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Sic tibi perpetuus cursus honoris erit. Elizabetha, vale ; Christo gratissima virgo, Chara pits Princeps, Elizabetha, vale. The occa- g u f to p ro ceed to the ground of all this trouble to the sion of her ' . ° , trouble, Lady Elizabeth: which was Sir lhomas VVyats msur- bemon r °~ rect i° n > occasioned by the great dislike the English nation took at the Spanish match, now resolved upon, as was men- tioned above, and the fears of that royal Princess's safety. And so Wyat himself, at his condemnation, declared it plainly: " I was persuaded, that by the marriage of the " Prince of Spain, the second person of this realm, and " next heir to the crown, should have been in danger; and " I, being a free-born man, should, with my country, have " been brought into bondage and servitude of aliens and " strangers." A relation hereof is given us at large in Hollingshed and other historians : to which readers may have recourse. Yet some of the transactions of this stir, that perhaps are not read elsewhere, I shall set down, Viteii. F. 5. partly from the journal of one who then dwelt in London, Amior. C an d partly from certain letters wrote from the Court to the Earl of Shrewsbury, then in the north. The city Jan. 26, began the watching in arms at every gate in the watch. e CU T- For tidings were now come to the Queen and her Council, that Sir Thomas Wyat, Sir George Harper, Sir Henry Iseley, Mr. Cobham, Mr. Rudston, the Knevits, and divers other gentlemen, were risen, because of the Prince of Spain's intended coming to marry the Queen : and that they kept Rochester Castle, and the bridge, and „ , ,. other places. Soldiers r raised in Jan. 27, the city sent into Kent a great number of men Vitemus m white coats. The captains to command them, and the F. 5. UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 133 rest of the forces, were the Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Or- CHAP, mund, Sir George Hayward, and divers others. But many of the guards and of the white coats took their opportunity Anno 1553. and went over to Wyat's side: whereupon the captains went home again. Wyat had gotten some ordnance that belonged formerly to the King. After the captains retired, Wyat came forward towards Dartford, with his army, towards London.
the Master of the Horse and Mr. Comptroller, to know^M ° their intent : and they returned answer, that they would have the Queen and the Tower in keeping, and some other things.
o to Black- London, with a great army. heath. How the Queen resented these doings, and how the con- The con- spiracy spread into the west and other parts, a letter will spreads in discover, wrote from some great Lord, Jan. 28, to the Earl the west. of Shrewsbury. Wherein he ascertained him, "that the com. Salop. " Queen was in good health of her body, but sick in certain 1 " ° ffic - " naughty members of her commonwealth : as the Carows " in the west parts, and Wyat, Harper, and Colepepper in " Kent. Of which disease he trusted Almighty God would " shortly deliver her Majesty. For the Carows, they had " heard, were ready to run : that the country of Devonshire " would not harbour or countenance them : that Gawen " Carow made great haste out of Exeter : that the Kentish " men also seemed to faint : that Harper offered to per- " suade the people to go home to their houses, so he might " have the Queen's pardon : and that Colepepper made the " means he could to get thence. That the Duke of Norfolk, " and divers others, as the Lord Clinton, Lord Cobham, " the master of the Queen's horse, and divers other gentle- " men, were gone towards the rebels ; who indeed had as- " sembled at Rochester, and there kept the passage. That " the Duke of Suffolk was stolen from his house at Shene, " with his two brethren, to Leicestershire, having been met k 3 134 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL CHAP, "at Stony Stratford. And that the Earl of Huntingdon ' " was gone into those parts after him ; and that the Duke Anno 1553." W as proclaimed traitor. That the cause of this insurrec- " tion they vaunted in all places to be the Queen's mar- " riage with the Prince of Spain. 1 ' Foreign And that which rendered this rebellion the more formida-
time from France might assist and join with these seditious persons at home : which was the cause the Queen gathered all the strength she could, and sent to all her nobility and gentry, with the more celerity, to come in to her with all the force they could raise. To the Earl of Sussex (that was late her lieutenant, when he raised an army for her crown) thus she wrote the last day of January but one. By the Queue. " Marye the Quene. The Queen " Right trusty and right welbeloved, we grete you wel. to the Earl a And forasmuch as divers seditious persons, traiterously Titus, B. 2. "conspiring together, have raised a most unnatural and p. 123. ti p er m ous rebellion against us, our laws, and dignity royal, " tending to the utter destruction of this our realm, if " speedy remedy be not provided : we do therefore charge " and require you, as ye tender the surety of our person, " and the preservation of this our native country, that rais- " ing al the force of hable men ye be liable to make of *' your servants, tenants, and friends, and others under your " rules and offices, ye do with the same, in warlike maner, " repair unto us with all possible speed. Wherin the more " earnest expedition you make, the more acceptable service " shal ye minister unto us. This matter requireth so much " the more hast, for that many of the said rebels have 88 " openly said, that they want not in this their detestable " doings the aid and succours of certain of our ancient ene- " mies in foreign parts. . Yeoven under our signet, at our " palace of Westminster, the xxx. of January, the first year " of our reigne. " To our right trusty and right welbeloved cousin " and counsillor, the Earl of ' Sussex. n UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 135 Now all the care was to keep Wyat out of the city. CHAP. Therefore, Feb. 1, orders came, that all crafts should find a double number of men at this dangerous juncture. And Aimo 1553. that none but householders should come to London-bridge, Thec >tizen»
in that part : where great guns were planted ; and after- ward the bridge was broken down. There was then a pre- cept, that each man in every house should make and pro- vide a white coat for his soldier to wear.
