Revolt of the Peasantry, 1549 by Julian Cornwall

Author:Julian Cornwall [Cornwall, Julian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780710086761
Google: ynAgAAAAMAAJ
Goodreads: 6224355
Publisher: Routledge & K. Paul
Published: 1977-01-15T00:29:26+00:00

IV

As uproar mounted in many widely separated parts of the country the situation as it appeared at the seat of government became daily more confused, all the more so in the absence of concerted measures to deal with it. The Home Counties remained sullen, liable to burst into flame at any moment. Precautions were taken but with no clear end in view. Orders were issued, for example, to break down the bridge over the Thames at Staines; the inhabitants protested that their livelihood would be ruined, and apparently no further action was taken. It is difficult to see what the purpose was. It may have been connected with the summons sent out on 1 July to some 300 noblemen and gentlemen to assemble at Windsor with all the horsemen and footmen they could muster, and designed to forestall any sudden concentration of rebels to threaten the capital. Subsequently, on 16 July, the Council ordered that 4,000 horse and 2,000 foot, inclusive perhaps of mercenaries en route for the North, should be held near London to guard the King.

None of this looked likely to bring the rebellion in the West to a speedy end, and to make matters worse the Protector’s persistent attempts to play down the crisis was patently a transparent facade. Sir William Paget was in Brussels endeavouring to negotiate an alliance with the Emperor Charles V. At first he was hopeful of obtaining advantageous terms, since war between France and the Empire appeared imminent, but as England more and more gave the appearance of relapsing into civil war her value as an ally slumped. Thanks to the vigilance of his ambassador, Francis van der Delft, Charles was kept fully posted of developments, and a warning to Paget on 4 July to minimise the extent of the disturbances was instantly nullified by intelligence of the demands of the Cornishmen. Soon afterwards the talks were abruptly terminated.

Much disturbed at what was going on in his absence, Paget had written trenchantly to Somerset urging stern measures, recalling how the peasant wars in Germany a generation earlier had escalated:

call to your Grace to Council six of the gravest and most experimented men of the realm, consider what is best to be done, and follow their advice. Send for your Almayn horsemen; send for Lord Ferrys and Sir Wm Herbert to bring you as many horsemen of such as they dare trust out of Wales. Let the Earl of Shrewsbury bring the like out of Shropshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, of his servants and keepers of forests and parks. Go yourself, accompanied with the said noblemen and their companies; and appoint the Chief Justices of England, three or four of them to resort, with commission of oyer and terminer, to that good town which shall be next to the place where your Grace shall remain. Attach to the number of twenty or thirty of the rankest knaves of the shire. Let six be hanged of the ripest of them, the rest remain in prison.

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