House Of Treason: The Rise And Fall Of A Tudor Dynasty

by Hutchinson, Robert

  60. National Archives, SP 1/116/83. See also Elton, Policy and Police, p. 297.

  61. National Archives, SP 1/116/108. Those to be executed were selected ‘by the advice of the council and gentlemen of these parts’.

  62. Cited by Wilson, p. 402.

  63. Burial of the executed rebels was forbidden by priests in several places. At Brigham, Richard Cragge’s remains were not allowed interment in the churchyard, so his widow and a cousin buried him in a ditch. Percival Hudson’s body was buried in God’s Acre at Torpenhow secretly at night. See Moorhouse, p. 313.

  64. Norfolk was continually looking over his shoulder, worried about Henry’s opinion of him. On 24 February 1537 he wrote to an unidentified official at court, begging him to speak well -‘befriend’ - of him to the king. See BL Cotton MS Vespasian F, xiii, fol. 78B.

  65. Hutchinson, Cromwell, p. 117.

  66. LPFD, vol. 12, pt i, p. 277.

  67. Cited by Elton, Policy and Police, p. 297, and Pickthorn, p. 357. The reprieve for the prisoners was short-lived. On 11 and 12 April, sixteen of the accused were found guilty of treason and condemned to death. See Bush and Bownes, fn, p. 382.

  68. LPFD, vol. 12, pt i, pp. 322-3.

  69. The Privy Council wrote to Norfolk, insisting that ‘the conscience of such persons as did acquit Levening should be examined ...’ and requiring that he send the jury to London to answer for their wilfulness and also to ‘travail all you can to beat out the mystery thereof’. See Hardwick State Papers, vol. 1, pp. 46-7. Henry’s anger at the acquittal was deepened by the escape from justice, earlier that month, of sixty-five Lincolnshire rebels, of whom two were acquitted and the remainder found guilty but pardoned. See Bush and Bownes, p. 382.

  70. He was also Bishop of Chalcedon, now part of the city of Istanbul on the Asia Minor side of the Bosphorus. After 1623, the title of Bishop of Chalcedon was given to Catholic Bishops of England. Mackerell’s confession, dated 20 October 1536, is in LPFD, vol. 11, pp. 311-12.

  71. Cited by Robinson, p. 31.

  72. National Archives, SP 1/130/24, and LPFD, vol. 13, pt i, pp. 177-9 and 268. For more information, see Jonathan K. van Patten, ‘Magic, Prophecy and the Law of Treason in Reformation England’, American Journal of Legal History, vol. 27 ( January 1983), pp. 1-32, and Elton, Policy and Police, pp. 57-8.

  73. Caitiff - a vile, wicked and cowardly individual.

  74. National Archives, SP 1/120/6 and 14-15.

  75. State Papers, vol. 5, p. 99, and LPFD, vol. 12, pt ii, p. 186.

  76. Childs, pp. 123-4.

  77. National Archives, SP 1/121/96.

  78. BL Add. MS 6, 113, fol. 81, and Egerton MS 985, fol. 33, give contemporary accounts of the christening of Prince Edward. See also Strype’s account in Ecclesiastic Memorials, vol. 2, pt i, pp. 3-9.

  79. LFPD, vol. 12, pt ii, p. 339.

  80. LPFD, vol. 12, pt ii, p. 360.

  81. The right to present a priest to an ecclesiastic benefice.

  82. LPFD, vol. 12, pt ii, p. 355.

  83. State Papers, vol. 1, pt ii p. 574, and BL Cotton MS Nero C, x, fol. 2. A knell was also rung in every London church tower or steeple on 12 November from noon to six that evening. See Wriothesley, vol. 1, p. 71.

  84. Wriothesley, vol. 1, p. 70.

  Chapter 6: ‘Prostrate and Most Humble’

  1. Henry Brinklow, The Complaynt of Roderick Mors . . . unto the parliament house of Ingland, Strasbourg, 1542, sigs D1v-2r.

