POLITICAL HISTORY 



War was renewed in 1522 and so were the demands for money. Par- 

 liament was called, but before it met a property tax in the shape of a loan was 

 resolved on. Again an inquiry was to be made, but quietly so that no one should 

 be alarmed. Then the commissioners were to call together such temporal 

 persons as they thought fit, and to explain to them the king's necessitous state 

 and how he required a loan on the following terms : Persons worth from 

 £20 to £300, at the rate of £10 per ^100 ; from £300 to £1,000, 20 marks 

 per £100. The shadowy bait of repayment out of the next Parliamentary loan 

 was to be used. The commissioners at the same time were to have an eye for 

 likely-looking labourers who could be pressed for the wars. Lord Willoughby, 

 the abbot of Bury, Sir Robert Drury, Sir William Waldegrave, Sir Richard 

 Wentworth, Sir John Heveningham, Sir Philip Tilney, Sir Thomas Tirrell 

 of Gipping, Lionel Tollemache, Humphrey Wingfield were the com- 

 missioners who by their successful ' practising ' squeezed £7,400 out of those 

 who owned £40 and upwards, while those who owned from £5 to £20 

 contributed £3,000. Besides this there was £3,374 from the subsidy which 

 was to have been used to repay the first £10,000. Add to this the necessary 

 drain on private incomes in providing sons with war outfits, for Charles 

 Brandon, duke of Suffolk, had with him in France Wingfields, Cavendishes, 

 Jerninghams, Waldegraves, Wentworths, and Hoptons. 



The patience of the county was cracked and at the next demand in 1525 it 

 flew in pieces. Wolsey devised strange commissions to every shire ' and ordered 

 that one-sixth of every man's substance should be paid to the king for 

 furniture of his war. This was in March. The dukes of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk, aided by the news that ten French sail were cruising off the coast, 5 

 set about practising the grant. On 6, 7 and 8 April they practised all the 

 rates from £20 upwards, and next week came the more ticklish work 3 — those 

 below that amount. The people objected that the spirituality were not put to 

 any charges, the more that they had taken no part in the rejoicing at the capture 

 of Francis I at Pavia, when the laymen had had to pay for the bonfires and 

 public rejoicings commanded by the king. Norfolk promised that the 

 spirituality would certainly pay double and that they would make general 

 processions of thanksgiving, and thought the matter ended. He was too 

 sanguine. The commons adopted the method of passive resistance towards 

 the collectors with threats of violence towards those who paid. In the 

 woollen towns of the south-west, however, there was actual disturbance. 

 Essex was in sympathy, and popular gatherings were held on the county 

 borders, for the wool workers of Lavenham, Sudbury, and other towns were 

 seething. Norfolk (May 8) feared an actual outbreak, 4 and desired above all 

 things to temper their madness and untruth by some ' dulce ' means, for hasty 

 punishment might cause danger. He had by gentle handling persuaded the 

 master clothiers to assent to giving the sixth, but the manufacturers had not 

 now wherewithal to pay the wages of their men, so they dismissed their 

 carders, spinners, fullers, and weavers. The men raged at the loss of their 

 work, and Suffolk (no expert handler of men) ordered the constables to 

 confiscate their harness. This caused an open outburst against Suffolk and 

 Sir Robert Drury, and four thousand men assembled from the woollen towns 



1 Hall, Chron. (1809), p. 697. » L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, (i), Nos. 1241-60. 



' Ibid. No. 1 24 1. 4 Ibid. No. 13 19. 



179 



