POLITICAL HISTORY 



■of King Edward the Sixth, touching the dissolution of the bishoprick of 

 Durham.' '''^ 



Tunstall did not long survive Elizabeth's accession, but for refusing to 

 ■consecrate Parker as archbishop of Canterbury he wzs deprived on 28 Sep- 

 tember, 1559. Within two months (18 November) he was dead. During 

 the vacancy Elizabeth, under the authority of the Act of i Elizabeth, cap. 19, 

 took into her hands a large part of the temporal possessions of the see.^** 



When the temporalities were restored to Pilkington on his appointment 

 as bishop, Norham, Allerton, Crayke, Sadberge, Middleham and the Easing- 

 ton Ward, Coatham, Mundaville, and Gateshead were excepted. In 1556 

 the above lands with the exception of Norham were restored, but in respect 

 of those between the Tyne and Tees the bishop was burdened with an annual 

 rent of jr88o."«^ 



The outbreak in 1569 was far more serious, and for a time the queen's 

 authority absolutely ceased to exist in the bishopric. In Durham the 

 rebellion centred round the person of Charles, sixth and last earl of Westmor- 

 land,'*'"" who being only six and twenty years of age was influenced by the earl 

 of Northumberland. During the month of September the rumours of the 

 plotting of these two reached the ears of the earl of Sussex, the president of 

 the North at York, through Sir George Bowes. At the beginning of 

 October the outlook became more threatening, and Pilkington, the somewhat 

 unpopular bishop, discreetly withdrew to London. Both earls were summoned 

 to York, and the result of an interview with Sussex on 8 October seems to 

 have somewhat quieted the latter's suspicions,"' whilst on 2 November Bowes 

 forwarded a reassuring account of the state of the Palatinate to the Privy 

 Council."" Meanwhile, however, the earls had been maturing their plans. On 

 the night of 6 November the earl of Westmorland concentrated his armed 

 retainers at the castle of Brancepeth some 4I miles south-west of Durham."' 

 Bowes immediately garrisoned and provisioned Barnard Castle, whilst Sussex, 

 now thoroughly alarmed, summoned both the earls, who returned evasive 

 answers, and on 10 November ' the earl of Northumberland, armed in a 

 previe cote, under a Spanish jerkyn, being open, so that the cote might be 



""■ Stat. I Mary, Sess. 3, cap. 3, printed in Hutchinson, op. cit. i, 530. The other Act of Edw. VI 

 referred to as being repealed is 7 Edw. VI, cap. 10, 'For the uniting and annexing of the town of Gateside 

 to the town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.' To conciliate the opposition of the Newcastle corporation to the 

 Marian Act, Tunstall had to grant them a lease at a nominal rent of the salt meadows and borough tolls for 

 450 years. See Surtees, Hist. Dur. ii, ill, and Hutchinson, op. cit. ii, 579. For the proceedings against 

 Tunstall see Dixon's Hist. Church of Engl, iii, 321 ; Burnet, Hist, of Reformation (ed. Pocock), iii, 356 ; Diet. 

 Nat. Biog. Tunstall. 



'" The annual value of the temporalities being taken as ^^2,821 is. ^i/., Elizabeth seized j^l,ooo. An 

 abstract of this valuation made 26 Hen. VIII is as follows : — Rents : Darlington Ward, X^'^ ' S-'- 'i*^- > 'Ro- 

 chester Ward, £476 6s. 5j<i'. ; do. Easington Ward, ^^396 2s. ^id. ; do. Stockton Ward, ^214 4/. 6//. ; 

 total, £i,6()() 8s. ^M. ; bailiffi' rents of various towns, ;^2I4 17/. gW. ; rents from forest of Weardale and 

 various parks, £11% 13/. ?>ti. ; sheriffs' and escheators' profits, £1^ "js. llii. ; coal, iron, and lead mines, ^185 ; 

 courts, j^io ; pensions, ^^87 I'^s. \d. ; Norham rents, &c., 'tempore pacis ' ('tempore guerre nihil'), £\zo ; 

 AUertonshire, ;£259 1 1/. 3^12'. ; Crayk, ^^48 zs. o\d. ; Hoveden, £z%\ 15/. 3^'. ; the house of the bishop in 

 London, £18 l^. \d. ; total, ^[3,128 17/. %\d. (sic) ; less various outgoings (including X^^l 13^. 4</. ; fees to 

 various officials), j^307 i6s. ^^d. ; total, ^^2,821 is. ^^d. Mickleton MSS. i, fol. 210. 



i8Sa Hutchinson, op. cit. i, 550, 561. What actually took place in 1566 seems to be somewhat doubtful. 

 Mickleton MSS. i, fol. 266 d. 276. See also Hutchinson, i, 569, for a list of leases to Queen Elizabeth by 

 Bishop Barnes, whereby the see was impoverished. 



""■ His wife was a sister of the duke of Norfolk who was so largely interested in the result of the rising. 



'" Letter, Sussex to Bowes, 9 October ; Sharpe, Memorials of the Rebellion ofi^Gg, 5. 



""Sharpe, op. cit. 7. '" Ibid. 10. 



165 



