was the most conspicuous, entered Durham in arms on Sunday, the
fourteenth of November (1569). They went to the minster, overthrew the
communion-table, tore the Bible and service-books, replaced the old
altar (which had been thrown into a rubbish-heap), and had mass said.
The next day they turned southwards, with nobody to molest or stop them
in their rear or in front. The Earl of Sussex was collecting a force at
York, but it came in slowly, and it could not be trusted. “To get the
more credit among the favorers of the old Romish religion, they had a
cross, with a banner of the five wounds, borne after them, sometime by
old Norton, sometime by others” (Holinshed). They proceeded to Ripon,
Wetherby, and Clifford Moor (Bramham Moor) near Tadcaster. “Their main
body was at Wetherby and Tadcaster, their advanced horse were far down
across the Ouse.” Their numbers, according to Holinshed, never exceeded
about two thousand horse and five thousand foot. Tutbury, where Mary
Stuart was confined, was but a little more than fifty miles from their
advance; they proposed to release the Queen of Scots, and then to move
on London, or wait for a rising in the south. Mary Stuart, at the nick
of time, was removed to Coventry. On the twenty-fourth we hear that the
rebels were drawn back to Knaresborough and Boroughbridge; on the
thirtieth, that they are returned into the Bishopric. There they laid
siege to Barnard Castle, which Sir George Bowes was obliged to surrender
on December twelfth; on the fifteenth the earls were still at Durham. On
the thirteenth the earls of Warwick and Clinton, commanders of the Army
of the South, met at Wetherby with a combined force of eleven thousand
foot and above twelve hundred horse, “eager to encounter the rebels, if
they would abide.” But on the sixteenth the “lords rebels” warned their
footmen to shift for themselves, and fled with such horse as they had
left into Northumberland. The twenty-second of December, the Earl of
Sussex, qui cunctando restituit rem, Lord Hunsdon, who had been joined
with him in command, and Sir Ralph Sadler, who had been deputed to watch
him, write to the Queen: “The earls rebels, with their principal
confederates and the Countess of Northumberland, did the twentieth of
this present in the night, flee into Liddesdale with about a hundred
horse; and there remain under the conduction of Black Ormiston, one of
the murtherers of the Lord Darnley, and John of the Side and the Lord’s
Jock, two notable thieves of Liddesdale, and the rest of the rebels be
utterly scaled.”[258]
The ballad, which is the work of a loyal but not unsympathetic minstrel,
gives but a cursory and imperfect account of “this geere.” Earl Percy
has come to the conclusion that he must fight or flee; his lady urges
him thrice over to go to the court, and right himself, but he tells her
that his treason is known well enough; if he follows her advice she will
never see him again. He sends a letter to Master Norton, urging that
gentleman to ride with him. Norton asks counsel of his son Christopher,
who advises him not to go back from the word he has spoken, and much
pleases his father thereby. He asks his nine sons how many of them will
take part with him. All but the eldest at once answer that they will
stand by him till death: Francis Norton, the eldest, will not advise
acting against the crown. Coward Francis, thou never tookest that of me!
says the father. Francis will go with his father, but unarmed, and he
wishes an ill death to them that strike the first stroke against the
crown. There is a muster at Wetherby, and Westmoreland and
Northumberland are there with their proper banners,[259] and with
another setting forth the Lord on the cross. Sir George Bowes “rising to
make a spoil,” they besiege him in a castle to which he retires, easily
win the outer walls, but cannot win the inner. Word comes to the Queen
of the rebels in the north; she sends thirty thousand men against them,
under the “false” Earl of Warwick, and they never stop till they reach
York. (A gap occurs here, which need not be a large one, considering the
leaps taken already.) Northumberland is gone, Westmoreland vanished, and
Norton and his eight sons fled.
5–10. The Countess of Northumberland would have been the last person to
give such advice as is attributed to her. “His wife, being the stouter
of the two, doth encourage him to persevere, and rideth up and down with
the army, so as the grey mare is the better horse.” Hunsdon to Cecil,
November twenty-sixth, MS. cited by Froude.
11–27. Richard Norton, miscalled Francis in 40, was a man of seventy-one
when he engaged in the rising, and the father of eleven sons and eight
daughters. Seven of the sons were involved in the rebellion. Francis,
the eldest son, so far from standing out, took a prominent part with his
father. But what is said of Francis is true of William, the fourth son.
