PEASANT REVOLTS 149 



"3. Also, you said that the lords of ParHament 

 were loth to incline themselves to reformation of 

 inclosures and other things ; therefore the people had 

 good cause to reform the things themselves." ^ 



The people throughout the whole country loved 

 him as the one man among the ruling classes who 

 sympathized with them and tried to serve them. At 

 his execution, later on, a multitude attended and 

 showed great grief. They wept aloud as they listened 

 to his last speech, addressed to them as his " dearly 

 beloved friends." ^ 



The report of the Commission appointed by the 

 Protector revealed a deplorable state of things as 

 regards the peasantry throughout the country, and it 

 also showed up the relentless action of the manorial 

 lords. " So great was the power of the provincial 

 nobility in the counties, and so weak the protection 

 and helping hand of the central government, that, in 

 many places, the witnesses who were summoned did 

 not dare to appear, and in others those who had given 

 truthful depositions were persecuted in various ways 

 by the landlords. " ^ 



As might be expected, nothing came from the 

 labours and the report of the Commission, except a 

 petition to the king. John Hales, a zealous member 

 of the Commission, proposed to the king "a general 

 pardon for all that had happened — for the benefit of 



1 Holinshed's "Chronicles," Vol. Ill, pp. 1019, 1020. 



2 Holinshed calls him (Vol. Ill, p. 1035) "this worthie and gentle duke." 

 Hallam refers to him as " the popular and well-natured Duke of Somerset, 

 more estimable at least than any other statesman employed under the 

 king" ("Constitutional History," Vol. I, p. 38). 



^ For particulars of the Report of this Commission see "Land Com- 

 munity of the Middle Ages," by Dr. Nasse. Translation published by 

 Macmillan, 1871. 



