Somer A parliament. the council.--Confpiracy against Samerfet. fet refigns the protectorship. Peace with France and Scotland. Boulogne furrender- duke of Northumberland. ed. Warwic created - His ambition. - Trial A new parliament. Succeffion CHAPT XXXV. people. CHAP. HERE is no abufe fo great, in civil fociety, as not to be attended with a variety of beneficial confequences; and in the beginnings of reformation, the lofs 1549. of thefe advantages is always telt very fenfibly, while the Difconbenefit refulting from the change, is the flow effect of tents of the time, and is feldom perceived by the bulk of a nation. Scarce any inftitution can be imagined leis favourable, in the main, to the interefts of mankind than that of monks and friars; yet was it followed by many good effects, which, having ceafed by the fuppreffion of monasteries, were very much regretted by the people of England. The monks, refiding always in their convents, in the heart of their eftates, fpent their money in the provinces and among their tenants, afforded a ready market for commodities, were a lure refource to the poor and indigent; and though their hofpitality and charity gave but too much encouragement to idleness, and prevented the encrease of public riches, yet did it provide, to many, a remedy against the extreme proffures of want and neceffity. It is alfo obfervable, that, as the friars were limited, by the rules of their inftitution, to a certain train of life, 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 induigent landlords. The abbots and priors were permitted to give leafes at an under-value, and to receive, in return, a large prefent from the tenant; in the fame manner as is ftill practifed by the bishops and colleges. But when the abbey-lands were diftributed $549. diftributed among the great nobility and courtiers, they Ĉ HA P. fell under a different management: The rents of farms XXXV. were raised, while the tenants found not the same facility in difpofing of the produce; the money was spent in the capital; and the farmers, living at a distance, were exposed to all the oppreffions of their new mafters, or to the still greater rapacity of the stewards. THESE Complaints of the common people were at that time heightened by other caufes. 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 profeffion, which, of all mechanical employments, requires the most reflection and experience. A great demand arose for wool both abroad and at home: Pafturage was found more profitable than unfkilful tillage: Whole eftates were laid waste by inclosures: The tenants, regarded as a useless burthen, were expelled their habitations: Even the cottagers, deprived of the commons, on which they formerly fed their cattle, were reduced to mifery: And a great decay of people, as well as diminution of the former plenty, was remarked in the kingdom A. This grievance was now of an old date; and Sir Thomas More, alluding to it, observes in his Utopia, that a sheep had become in England a more ravenous animal than a tion or wolf, and devoured whole villages, cities, and provinces. THE general encrease alfo of gold and filver in Europe, after the difcovery of the Weft-Indies, had a tendency to inflame thefe 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 fo easily change their habitation, still remained nearly at their antient rates; and the poor people complained that they could no longer gain a fubfiftence 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 prefent fituation, and an effect very beneficial to fociety, yet was it difficult for the people to hake off their former habits of indolence; and nothing A Strype, vol. ii. Repofitory Q but CHA P. but neceflity could compel them to that exertion of thei XXXV. faculties. 1549. Infurrec tions. IT muft alfo be remarked, that the profufion of Henry the eighth had reduced him, notwithstanding his rapacity, to fuch difficulties, that he had been obliged to remedy a prefent neceffity, by the pernicious expedient of debafing the coin; and the wars, in which the protector had been involved, had induced him to carry still farther the fame abufe. The ufual confequences enfued: The good coin 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 ufual rates; an univerfal diffidence and ftagnation of commerce took place; and loud complaints were heard in every part of England. THE protector, who loved popularity, and compassionated the condition of the people, encouraged thefe complaints by his endeavours to remedy them. He appointed a commiffion for making enquiry concerning inclosures; and iffued a proclamation, ordering all late inclosures to be laid open by a day affigned. The populace, meeting with fuch countenance from the government, began to rise in several places, and to commit diforders; but were quieted by remonstrances and persuasion. In order to give them greater fatisfaction, Somerfet appointed new commiffioners, whom he fent every where, with an unlimited power to hear and determine all causes about inclosures, high-ways, and