Cheapside, at Leadenhall, and Magnus church corner, with d/jmeda" an herald of arms, and one of the Queen's trumpeters, traitor, accompanied with the Lord Mayor, and the Lord Admiral Howard, and the two Sheriffs, that Sir Thomas Wyat was a traitor and rebel, and all his fellows likewise : declaring therein, that the said Wyat required to have the Queen in custody, and the Tower of London in his keeping. About three of the clock in the afternoon, the Queen The Queen came riding from Westminster unto Guildhall, attended the cit „ with a noble retinue of lords and ladies, bishops and knights, heralds at arms, and trumpeters blowing, and all her guard in harness. There she declared, in an oration, to the Mayor and the city, and to her Council, her mind con- cerning her marriage, (which had occasioned all this present danger and disturbance,) that she never intended to marry out of her realm, but by her Council's consent and advice : and that she would never marry, but all her true subjects should be content with it, or else she would live as she had done hitherto. But that she would call a Parliament as shortly as might be, and as she should find cause. This the journal- writer makes the chief contents of her speech, to pacify and keep the citizens in a stay : but her whole speech is preserved in some of our chronicles. She then also told them, that the Earl of Pembroke should be her chief cap- tain and general against Wyat, and the Lord Admiral should be associate with the Lord Mayor, to defend and keep the city from all attempts. After this, the Queen de- k 4 136 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL CHAP, parted from Guildhall, and rid to the Three Cranes in the Vintry, and took her barge to Westminster. Anno 1553. On the 3d day went forth a proclamation, that whoso- mationfor ever snou ld take the body of Sir Thomas Wyat, except taking Harper, Iseley, and Rudston, should have and enjoy, as a reward, an 1001. land to them and their heirs for ever. On Who comes the same day, Wyat, with the rest, came into Southwark, wark. at afternoon, with his army : and the morrow after, they
Orders to In the mean time the Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Presi- passages in- dent of the north, despatched letters both to Sir Thomas to Scotland. Wharton and Sir Robert Constable, who were chief officers 89 in the marches between Scotland and England, that they should watch the passages into Scotland. And Wharton, Feb. 4, wrote to the Earl, that he presently had depeched two servants of his; one to his deputies at Cockermouth and Fornesse, to keep good watch for the apprehension of the Duke of Suffolk, or any other traitors or suspect per- sons, according to his Lordship's honourable commandment: professing, that therein, and in all other commandments, he should be ready to serve her Highness, and attend his Lord- ship, as might stand with his pleasure. Wyat comes Feb. 6, being Shrove Tuesday, in the morning, AVyat London, by anc ^ n * s company returned back from Southwark toward Kingston. Kingston upon Thames, thinking to enter London that way : but there he found the bridge plucked up. Yet causing one of his men to swim over to fetch a boat, he and his men marched that night toward Kensington, and so Spies forward. The same day, two men that were spies were
of Wyats, and the other under-sheriff of Leicester, for carrying letters of the Duke of Suffolk, and some other Duke of things. This day also were the Duke of Suffolk, and his brought to brother, the Lord John, brought on horseback tq the Tower, the Tower, guarded by the Earl of Huntington, with two (others write three) hundred horse. Wyat Feb. 7, in the forenoon, Wyat, with his army and taken. UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 137 ordnance, were at Hyde-park-corner. There the Queen's CHAP, host met them, with a great number of men of arms on horseback, beside foot. By one of the clock, the Queen's Anno 1553. men and Wyat's had a skirmish, and many were slain. Wyat took the way down by St. James's, with a great com- pany, and so to Charing-cross, and onward toward London, still crying, God save Queen Mary ! till he came to Lud- gate, and knocked there, thinking to have entered. But the gate being kept fast against him, he retired back again toward Temple-bar; and there yielded himself unto Mr. Norroy, the herald, in his coat of arms: where being- mounted behind a gentleman, was brought unto the Court. By the way many of his men were slain ere they came to Charing-cross, some with morice-pikes, and some with bills: and many others of them cried, We be the QiieeiCs ser- vants, and Englishmen, under a false pretence, and to make men believe the Queen had given them pardon. And divers of them took the Queen's men by the hand, as they went towards Ludgate. This happened on Ash Wednesday. And the same night, Wyat, Cobham, Vane, and the two Knevets, and other captains, were sent to the Tower. As for the Court, how it stood there in this disturbance, p re para- take from the relation of one who was then one of the * , .