  2. Cromwell boasted to Sir Thomas Wyatt in July 1537: ‘The realm [goes] from good quiet and peace, to better and better. The traitors have been executed ... so that, as far as we can perceive, the cankered hearts are weeded away.’ Ellis, Original Letters, third series, vol. 3, p. 60.

  3. 31 Henry VIII, cap. 13. A total of 376 smaller houses were affected by the First Act of Dissolution of 1536 (27 Henry VIII, cap. 28) and 200 larger by the second, with a further 200 friaries.

  4. Decorated panels, with religious iconography, raised above the back of an altar.

  5. Knowles, p. 267. Norfolk sent the prior, William Wood, to London for trial for treason on 17 May 1537. There seems little doubt that he helped the insurgents during the Pilgrimage of Grace, but would have been covered by the royal pardon. He was executed.

  6. VCH Suffolk, vol. 2, pp. 81-3 and 111-12.

  7. Norfolk paid an annual rent of £44 19sfor Castle Rising. In the 1535 Valor ecclesiasticus in 1535, it had an income of £306 11s, including the average 10s a year donated by pilgrims at the shrine containing the relic of the arm of St Philip, patron saint of hatters and pastry-makers. See VCH Norfolk, vol. 2, pp. 356-8.

  8. VCH Norfolk, vol. 2, p. 430.

  9. Rawcliffe and Wilson, Medieval Norwich, p. 26. The site was rented by the duke to a brewer but was purchased by the city of Norwich in 1559 and used as a public wharf. It was then broken up into a number of smallholdings.

  10. National Archives, SP 1/116/8.

  11. Martin, Thetford, appendix xvii.

  12. The properties are listed in the indenture. See Norfolk Record Office MC 67/35 511X9.

  13. LPFD, vol. 21, pt ii, p. 273.

  14. Wriothesley, vol. 1, p. 27. He was prior of the house at Beauvale in Nottinghamshire.

  15. Henry had declared on 17 March 1537 that the Greenwich friars were ‘disciples of the bishop of Rome and sowers of sedition’ and ordered that they should be arrested ‘and placed in other houses as friars as prisoners, without liberty to speak to any man till we decide our pleasure concerning them’.

  16. Townshend, of Rayham, Norfolk, was a member of Norfolk’s household and did well out of the monastic suppressions, being granted twenty manors in that county.

  17. Knowles, pp. 254-5.

  18. See G. W. Bernard’s ‘The Making of Religious Policy 1533-36: Henry VIII and the Search for the Middle Way’, in Historical Journal, vol. 41 (1998), pp. 321-49, which argues that the king was the dominant force in making religious policy and his efforts should be seen as a search for a middle road between reform and tradition.

  19. In the next century, the polemicist Thomas Fuller claimed that Gardiner had a ‘head, if not a hand in the death of every eminent Protestant, plotting, though not acting, their destruction’. The bishop, he maintained, ‘managed his malice with cunning’. See Fuller, Church History, book 18, pp. 12 and 17.

  20. Henry Brinklow, The Lamentacyon of a Christen Agaynst the Cytye of London ... , ed. J. M. Cowper, in the Early English Text Society’s ‘extra series’, vol. 22 (London, 1874), pp. 79 and 82.

  21. Hare was recorder of Norwich in 1536 and appointed master of requests the following year. He died in 1557.

  22. Bindoff, History of Parliament, vol. 1, p. 733.

  23. BL Cotton MS Cleopatra, E, v, fols 313-20. Elsewhere in this volume there is an exposition of the meaning of the twelve articles of the Creed. The eighth article - ‘I believe in the Holy Catholic Church’ - carries the most comments and amendments by the king. See Byrne, Letters of Henry VIII, pp. 252-4 and p. 255.

