Broughton Tower, the ancient part of which is all that remains
of the residence of the unfortunate Sir Thomas Broughton, stands
a little to the eastward of the town of that name, upon the neck
of a wooded spur of land, which projects from the high ground
above the houses towards the river Duddon, about a mile distant.
The towered portion, as it rises from the wood, has much of the
appearance of a church; but is in reality part of the ancient
building, now connected with a modern mansion. It has a southern
aspect, with a slope down to the river, being well sheltered in
the opposite direction. "It commands an extensive view, comprising
in a wonderful variety hill and dale, water, wooded grounds, and
buildings; whilst fertility around is gradually diminished, being
lost in the superior heights of Black Comb, in Cumberland, the high
lands between Kirkby and Ulverston, and the estuary of the Duddon
expanding into the sands and waters of the Irish sea."
The Broughtons were an Anglo-Saxon family of high antiquity, in
whose possession the manor of Broughton had remained from time
immemorial, and whose chief seat was at Broughton, until the second
year of the reign of Henry the Seventh. At this period the power
and interest of Sir Thomas Broughton were so considerable, that
the Duchess of Burgundy, sister to the late King and the Duke of
Clarence, relied on him as one of the principal confederates in the
attempt to subvert the government of Henry by the pretensions of
Lambert Simnel.
Ireland was zealously attached to the house of York, and held
in affectionate regard the memory of the Duke of Clarence, the
Earl of Warwick's father, who had been its lieutenant. No sooner,
therefore, did the impostor Simnel present himself to Thomas
Fitz-Gerald, Earl of Kildare, and claim his protection as the
unfortunate Warwick, than that credulous nobleman paved the way for
his reception, and furthered his design upon the throne, till the
people in Dublin with one consent tendered their allegiance to him
as the true Plantagenet. They paid the pretended Prince attendance
as their sovereign, lodged him in the Castle of Dublin, crowned
him with a diadem taken from a statue of the Virgin, and publicly
proclaimed him King, by the appellation of Edward the Sixth.
In the year 1487 Lambert, with about two thousand Flemish troops
under the command of Colonel Martin Swart, a man of noble family
in Germany, an experienced and valiant soldier, whom the Duchess
of Burgundy had chosen to support the pretended title of Simnel to
the crown of England, and a number of Irish, conducted by Thomas
Gerardine their captain from Ireland, landed in Furness at the Pile
of Fouldrey. The army encamped in the neighbourhood of Ulverston,
at a place now known by the name of Swart-Moor. Sir Thomas
Broughton joined the rebels with a small body of English. The army,
at this time about eight thousand strong, proceeded to join the
Earl of Lincoln, Lord Lovel, and the rest of the confederates,
passing on through Cartmel to Stoke field, near Newark-upon-Trent,
where they met and encountered the King's forces on the 5th of
June, 1487.
The day being far advanced before the King arrived at Stoke, he
pitched his camp and deferred the battle till the day following.
The forces of the Earl of Lincoln also encamped at a little
distance from those of the King, and undismayed by the superior
numbers they had to encounter, bravely entered the field the
next day, and arranged themselves for battle, according to the
directions of Colonel Swart and other superior officers. The
charge being sounded, a desperate conflict was maintained with
equal valour on both sides for three hours. The Germans were in
every respect equal to the English, and none surpassed the bravery
of Swart their commander. For three hours each side contended
for victory, and the fate of the battle remained doubtful. The
Irish soldiers, however, being badly armed, and the Germans being
overpowered by numbers, the Lambertines were at length defeated,
but not before their principal officers, the Earl of Lincoln,
Lord Lovel, _Sir Thomas Broughton_, Colonel Swart, and Sir Thomas
Gerardine captain of the Irish, and upwards of four thousand of
their soldiers were slain.
Young Lambert and his tutor were both taken prisoners. The latter,
being a priest, was punished with perpetual imprisonment; Simnel
was too contemptible to be an object either of apprehension or
resentment to Henry. He was pardoned, and made a scullion in the
King's kitchen, whence he was afterwards advanced to the rank of
falconer, in which employment he ended his days.