Sir George Bowes says of him: “I neither heard or could perceive William
Norton to deal with any office or charge amongst the rebels, but, as I
have heard it affirmed, he both refused the taking charge of horsemen
when it was offered unto him, and also _would wear no armor_. Farther,
upon my departure from the castle [Barnard Castle], he came to me, and
in the way as he rode with me, he entered to declare that he greatly
misliked of all their doings and practices, saying that he was there
amongst them for his father’s sake, and to accompany him, and otherways
he never had been with them,” etc. MS. cited by Sharp, p. 284.
Christopher Norton deserves the distinction accorded him in the ballad.
“Christopher had been among the first to enroll himself a knight of Mary
Stuart. His religion had taught him to combine subtlety with courage,
and through carelessness or treachery, or his own address, he had been
admitted into Lord Scrope’s guard at Bolton Castle. There he was allowed
to assist his lady’s escape, should escape prove possible; there he was
able to receive messages and carry them; there, to throw the castellan
off his guard, he pretended to flirt with her attendants, and twice at
least, by his own confession, closely as the prisoner was watched, he
contrived to hold private communications with her.” (Froude, Reign of
Elizabeth, III, 505, where follow lively particulars of these two
encounters.) Christopher was the only one of the Nortons who is known to
have suffered the death-penalty of treason; it was “after he had beheld
the death of his uncle, as well his quartering as otherwise, knowing and
being well assured that he himself must follow the same way.” (Sharp, p.
286.) Richard Norton, the father, fled to Flanders with his sons Francis
and Sampson, and all three seem to have died there.
33 f. Sussex to Cecil: Dec. 6. “The rebels have shot three days together
at the wall of the outer ward, but they have done no hurt.” Dec. 8. “The
rebels have won the first ward.” Sir George Bowes’ men leaped the walls,
one day some eighty at a time, and the next day seven or eight score of
the best disposed, who had been appointed to guard the gates, suddenly
set them open, and went to the rebels; whereupon Sir George was driven
to composition, and there was no need to take the inner walls.[260]
A considerable number of “balletts” were called forth by the northern
rebellion, and a few of these have been preserved. See Arber,
Stationers’ Registers, I, 404–6, 407–9, 413–15; A Collection of
Seventy-Nine Blackletter Ballads, etc., 1870, pp. xxv, 1, 56, 231, 239.
The copy in the Reliques is translated by Seckendorf, Musenalmanach,
1807, p. 103; by Doenniges, p. 102.
1
Listen, liuely lordings all,
And all _tha_t beene this place within:
If you’le giue eare vnto my songe,
I will tell you how this geere did begin.
2
It was the good Erle of Westmorlande,
A noble erle was callëd hee,
And he wrought treason against the crowne;
Alas, itt was the more pittye!
3
And soe itt was the Erle of Northumberland,
Another good noble erle was hee;
They tooken both vpon one p_ar_t,
Against the crowne they wolden bee.
4
Earle Pearcy is into his garden gone,
And after walkes his awne ladye:
‘I heare a bird sing in my eare
_Tha_t I must either ffight or fflee.’
5
‘God fforbidd,’ shee sayd, ‘good my lord,
_Tha_t euer soe _tha_t it shalbee!
But goe to London to the court,
And faire ffall truth and honestye!’
6
‘But nay, now nay, my ladye gay,
_Tha_t eu_er_ it shold soe bee;
My treason is knowen well enoughe;
Att the court I must not bee.’
7
‘But goe to the court yet, good my lo_rd_,
Take men enowe w_i_th thee;
If any man will doe you wronge,
Yo_u_r warrant they may bee.’
8
‘But nay, now nay, my lady gay,
For soe itt must not bee;
If I goe to the court, ladye,
Death will strike me, and I must dye.’
9
‘But goe to the court yett, [good] my lord,
I my-selfe will ryde w_i_th thee;
If any man will doe you wronge,
Yo_u_r borrow I shalbee.’
10
‘But nay, now nay, my lady gay,
For soe it must not bee;
For if I goe to the court, ladye,
Thou must me neuer see.
11
‘But come hither, thou litle foot-page,
Come thou hither vnto mee,
For thou shalt goe a message to M_aster_ Norton,
In all the hast _tha_t eu_er_ may bee.
12
‘Comend me to _tha_t gentleman;
Bring him here this letter from mee,
And say, I pray him earnestlye
_Tha_t hee will ryde in my companye.’
13
But one while the foote-page went,
Another while he rann;
Vntill he came to M_aster_ Norton,
The ffoot-page neuer blanne.
14
And when he came to M_aster_ Nortton,
He kneeled on his knee,
And tooke the letter betwixt his hands,
And lett the gentleman it see.
15
And when the letter itt was reade,
Affore all his companye,
I-wis, if you wold know the truth,
There was many a weeping eye.