  24. Tanner, pp. 97-8.

  25. The staunchly Protestant John Ponet, who was Cranmer’s chaplain before 1547 and therefore no friend to Gardiner, described him as ‘having a swarthy colour’ and ‘a hanging look, frowning brows, eyes an inch within the head, a nose hooked like a buzzard, wide nostrils like a horse ... a sparrow mouth, great paws like the devil, talons on his feet like a [griffin] two inches larger than the natural toes ... and so tied ... with sinews that he could not abide to be touched’. See: Ponet, A Short Treatise of Politike Power ... (London, 1556), p. 178. Gardiner was one of those happy people who were always sure of himself: ‘I do not trifle with my wit to undo myself, but travail with my honesty to preserve my country, to preserve my prince or to preserve religion’ (Muller, Gardiner Letters, p. 422).

  26. Lacey Baldwin Smith, Mask, p. 138.

  27. 31 Henry VIII, cap. 40.

  28. Burnet, vol. 1, pt i, book iii, p. 195.

  29. On France’s north-east coast. The town a
nd its immediate hinterland (the ‘Pale of Calais’ - hence the expression ‘beyond the pale’) were an English possession between 1347 and 1558 and regarded as a bridgehead on the European mainland.

  30. Quoted in Muller, Tudor Reaction, p. 82.

  31. Hutchinson, Last Days of Henry VIII, p. 92. Hare continued to serve the king as a soldier, and was paid a grant of 9d (almost 4p) a day in 1542, for his loyal service in Ireland.

  32. A light shallow-draught rowing boat that conveyed passengers on rivers.

  33. Burnet, vol. 1, pt i, book iii, p. 195, and see also Nichols, Narratives, p. 237.

  34. The Duchy of Cleves is in modern Germany and covers today’s districts of Cleves, Wesel, Duisburg, Jülich and Berg.

  35. George Paulet claimed in June 1538 that the ‘king [calls Cromwell a knave] twice a week and sometimes knocks well about the pate [head] and yet when he has been well pummelled ... he would come out of the great chamber ... with a merry countenance’. State Papers, vol. 2, fn, pp. 551-2.

  36. Edmund Howard, commander of the right flank at Flodden and later Comptroller of Calais and its marches, died on 19 March 1539. He had borrowed money (?from Cromwell) at exorbitant rates and had to adopt various disguises to outwit his creditors. See Strickland, vol. 2, p. 337.

  37. Lacey Baldwin Smith, Tudor Tragedy, p. 103. Ellis, Original Letters, first series, vol. 1, pp. 201-2.

  38. Nichols, Narratives, p. 259.

  39. For a discussion on Henry’s medical problems see Hutchinson, Last Days of Henry VIII, chapter five, and on Cushing’s syndrome, pp. 207-9.

  40. Elton, ‘Cromwell’s Decline and Fall ...’, p. 171.

  41. State Papers, vol. 8, pp. 265-9.

  42. Wilson, p. 451.

  43. LPFD, vol. 15, p. 206. Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham (1474-1559), had prohibited Protestant books and took a leading role in the passing of the Act of Six Articles. John Clerk, Bishop of Bath (d. 1541), tried to obtain the papacy for Wolsey in 1523.

  44. Hume, p. 98.

  45. LPFD, vol. 8, p. 255.

  46. Cromwell’s wife Elizabeth had died sometime before 1529, possibly from the fatal infectious fever called ‘the sweating sickness’ that swept England in 1528. His two daughters, Anne and ‘little Grace’, both died young, possibly in the same epidemic. See Hutchinson, Thomas Cromwell, p. 23.

  47. Byrne, Lisle Letters, vol. 1, p. 56.

  48. Act of Precedence, 1539, 31 Henry VIII, cap. 10.

  49. LPFD, vol. 15, p. 377, Kaulek, p. 193, and Hume, pp. 98-9. Marillac about this time suggested, rather snidely, that Southampton, had ‘long learnt to bend to all winds’. See Kaulek, p. 190.

  50. Kaulek, p. 189, and LPFD, vol. 15, p. 363.

  51. LPFD, vol. 15, p. 377.

  52. Malversation - corrupt behaviour in an office.

  53. Kaulek, p. 191.

  54. Lords Journal, vol. 1, p. 145.

  55. Lords Journal, vol. 1, p. 149. Act of Attainder, 32 Henry VIII, cap. 62. Later copies are in BL Lansdowne MS 515, fol. 44 and Cotton MS Titus B, I, fol. 503.