°™ made at the Queen's gentlemen pensioners, and present then in arms. Court for The Queen, and her people at the Court, were in great * writ's" consternation. When Wyat was come to South wark, being coming. . , . . . i- T j .1 Underbids there with his army, intending to enter London that way, Re]at . int . the gentlemen pensioners were commanded to watch in ar- Foxu MSS - mour that night, for the preservation of the Queen's per- son : and they came up into the chamber of presence with their pole-axes in their hands. Whereat the ladies were very fearful ; some lamenting, crying, and wringing their hands, and said, " Alas ! there is some great mischief towards us ! " We shall all be destroyed this night ! What a sight is " this, to see the Queen's chamber full of armed men ! the " like was never seen nor heard of!" But the concerns, it seems, were not the same in London ; the gates whereof were fast shut up and locked. For when the Council had go
138 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL CHAP, that night, about eleven o'clock, despatched George Ferris IX.
__to the Lord William Howard, who had the charge of the Anno 1553. watch at London-bridge the same night; Ferris, and two or three more of his company, being come to Ludgate, the citizens, who kept a strong watch there, notwithstanding they declared to them, that they came from the Court, and upon the Queen's urgent business, did but laugh, and re- fused to let them pass, pretending the keys were gone: and still much laughing were heard among them. Sir John When Wyat could not pass the bridge, and was come
gates, flies. g ate f t h e cour t ? with some of his guard, and his servants, and others with him: the rest of his guard were in the great court, the gates standing open. Sir Richard Southwel had the charge of the backsides, as the wood-yard and that way, with as many. The Queen was in the gallery by the gate-house. Then came Knevet and Thomas Cobham, and a company of the rebels with them, through the gate-house from Westminster upon the sudden. Wherewith Sir John Gage, and those with him, being armed only with old bri- gandines, were so frighted, that they fled in at the gates in such haste, that he fell down in the dirt, and so the gate was shut ; whereat the rebels shot many arrows. By means of this great hurlyburly in shutting the gates, the guard that was in the court made as great haste in at the hall door, and would have come into the hall among the pen- sioners ; which they would not suffer. All this that I now write is taken from the relation of Underhil, one of the gentlemen pensioners present at these transactions. Then they went, saith he, thronging towards the water-gates, the kitchens, and those ways. Gage came in among the pen- sioners all dirty, and so frighted that he could not speak to them. The pen- The pensioners upon this issued out of the hall into the sioners CO urt, to see what the matter was ; where there was none issue out. . . » i left but the porter, the gates being fast shut. As they went towards the gates, meaning to go forth, Sir Richard South- wel came forth of the back-yards into the court : Sir, said UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 139 the guard of pensioners to him, command the gates to be CHAP, opened, that we may go to the Queen : we will break them open else; it is too much shame the gates should be thus Anno 1553. shut for a few rebels. The Queen shall see us fell down her ^ cou " enemies this day before her face. Masters, said he, and put off his murrion off his head, I shall desire you all, as you be gentlemen, to stay yourselves here, that I may go up to the Queen to know her pleasure, and you shall have the gates opened; and, as I am a gentleman, I will make speed. Upon this they stayed, and he made a speedy return, and brought them word, the Queen was content they should have the gates opened. But her request is, said Sir Richard, that ye will not go forth of her sight : for her only trust is in you for the defence of her person this day. So the gate was opened, and they inarched before the gallery window ; where she spake unto them, requiring them, as they were gentlemen, in whom she only trusted, that they would not go from that place. There they marched up and down the space of an hour: and then came an herald posting to bring news, that Wyat was taken. Immediately came Sir Mau- rice Barkley, and Wyat on the same horse behind him, unto whom he yielded at the Temple-gate; and Sir Thomas Cobham behind another gentleman. He that celebrated mass before the Queen on Wednesday, Weston whilst Wyat was now at Charing-cross, was Dr. Weston, JJJJ J"" and wore harness under his vestment: as Weston himself harness. reported to one Mr. Roberts. 9* Anon after, the guard of pensioners were all brought into The Q ueen the Queen's presence, and every one kissed her hand : 01 pensioners whom they had great thanks and large promises, how good f ° r ^ eir she would be unto them. But few or none of us got any thing, as the forementioned gentleman wrote, although she was very liberal to many others, that were enemies to God's word, as few of us were.