16
He said, Come hither, Kester Nortton,
A ffine ffellow thou seemes to bee;
Some good councell, Kester Nortton,
This day doe thou giue to mee.
17
‘Marry, I’le giue you councell, ffather,
If you’le take councell att me,
_Tha_t if you haue spoken the word, father,
_Tha_t backe againe you doe not flee.’
18
‘God a mercy! Christopher Nortton,
I say, God a mercye!
If I doe liue and scape w_i_th liffe,
Well advanced shalt thou bee.
19
‘But come you hither, my nine good sonnes,
In mens estate I thinke you bee;
How many of you, my children deare,
On my p_ar_t _tha_t wilbe?’
20
But eight of them did answer soone,
And spake ffull hastilye;
Sayes, We wilbe on yo_u_r p_ar_t, ffather,
Till the day _tha_t we doe dye.
21
‘But God a mercy! my children deare,
And eu_er_ I say God a mercy!
And yett my blessing you shall haue,
Whether-soeuer I liue or dye.
22
‘But what sayst thou, thou Ffrancis Nortton,
Mine eldest sonne and mine heyre trulye?
Some good councell, Ffrancis Nortton,
This day thou giue to me.’
23
‘But I will giue you councell, ffather,
If you will take councell att mee;
For if you wold take my councell, father,
Against the crowne you shold not bee.’
24
‘But ffye vpon thee, Ffrancis Nortton!
I say ffye vpon thee!
When thou was younge and tender of age
I made ffull much of thee.’
25
‘But yo_u_r head is white, ffather,’ he sayes,
‘And yo_u_r beard is wonderous gray;
Itt were shame ffor yo_u_r countrye
If you shold rise and fflee away.’
26
‘But ffye vpon thee, thou coward Ffrancis!
Thou neu_er_ tookest _tha_t of mee!
When thou was younge and tender of age
I made too much of thee.’
27
‘But I will goe w_i_th you, father,’ q_uo_th hee;
‘Like a naked man will I bee;
He _tha_t strikes the first stroake against the crowne,
An ill death may hee dye!’
28
But then rose vpp M_aster_ Nortton, _tha_t esq_uier_,
W_i_th him a ffull great companye;
And then the erles they comen downe
To ryde in his companye.
29
Att Whethersbye the mustered their men,
Vpon a ffull fayre day;
Thirteen thousand there were seene
To stand in battel ray.
30
The Erle of Westmoreland, he had in his ancyent
The dunn bull in sight most hye,
And three doggs w_i_th golden collers
Were sett out royallye.
31
The Erle of Northumberland, he had in his ancyent
The halfe moone in sight soe hye,
As the Lo_rd_ was crucifyed on the crosse,
And set forthe pleasantlye.
32
And after them did rise good S_i_r George Bowes,
After them a spoyle to make;
The erles returned backe againe,
Thought eu_er_ _tha_t k_nigh_t to take.
33
This barron did take a castle then,
Was made of lime and stone;
The vttermost walls were ese to be woon;
The erles haue woon them anon.
34
But tho they woone the vttermost walls,
Quickly and anon,
The innermust walles the cold not winn;
The were made of a rocke of stone.
35
But newes itt came to leeue London,
In all the speede _tha_t eu_er_ might bee;
And word it came to our royall queene
Of all the rebells in the north countrye.
36
Shee turned her grace then once about,
And like a royall queene shee sware;
Sayes, I will ordaine them such a breake-fast
As was not in the north this thousand yeere!
37
Shee caused thirty thousand men to be made,
W_i_th horsse and harneis all quicklye;
And shee caused thirty thousand men to be made,
To take the rebells in the north countrye.
38
They tooke w_i_th them the false Erle of Warwicke,
Soe did they many another man;
Vntill they came to Yorke castle,
I-wis they neu_er_ stinted nor blan.
* * * * *
39
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
‘Spread thy ancyent, Erle of Westmoreland!
The halfe-moone ffaine wold wee see!’
40
But the halfe-moone is fled and gone,
And the dun bull vanished awaye;
And Ffrancis Nortton and his eight sonnes
Are ffled away most cowardlye.
41
Ladds w_i_th mony are counted men,
Men w_i_thout mony are counted none;
But hold yo_u_r tounge! why say you soe?
Men wilbe men when mony is gone.
* * * * *
3^4. their _for_ the.
7^4. they _altered in MS. from_ them.
18^1. amercy: _and afterwards_.
19^1. 9.
20^1. 8^{th}.
21^2. godamercy.
29^3. 13000.
30^2. Dum̄: m _for_ nn. _Furnivall._
30^3. 3.
34^3. imermust.