  56. BL Add. MS 48,028, fols 160-65.

  57. The original eight-page document is in Hatfield House archives, CP 1/23.

  58. Hatfield House Archives, CP 1/10-11.

  59. The Act dissolving the marriage is 32 Henry VIII, cap. 25.

  60. Fox, Acts and Monuments, pp. 402-3.

  61. Arthur Galton, The Character and Times of Thomas Cromwell (Birmingham, 1887), p. 156.

  62. Casady, p. 80.

  63. An attendant on the king’s table.

  64. LPFD, vol. 16, p. 5.

  65. Kaulek, p. 363.

  66. Kaulek, p. 370, and Lacey Baldwin Smith, Tudor Tragedy, pp. 178ff.

  67. BL Cotton MS Otho, C, x, fol. 250.

  68. Kaulek, p. 352, and LPFD, vol. 16, p. 614.

  69. Longleat House, MSS of Marquis of Bath, Portland Papers, PO/Vol.1/15.

  70. LPFD, vol. 16, p. 662.

  71. LPFD, vol. 16, pp. 617-18.

  72. LPFD, vol. 16, pp. 618-19.

  73. LPFD, vol. 16, p. 620.

  74. LPFD, vol. 16, p. 628.

  75. Kaulek, p. 370.

  76. State Papers, vol. 1, pt ii, p. 721.

  77. Head, Ebbs and Flows, p. 189.

  78. 33 Henry VIII, cap. 21. The Act was approved by Letters Patent to spare Henry the pain of condemning his own queen.

  79. An Act for due Process to be had in High Treasons in cases of Lunacy or Madness, 33 Henry VIII, cap. 20.

  80. Kaulek, p. 388.

  81. LPFD, vol. 17, p. 45.

  Chapter 7: Down but not out

  1. LPFD, vol. 21, pt i, p. 33.

  2. Kaulek, pp. 420-21.

  3. Kaulek, p. 416.

  4. Norfolk told Sir William Fitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton, that what he feared most about the campaign was ‘the lack of drink’. See BL Add. MS 32,647, fol. 115.

  5. A tun held around 216 imperial gallons, or 982 litres.

  6. Foists were large casks.

  7. BL Add. MS 32,647, fol. 121.

  8. BL Add. MS 32,647, fol. 194.

  9. BL Add. MS 32,647, fol. 193.

  10. BL Add. MS 32,647, fol. 196. Gardiner had already sent 250 tons of barley and 125 tons each of wheat and rye for bread. Another 125 tons apiece of rye and wheat, and 500 tons of malt, 259 tons of peas and a similar quantity of beans were about to be despatched. He had also ordered 1,000 ‘wey’ of cheese - this measurement varied between regions; in Suffolk a wey was 265 pounds (116 kg.) and in Essex 336 pounds (152 kg.).

  11. BL Add. MS 32,648, fol. 46.

  12. BL Add. MS 32,648, fol. 46. Norfolk, then Earl of Surrey, was Lieutenant and Dorset was Warden of the East and Middle Marches of the border. Both appointments were dated 26 February 1523.

  13. BL Add. MS 32,648, fol. 65.

  14. Chronicle of John Hardyng, edited and published by Richard Grafton, the chronicler and printer, in January 1543. He dedicated the work to the third Duke of Norfolk. See penultimate stanza, lines 6-7. Harding (1378-1465) was an earlier English chronicler.

  15. Lord William Howard was paid £24 16s 4d for his service, made up of 6s 8d per day for himself and nine servants and 8d a day ‘conduct money’ for riding the three hundred miles from London. See BL Add. MS 5,754, fol. 12.