Sir Thomas Broughton is said to have fallen on the field of
battle: but there remains a tradition, that he returned and lived
many years amongst his tenants in Witherslack, in Westmorland; and
was interred in the Chapel there; but of this nothing is known
for certain at present, or whether he returned or where he died.
Dr. Burn, speaking of the grant of Witherslack to Sir Thomas, on
the attainder of the Harringtons in the first year of Henry's
reign for siding with the house of York, and of its subsequent
grant to Thomas Lord Stanley, the first Earl of Derby, on the
attainder of Sir Thomas for having been concerned in this affair
of Lambert Simnel, goes on to say--"And here it may not be amiss
to rectify a mistake in Lord Bacon's history of that King, (Henry
VII.) who saith that this Sir Thomas Broughton was slain at Stoke,
near Newark, on the part of the counterfeit Plantagenet, Lambert
Simnell; whereas Sir Thomas Broughton escaped from that battle
hither into Witherslack, where he lived a good while _incognito_,
amongst those who had been his tenants, who were so kind unto him
as privately to keep and maintain him, and who dying amongst them
was buried by them, whose grave Sir Daniel Fleming says in his time
was to be seen there."
The erection of the new chapel of Witherslack by Dean Barwick, in
1664, at a considerable distance from where the ancient chapel
stood, has obliterated the memory of his once well-known grave.
With this unhappy gentleman the family of Broughton, which had
flourished for many centuries and had contracted alliances with
most of the principal families in these parts, was extinguished in
Furness.
After these affairs the King had leisure to revenge himself on his
enemies, and made a progress into the northern parts of England,
where he gave many proofs of his rigorous disposition. A strict
inquiry was made after those who had assisted or favoured the
rebels, and heavy fines and even sanguinary punishments, were
imposed upon the delinquents in a very arbitrary manner. The
fidelity therefore of Sir Thomas Broughton's tenants to their
fallen master was not without its dangers, and is a pleasing
instance of attachment to the person of a leader in a rude and
perilous age.
In the wars of the Roses the Broughtons had always strenuously
supported the House of York. It is however remarkable that, the
manor of Witherslack having been granted to Sir Thomas by Henry the
Seventh in the first year of his reign, he should have joined the
Pretender in arms against that monarch in the following year.
Methop and Ulva, though distinctly named in the title and
description of this manor, yet make but a small part of it. They
are all included within a peninsula, as it were, between Winster
Beck, Bryster Moss, and Lancaster Sands.
The fate of Lord Lovel, another of the chiefs in this disastrous
enterprise, is also shrouded in mystery. It has often been told
that he was never seen, living or dead, after the battle.
The dead bodies of the Earl of Lincoln and most of the other
principal leaders, it was said, were found where they had fallen,
sword-in-hand, on the fatal field; but not that of Lord Lovel. Some
assert that he was drowned when endeavouring to escape across the
river Trent, the weight of his armour preventing the subsequent
discovery of his body. Other reports apply to him the circumstances
similar to those which have been related above as referring to Sir
Thomas Broughton; namely, that he fled to the north where, under
the guise of a peasant, he ended his days in peace. Lord Bacon, in
his History of Henry the Seventh, says "that he lived long after
in a cave or vault." And his account has been partly corroborated
in modern times. William Cowper, Esquire, Clerk of the House of
Commons, writing from Hertingfordbury Park in 1738, says--"In 1708,
upon the occasion of new laying a chimney at Minster Lovel, there
was discovered a large vault or room underground in which was the
entire skeleton of a man, as having been sitting at a table which
was before him, with a book, paper, pen, etc.; in another part
of the room lay a cap, all much mouldered and decayed; which the
family and others judged to be this Lord Lovel, whose exit has
hitherto been so uncertain."
A tradition was rife in the village in the last century to the
effect that, in this hiding place, which could only be opened from
the exterior, the insurgent chief had confided himself to the
care of a female servant, was forgotten or neglected by her, and
consequently died of starvation.
The ancient Castle or Pile of Fouldrey, (formerly called Pele of
Foudra, or Futher,) stands upon a small island near the southern
extremity of the isle of Walney; and is said by Camden to have been
built by an Abbot of Furness, in the first year of King Edward the
Third (A. D. 1327). It was probably intended for an occasional
retreat from hostility; a depository for the valuable articles
of the Monastery of Furness; and for a fortress to protect the
adjoining harbour; all which intentions its situation and structure
were well calculated to answer at the time of its erection.