35^2. all they.
36^4. 1000.
37^{1,3}. 30000.
38^2. _Only half the_ n _in many. Furnivall_.
And _for_ & _throughout_.
_Variations of the copy in_ Percy’s Reliques, 1765, I, 250.
1^{2–4}.
Lithe and listen unto mee,
And I will sing of a noble earle,
The noblest earle in the north countrie.
2, 3 _wanting._
4^2. after him walkes his faire.
4^3. mine.
5^{1,2}.
Now heaven forefend, my dearest lord,
That eer such harm should hap to thee.
6^1, 8^1, 10^1, 24^1. Now _for_ But.
6^{2,3}.
Alas thy counsell suits not mee;
Mine enemies prevail so fast.
6^4. That at: I may.
7^1. O goe.
7^2. And take thy gallant men.
7^3. any dare to doe.
7^4. Then your warrant.
8^1. thou lady faire.
8^2. The court is full of subtiltie.
8^3. And if.
8^4. Never more I may thee see.
9^1. Yet goe to the court, my lord, she sayes.
9^2. And I: will goe wi. ryde _in ed._ 1794.
9^3. At court then for my dearest lord.
9^4. His faithfull borrowe I will.
10^1. lady deare.
10^{2–4}.
Far lever had I lose my life,
Than leave among my cruell foes
My love in jeopardy and strife.
11^1. come thou: my little.
11^3. To maister Norton thou must goe.
12^2. And beare this letter here fro mee.
12^3. And say that earnestly I praye.
12^4. That _wanting_.
13^1. But _wanting_: little footpage.
13^2. And another.
13^3. to his journeys end.
13^4. little footpage.
14^1. When to that gentleman he came.
14^2. Down he knelt upon.
14^{3,4}.
Quoth he, My lord commendeth him,
And sends this letter unto thee.
_The reading of the Folio is restored in ed. 1794._
15^2. Affore that goodlye.
15^3. you the truthe wold know.
16^1. thither, Christopher.
16^2. A gallant youth thou seemst.
16^{3,4}.
What doest thou counsell me, my sonne,
Now that good earle’s in jeopardy.
17.
Father, my counselle’s fair and free;
That earle he is a noble lord,
And whatsoever to him you hight,
I wold not have you breake your word.
18^{1–3}.
Gramercy, Christopher, my sonne,
Thy counsell well it liketh mee,
And if we speed, and
18^4. thou shalt.
19^1. But _wanting_.
19^2. Gallant men I trowe.
19^4. Will stand by that good earle and mee.
20^1. But _wanting_: answer make.
20^2. Eight of them spake hastilie.
20^{3,4}.
O father, till the daye we dye,
We’ll stand by that good earle and thee.
21^1.
Gramercy now, my children deare,
You showe yourselves right bold and brave;
And whethersoeer I live or dye,
A fathers blessing you shal have.
22^1. O Francis.
22^{2–4}.
Thou art mine eldest sonn and heire;
Somewhat lyes brooding in thy breast,
Whatever it bee, to mee declare.
23 _wanting, and instead, this stanza, like_ 25:
Father, you are an aged man,
Your head is white, your bearde is gray;
It were a shame, at these your yeares,
For you to ryse in such a fray.
24, 26. _For these_:
Now fye upon thee, coward Francis,
Thou never learnedst this of mee;
When thou wert yong and tender of age,
Why did I make soe much of thee?
27^{1,2}.
But, father, I will wend with you,
Unarmd and naked will I bee.
27^3. And he: the first stroake _wanting_.
27^4. Ever an.
28.
Then rose that reverend gentleman,
And with him came a goodlye band,
To join with the brave Earl Percy,
And all the flower o Northumberland.
29.
With them the noble Nevill came,
The earle of Westmorland was hee;
At Wetherbye they mustred their host,
Thirteen thousand faire to see.
30^{1,2}.
Lord Westmorland his ancyent raisde,
The dun bull he raysd on hye.
30^3. And _wanting_: collars brave.
30^4. Were there sett out most.
31.
Earl Percy there his ancyent spred,
The half moone shining all soe faire;
The Nortons ancyent had the crosse,
And the five wounds our Lord did beare.
32^1. Then Sir George Bowes he straitwaye rose.
32^2. some spoyle.
32^3. Those noble earles turnd.
32^4. And aye they vowed that.
33.
That baron he to his castle fled,
To Barnard castle then fled hee;
The uttermost walles were eathe to win,
The earles have wonne them presentlie.
34.
The uttermost walles were lime and bricke;
But thoughe they won them soon anone,
Long eer they wan the innermost walles,
For they were cut in rocke of stone.