  16. Hamilton Papers, vol. 1, no. 218.

  17. BL Add. MS 32,348, fol. 177, and Hamilton Papers, vol. 1, no. 218.

  18. Hamilton Papers, vol. 1, no. 221.

  19. BL Add. MS 32,468, fol. 96.

  20. BL Add. MS 32,648, fol. 108.

  21. A reformed Benedictine order called colloquially ‘the Grey Monks’.

  22. Bath Place or Inn was located on the north side of Holborn Bars, next to Furnivals Inn, on the west side of the city. The site is now occupied by part of the Prudential offices. See London Topographical Record, vol. 10 (1916), pp. 133-4.

  23. Exeter Place was in the Outer Temple and was occupied by the duke in 1541- 2. It was granted to Sir William Paget in 1549 and was later acquired by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who passed it on to his stepson, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. He plotted his abortive rebellion there against Elizabeth I in 1601. Most of the old house was pulled down in 1777. See London Topographical Record, vol. 10 (1916), pp. 117-18. Norfolk would have regarded his mansion at Lambeth as being in the suburbs of the city.

  24. BL Add. MS 32,648, fol. 112.

  25. Hamilton Papers, vol. 1, no. 226.

  26. BL Add. MS 10,110, fol. 237.

  27. BL Add. MS 32,648, fol. 114.

  28. BL Add. MS 32,648, fol. 120.

  29. LPFD, vol. 17, p. 585.

  30. LPFD, vol. 17, p. 580.

  31. Norfolk may have been drinking an infusion of blackberry leaves (Rubus fructuosis), which was a Tudor remedy for diarrhoea.

  32. LPFD, vol. 17, p. 585.

  33. BL Add. MS 32,648, fol. 156. The Scottish king James V fell ill on 7 December and was dead a week later, because of his despair at the defeat. For a modern account of the battle, see
Brooks, p. 290. The landscape has changed radically due to agricultural enclosure and draining of the alluvial flood plain of the Esk.

  34. CDP Spanish, vol. 6, pt ii, pp. 233-4.

  35. LPFD, vol. 19, pt i, p. 157. Their contribution was surpassed only by Lord Ferrers’s 1,000 infantry and 100 cavalry. The other formations in the army were the ‘Battle’ - 3,159 cavalry and 9,688 infantry and the ‘Rearguard’ numbering 9,017 infantry and 547 horsemen. Ibid., p. 163.

  36. LPFD, vol. 19, pt i, pp. 410-11.

  37. LPFD, vol. 19, pt i, p. 433. His claims were later acidly rebutted by the Privy Council. ‘The king has received your letter ... [claiming] that we have not answered your concerns, [over] the price of victuals and insufficiency of the Flemish wagons ... and noted negligence in us, albeit we are faultless. As to the wagons, we wrote more than five days ago enlarging the number and as for the prices ... the rating is thought convenient by you and others.’ BL Harleian MS 6,989, fol. 191.

  38. LPFD, vol. 19, pt i, p. 435.

  39. Suffolk told Norfolk on 8 July, ‘You seem to think it strange that we, knowing the way to be taken by the king, keep it secret from you. But we are as ignorant as you. As soon as we have any inkling of his majesty’s determination, we will advertise [tell] you.’ See BL Harleian MS 6,989, fol. 129. Suffolk also sent the duke wine from the king’s provisions, possibly as a gesture of goodwill.

  40. National Archives, SP 1/189/207, and BL Harleian MS 6,989, fol. 127.

  41. Montreuil, in the Pas de Calais département, was one of the most prosperous ports in northern Europe in the thirteenth century, until the river became silted up over the next three hundred years. It later featured in Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables, published in 1861, and became the site of the headquarters of the British army in France during the First World War.

  42. State Papers, vol. 9, pp. 727-8.

  43. LPFD, vol. 19, pt i, p. 543.

  44. National Archives, SP 1/190/24.

  45. Charles V had advanced to within fifty miles (84.7 km.) of Paris before a supply shortage forced a retreat. After secret negotiations with the French, the separate peace treaty was concluded at Crépy and announced on 18 September. Savoy and Milan were surrendered to the Spanish, who, in turn, dropped their claims on Burgundy.