140 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL CHAP. X. Victory over Wyat. Arraignments and executions of the Lady Jane and the Duke of Suffolk:, and divers others. The Earl of Devon and Lady Elizabeth sent to the Tower. King Edward's Bishops deprived. Anno 1553. -L/URING these disturbances, the Queen and Council The cares we re wholly ingulphed in cares, for putting things in a pos- the Court, ture to meet with and quell the mutineers ; insomuch that they had no leisure for other matters. And orders were now given out, that no salaries nor fees should be paid to any for a time. And no manner of suits were heard ; nor yet, if any came with any, were they regarded. And since the taking of Wyat, the Council was continually employed about search into this conspiracy, which was thought to be The Lord great. The Lord Thomas Grey, the other brother of the g horaas Duke of Suffolk, was taken about this time, going toward Wales, and was coming up. And notwithstanding the said Duke and Wyat, with the most part of the captains, were now in hold, and in the Tower, yet such were their fears above, that there was nightly watch in the Court, in har- ness, and day and night in London. Te Deum But now Wyat being overthrown and routed, and his SUDg ' chief accomplices in sure custody, on the 8th of February, commandment came from the Queen and the Bishop of London, that in St. Paul's church, and in every parish church in London beside, Te Deum should be sung ; and that there should be ringing of bells every where, for the victory the Queen had obtained. Bishop In the midst of these disturbances, the Bishop of Win- G reach er cnester thought fit to give the Queen a sermon on Sunday, before the Feb. 11 : wherein, according to the fierceness of his dispo- sition, he exhorted her to use no mercy, but extreme jus- tice, towards these Kentish rebels. To which sermon and counsel, all those bloody doings that followed the very next day, and week after, must be attributed, and that plenty of gallowses set up two days after in and about the city.
UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 141 The next week was taken up in executions; and a bloody CHAP, week it proved, both in London and in the parts where the rebels dwelt. For it began on Monday, Feb. 12, with the Ann0 155a - taking off the head of the Lord Guilford Duddley, upon Executions - Tower-hill : and, within an hour after, the Lady Jane's head was stricken off within the Tower : who indeed had a Lady Jane very hard chapter, to be set up to be Queen, even against |> e ^ eaded - her will, by the Lords of the Council ; and by them to be soon after adjudged to be executed for being Queen : which office they themselves, in effect, had imposed upon her. Who also took an oath roundly to bear true allegiance to her, and in a very short time broke that oath ; nay, and it is to be feared, when they took it, intended not to keep it. This an eminent man in those times severely laid to their charge. " They that were sworn chief of the Council with Ponet Bi- " the Lady Jane, and caused the Queen [Mary] to be pro- wtnches- " claimed a bastard through all England and Ireland, and ter > in his • _ tit treatise " that were the sorest forcers of men, yea, under the threat- f Politic " ened pain of treason, to swear and subscribe unto their Power< " doings ; bewrayed the matter themselves underhand by " their wives, and other secret shifts : and afterwards be- '* came counsellors, I will not say procurers, of the inno- " cent Lady Jane's death : and at this present are in the " highest authority in the Queen's house, and the chiefest " officers and doers in the commonwealth. And some of '* them that wrote most earnestly to a certain lord of " the realm, [Archbishop Cranmer perhaps,] among many " others, in favour of the Lady Jane, by bastarding and " railing upon the Queen, were not ashamed, within a few " days after, when the same Lord was locked up in the " Tower, for his constant, although constrained, obedience " to the common order of the Council ; to be the most " strange and rough examiners on the contrary part: as " though themselves had never halted in the matter." Per- haps the Marquis of Winchester, the Earl of Arundel, and Yüklə 12,09 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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