It seems to have been the custom in the northern parts of the
kingdom, for the monasteries to have a fortress of this kind, in
which they might lodge with security their treasure and records
on the approach of an enemy; of this the Castle on Holy Island,
in Northumberland, and Wulstey Castle, near the Abbey of Holm
Cultram, in Cumberland, are examples. It has even been said that
an underground communication existed between Furness Abbey and the
Pele of Fouldrey.
The harbour alluded to, appears to have been of considerable
importance to the shipping of that period, when the relations of
Ireland with the monks had become established. In the reign of
Henry the Sixth, it is mentioned as being found a convenient spot
for the woollen merchants to ship their goods to Ernemouth, in
Zealand, without paying the duty; and in Elizabeth's days as "the
only good haven for great shippes to londe or ryde in" between
Scotland and Milford Haven, in Wales.
It was apprehended that the Spanish Armada would try to effect a
landing in this harbour.
GILTSTONE ROCK;
OR, THE SLAVER IN THE SOLWAY.
The Betsey-Jane sailed out of the Firth,
As the Waits sang "Christ is born on earth"--
The Betsey-Jane sailed out of the Firth,
On Christmas-day in the morning.
The wind was East, the moon was high,
Of a frosty blue was the spangled sky,
And the bells were ringing, and dawn was nigh,
And the day was Christmas morning.
In village and town woke up from sleep,
From peaceful visions and slumbers deep--
In village and town woke up from sleep,
On Christmas-day in the morning,
The many that thought on Christ the King,
And rose betimes their gifts to bring,
And "peace on earth and good will" to sing,
As is meet upon Christmas morning.
The Betsey-Jane pass'd village and town,
As the Gleemen sang, and the stars went down--
The Betsey-Jane pass'd village and town,
That Christmas-day in the morning;
And the Skipper by good and by evil swore,
The bells might ring and the Gleemen roar,
But the chink of his gold would chime him o'er
Those waves, next Christmas morning.
And out of the Firth with his reckless crew,
All ready his will and his work to do--
Out of the Firth with his reckless crew
He sailed on a Christmas morning!
He steer'd his way to Gambia's coast;
And dealt for slaves; and Westward cross'd;
And sold their lives, and made his boast
As he thought upon Christmas morning.
And again and again from shore to shore,
With his human freight for the golden ore--
Again and again from shore to shore,
Ere Christmas-day in the morning,
He cross'd that deep with never a thought
Of the sorrow, or wrong, or suffering wrought
On souls and bodies thus sold and bought
For gold, against Christmas morning!
And at length, with his gold and ivory rare,
When the sun was low and the breeze was fair--
At length with his gold and ivory rare
He sailed, that on Christmas morning
He might pass both village and town again
When the bells were ringing, as they rung then,
When he pass'd them by in the Betsey-Jane,
On that last bright Christmas morning.
The Betsey-Jane sailed into the Firth,
As the bells rang "Christ is born on earth"--
The Betsey-Jane sailed into the Firth,
And it _was_ upon Christmas morning!
The wind was west, the moon was high,
Of a hazy blue was the spangled sky,
And the bells were ringing, and dawn was nigh,
Just breaking on Christmas morning.
The Gleemen singing of Christ the King,
Of Christ the King, of Christ the King--
The Gleemen singing of Christ the King,
Hailed Christmas-day in the morning;
When the Betsey-Jane with a thundering shock
Went ripping along on the Giltstone Rock,
In sound of the bells which seemed to mock
Her doom on that Christmas morning.
With curse and shriek and fearful groan,
On the foundering ship, in the waters lone--
With curse and shriek and fearful groan,
They sank on that Christmas morning!
The Skipper with arms around his gold,
Scared by dark spirits that loosed his hold,
Was down the deep sea plunged and roll'd
In the dawn of that Christmas morning:--
While village and town woke up from sleep,
From peaceful visions and slumbers deep--
While village and town woke up from sleep,
That Christmas-day in the morning!
And many that thought on Christ the King,
Rose up betimes their gifts to bring,
And, "peace on earth and good will to sing,"
Went forth in the Christmas morning!