POLITICAL HISTORY 



or others with you to peril for any dominion we have on this side of Trent.' l 

 Concerning any promises Norfolk might make to the rebels to stay them 

 until his force was strengthened Henry bade him ' have such temperance as 

 our honour shall remain untouched by any certain grant of what you cannot cer- 

 tainly promise.' Under such orders as these a Norfolk could do little to satisfy 

 Aske's conditions of peace, and the rebel forces which had been disbanded 

 were called back to the standard in the middle of November and again 

 advanced to the Don. 5 However, in the meantime all royal forces had been 

 kept in readiness. Thus early in November Nottingham and Newark 

 Castles were reported to be fortified as if for siege.* Nottingham Castle, 

 held by Thomas earl of Rutland,' and the knights of the county with between 

 400 and 500 men, was laid round with guns and stocked with provisions ; 

 grain was ordered to be brought in by the county. There was a new draw- 

 bridge at the entry to the castle, although the country round was for the 

 king. Like provision for grain was made at Newark, and the captains there 

 had decided to make a blockhouse at the bridge end and a drawbridge at 

 Muskham. The ' commons ' were on the king's side, but feared to be 

 spoiled like the men of Lincolnshire. 8 The castle had three ' chesse ' of guns, 

 and was kept with 700 men. But Norfolk, who probably had much 

 sympathy with the rebels, wrote to the king on the news of the fresh 

 gathering at Doncaster, 7 begging him to grant a general pardon. The king's 

 answer showed a non-relenting attitude. If the enemy was as strong and 

 Norfolk's position as weak as he represented it was because he had not been 

 * so circumspect as he should have been.' First he had desired that Shrews- 

 bury should not pass the Trent till he himself had joined him, taking upon 

 himself ' such knowledge of the county as though he had been able to stay 

 the passage of the rebels and thereby defeat them,' yet if Shrewsbury had not 

 advanced early to Doncaster ' the country had been clearly overrun and a 

 great number of our subjects spoiled who are now ready to serve us against 

 the rebels.' Then again, after promises not to consider binding any terms he 

 might make with the rebels, he soon ' fell to a point with them,' and dissolved 

 the army 'without any exploit, leaving them in force.' Now he writes that 

 if the king ' trust to treat or do he shall be deceived, adding beside the 

 report of sixty gentlemen declaring other parties not to be trusted to.' 8 A 

 second letter addressed to Norfolk and others runs : * We wonder you all 

 unite in such desperate sort as though the world would be turned upside 

 down if we do not agree to the petitions of the rebels especially for a free 

 pardon and a parliament ... if the rebels be as cankeredly disposed and in 



1 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, p. 353. 



* The uncertainty of the king's conduct towards the rebels is seen in two letters from Richard Cromwell 

 to his father. One recounts orders to march on the morrow to Newark ; the other tells how that day they 

 were countermanded, then renewed one night and the next day discharged. 'Thus the Council do and 

 undo, for they know not what determination the king has taken with them in the north." Ibid. pp. 412, 416. 



1 Ibid, xi, 450. ' Ibid, pp. 415, 465. 



'Thomas earl of Rutland in a letter to Cromwell dated 10 November, 1536, states that 'lying at 

 Nottingham Castle is very chargeable.' At Doncaster his own money, and that he had of his friends, was 

 almost spent, and the duke of Norfolk sent him 500, which he delivered part to Peter Mewtes for conveying 

 up gunners, part to the masters of the ordnance here for gunners, part to posts about Nottingham and 

 Newark, and to divers gentlemen for fortifying fords beside Doncaster, so that he has little over .300 left. 

 He has daily to lay out money on the castle, and doubts whether he will receive his rents in Yorkshire a 

 great part of his living this year or not. He therefore begs Cromwell move the king for money. 



6 Lord Burght and the captains of Lincolnshire had seized the people's harness in the country round. 



' L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xi, 494. " Ibid. 



335 



