others should be pardoned who came in and took the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. She declared that she was accused of persecuting for religious opinion, but she denied that, affirming that she should molest no one for their religious sentiments, provided they did not gainsay the Scriptures, nor the creed apostolic and catholic; or for their practice, so long as they outwardly conformed to the laws of the realm. and attended regularly the divine service in the ordinary churches, as by statute required. No one who went out on this expedition acted stranger part than Leonard Dacres, the head of the hous of Gillsland. He was deep in the plots for the restoration of Mary, but at the time of the "rising of the north," he was at the Court of Elizabeth, gathering the information of affairs that he could. On the outbreak taking place, he hurried to the north, on the pretence f mustering forces for Elizabeth, but in reality for May. But, on his arrival, the rebel army was in full retres from Hexham to Naworth on its way to Scotland Adroitly calling out his retainers, he pursued his fly friends, and made a number of prisoners, by which be acquired much reputation for his loyalty amongst he neighbours, who were greatly amazed to find, soon after, the Earl of Sussex attempting to arrest him, the Cours! in London being much better acquainted with his character than those about him. He then turned abat and on the 20th of February, 1570, sent a defiance to Lord Hunsdon from Naworth Castle. After a bloody skirmish on the banks of the Chelt, the Dacres wer defeated, and Leonard fleeing, secured himself first in Scotland, and afterwards in Flanders. This escapade of the Dacres is supposed to have been excited or encouraged by an event which had just take place in Scotland-the murder of the regent Marray The regent, finding that there would never be any for either England or Scotland whilst the Queen of S was detained in her unjust captivity, entered into ser negotiations with Elizabeth, to have her surrendered: his own custody, when it would have been in his p to get rid of her on some pretence. Knox, in no equiv cal language, in a letter to Cecil which still remains recommended her being put out of the way, telling h "If ye strike not at the root, the branches that appear: be broken will bud again, and this more quickly t.. man can believe, with greater force than we could w On the day on which this letter was dated, Murray patched Elphinstone to Elizabeth, to impress upon the absolute necessity of some immediate and dis dealing with Mary. He assured her that the facti her favour both at home and abroad was daily ac fresh force; that the Spaniards and the Pope WICT !" triguing with the Romanists of England and Sela and that daily succours were expected from France. demanded that she should, therefore, at once exha”the Queen of Scots for the Duke of Norfolk, and e him, by a proper supply of money and arms, to res their common foes. He entreated her to remember! the heads of all these troubles-no doubt meaning M and Norfolk-were at her command, and that if she .. clined this arrangement, he must forbear to adre his life as he had done. |