cottages B. As the object of this commision was very difagreeable to the gentry and nobility, they ftigmatized the commiffion 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 fought for a remedy by force of arms. The rifing began at once in several parts of England, as if an univerfal conspiracy had been formed by the commonalty. The rebels in Wiltshire were difperfed by Sir William Herbert: Thofe in the neighbouring counties, Oxford and Glocefter, by lord Gray of Wilton. Many of the rioters were killed in the field: Others were executed by martial law. The commotions in Hampshire, Suffex, Kent, and other counties, were quieted B Burnet, vol. i. p. 115. Strype, vol. ii. p. 171. quieted by gentler methods; but the diforders in De. CHAP. vonshire and Norfolk threatened the most fatal confe- XXXV. quences. THE Commonalty in Devonshire began with the ufual 1549. pretence of inclofures and of oppreffions from the gen try; but the parish priest of Samford-Courtenay had the address to give their discontents a direction towards religion; and the delicacy of this fubject, in the present emergency, made the infurrection immediately appear dangerous. In other countries, the gentry had kept clofely united with the government; but here many of them took part with the populace; among others, Humphrey Arundel, governor of St. Michael's Mount. The rioters were brought into the form of a regular army, and amounted to the number of 10,000 men. Lord Ruffel had been fent against them at the head of a small force; but finding him elf too weak to encounter them in the field, he kept at a distance, and began to treat and negociate with them; in hopes of eluding their fury by delay, and of difperfing them by the difficulty of their fubfifting in a body. Their demands were, that the mass should be restored, half of the abbey-lands refumed, the law of the fix articles executed, holy water and holy bread refpected, and all other particular grievances redreffed C. The council, to whom Ruffel tranfmitted these demands, fent a haughty anfwer; exhorted the rebels to disperse; and promifed them pardon upon their immediate fubmiffion. Enraged at this disappointment, they marched to Exeter; carrying before them croffes, banners, holywater, candlesticks, and other implements of the antient fuperftition; together with the hoft, which they covered with a canopy D. The inhabitants of Exeter shut their gates; and the rebels, as they had no cannon, endeavoured to take the place, first by fcalade, then by mining, but were repulfed in every attempt. Ruffel meanwhile lay at Honiton, till reinforced by Sir William Herbert, and lord Gray, with fome German horfe, and fome Italian arquebufiers under Battifta Spinola. He then refolved 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 up C c Hayward, p. 292. Holingfhed, p. 1003. p. 666. Mem. Crani. p. 186. on Fox, vol. ii. D Heylin, p. 76. CHA P. on them both in the action and purfuit E, and took many XXXV. prifoners. Arundel and the other leaders were fent to London, tried and executed. Many of the inferior fort 1549. were put to death by martial law F: The vicar of St. Thomas, one of the principal incendiaries, was hanged on the top of his own fteeple, arrayed in his popish weeds, with his beads at his girdle G. The THE infurrection in Norfolk rofe to a ftill greater height, and was attended with greater violences. populace were at firft excited, as in other places, by the complaints against inclosures; but finding their numbers amount to twenty thousand men, they grew infolent on their force, and proceeded to more exorbitant pretenfions. They required the fuppreffion of the gentry, the placing of new counsellors about the king, and the reeftablishment of the antient rites. One Ket, a tanner, had affumed the government of them; and he exercised his authority with the utmost infolence and outrage. Having taken poffeffion of Moufhold-Hill, near Norwich, he erected his tribunal under an old oak, thence called the oak of reformation; and fummoning the gentry to appear before him, he gave fuch decrees as might be expected from his character and fituation. The marquis of Northampton was firft ordered against him; but met with a repulfe, in an action, where lord Sheffield was killed H. The protector affe&ed popularity, and cared not to appear in perfon against the rebels: He therefore fent next 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 augmenting his reputation and character. Warwic, having tried fome fkirmishes with the rebels, at laft made a general attack upon them, and put them to flight. Two thoufand fell in the flight and purfuit; Ket was hanged at Norwich cafle; nine of his followers on the boughs of the cak of reformation; and the infurrection was entirely fuppreffed. Some rebels in Yorkshire, hearing of the fate of their companions, accepted the offers of pardon, and Ꮐ F Hay Stowe's Annals, p 597. Hayward, p. 295. ward, p. 295, 295. Heylin, p. 76. Holingihed, p. 1026. Stowe, p. 597. Holingthed, p. 1030.-34. Strype, vol. ii. p. 174. |