35^1. Then newes unto leeve London came.
35^2. ever may.
35^3. word is brought.
35^4. Of the rysing in.
36^1. Her grace she turned her round about.
36^2. swore.
36^3. Sayes _wanting_.
36^4. As never was in the North before.
37^1. be raysd.
37^2. harneis faire to see.
37^3. And _wanting_: be raised.
37^4. the earles i th’.
38^{1,2}.
Wi them the false Earle Warwick went,
Th’ earle Sussex and the lord Hunsdèn.
38^3. to Yorke castle came.
38^4. stint ne.
39.
Now spread thy ancyent, Westmorland,
Thy dun bull faine would we spye;
And thou, the Earl o Northumberland,
Now rayse thy half moone up on hye.
40^1. the dun bulle is.
40^2. the half moone vanished.
40^{3,4}.
The Earles, though they were brave and bold,
Against soe many could not stay.
41.
Thee, Norton, wi thine eight good sonnes,
They doomd to dye, alas! for ruth!
Thy reverend lockes thee could not save,
Nor them their faire and blooming youthe.
Wi them full many a gallant wight
They cruellye bereavd of life,
And many a childe made fatherlesse,
And widowed many a tender wife.
176
NORTHUMBERLAND BETRAYED BY DOUGLAS
‘Northumberland betrayd by Dowglas,’ Percy MS., p. 259; Hales and
Furnivall, II, 217.
Printed in Percy’s Reliques, 1765, I, 257, “from two copies [which
contained great variations, 1794, I, 297], one of them in the Editor’s
folio MS.” In this manuscript Percy makes these notes. “N. B. My other
copy is more correct than this, and contains much which is omitted here.
N. B. The other copy begins with lines the same as that in page 112
[that is, the ‘Earl of Westmoreland’]. The minstrels often made such
changes.”
See the preface to the foregoing ballad as to the probable character of
the copy, which “contains much that is omitted here.”
The Earl of Sussex writes on December 22d that, the next morning after
Northumberland and Westmorland took refuge in Liddesdale, Martin Eliot
and others of the principal men of the dale raised a force against the
earls, Black Ormiston, and the rest of their company, and offered fight;
but in the end, Eliot, wishing to avoid a feud, said to Ormiston that
“he would charge him and the rest before the Regent for keeping of the
rebels of England, if he did not put them out of the country, and that
if they [the earls] were in the country after the next day, he would do
his worst against them and all that maintained them.” Whereupon the
earls were driven to quit Liddesdale and to fly to one of the Armstrongs
in the Debateable Land, leaving the Countess of Northumberland “at John
of the Sydes house, a cottage not to be compared to any dog-kennel in
England.” Three days later Sussex and Sadler write that “the Earl of
Northumberland was yesterday [the 24th], at one in the afternoon,
delivered by one Hector, of Harlaw wood, of the surname of the
Armstrongs, to Alexander Hume, to be carried to the Regent.”[261] The
Regent took Northumberland to Edinburgh, and on the second of January,
1570, committed him to the castle of Lochleven, attended by two
servants.[262]
The sentiment of Scotsmen, and especially of borderers, was outraged by
this proceeding: “for generally, all sorts, both men and women, cry out
for the liberty of their country; which is, to succor banisht men, as
themselves have been received in England not long since, and is the
freedom of all countries, as they allege.”[263]
Northumberland remained in confinement at Lochleven until June, 1572.
Meanwhile the Countess of Northumberland, who had escaped to Flanders,
had been begging money to buy her husband of the Scots, and had been
negotiating with Douglas of Lochleven to that effect. She was ready to
give the sum demanded, which seems to have been two thousand pounds, as
soon as sufficient assurance could be had that her husband would be
liberated upon payment of the money. Lord Hunsdon discussed the
surrender of Northumberland with the Earl of Morton and the Commendator
of Dunfermling, on the occasion of their coming to Berwick to treat
about the pacification of the troubles in Scotland. “They made recital
of the charges that the lord of Lochleven hath been at with the said
earl, and how the earl hath offered the lord of Lochleven four thousand
marks sterling, to be paid presently to him in hand, to let him go.
Notwithstanding, both he and the rest shall be delivered to her Majesty
upon reasonable consideration of their charges.” (November 22, 1571.)
Political considerations turned the scale, and on the seventh of June
Lord Hunsdon paid the two thousand pounds which the countess had
offered, and Northumberland was put into his hands. Hunsdon had the earl
in custody at Berwick until the following August. He was then made over
to Sir John Forster, Warden of the Middle Marches, taken to York and
there beheaded (August 27th, 1572).[264]