POLITICAL HISTORY 



burgesses thence to Parliament. There was no population to speak of. 

 In 1 547 Sir Roger Copley described himself as ' burgess and oonly 

 inhabitant of Gatton,' and had no difficulty in returning two burgesses 

 * freely elected and chosen.' The manor had been in the hands of the 

 Crown between the time of John Tymperley and the Copleys, who got 

 it in 1540, whence perhaps the right of returning members had been 

 continued. The Tudors liked to have members in their interest in the 

 Lower House. In the reign of Edward IV. the king was once more 

 residing for a time at Guildford. He concluded there, August 16, 1479, 

 a treaty with Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy for the marriage of 

 his daughter Anne to their son Philip, as a further tie in their alliance 

 against the French. 1 Anne was four years, Philip fourteen months old. 

 The former subsequently married Thomas Howard, who became Duke 

 of Norfolk and Earl of Surrey. 



Under Richard III. Surrey was the scene of an abortive insurrection. 

 When the murder of his nephews had driven his former ally Buckingham 

 to conspire with the Lancastrians against Richard, a general insurrection 

 was planned for October 18, 1483, in conjunction with an invasion by 

 the Earl of Richmond from Brittany. The rebellion broke out pre- 

 maturely in Kent before October io, 2 giving Richard warning. But on 

 the appointed date the Surrey insurgents met at Guildford. The rapid 

 march of the king from the midlands westward and the collapse of 

 Buckingham's own force beyond the flooded Severn, his capture and 

 execution, led to the breakdown of the attempt everywhere. Richard 

 returned from the south-west through the disturbed districts of the south, 

 being at Winchester on November 26 and reaching London on the 2 8th. 

 The movement in Surrey had been probably under the direction of his 

 brother-in-law Sir Thomas St. Leger, the husband of the widowed Anne 

 Duchess of Exeter, Richard's sister. But St. Leger, who held property at 

 Field Place, Compton, was not personally at its head. He was taken in 

 the west apparently and beheaded at Exeter. Sir George Browne of 

 Betchworth in Surrey had joined the Kentish rising at Maidstone and 

 was executed. Nicholas Gaynsforde of Carshalton was attainted for his 

 share in the rising but was pardoned. 



A far more dangerous agent in the insurrection was left at large. 

 Reginald Bray not yet a knight was not yet a Surrey man, but he received 

 lands in Surrey in Henry VII. 's reign. He had been acting in these 

 matters as negotiator between conspirators in England and the Earl of 

 Richmond abroad. He became the powerful and able minister of the 

 new Government. Part of his reward was the Surrey manor of Shiere- 

 Vachery. The question of previous ownership has difficulties about it 

 which are discussed elsewhere, but it had certainly been granted by 

 Edward IV. to John Lord Audley who was a Yorkist. 



Audley was buried at Shiere as late as 1491, but his successor did 

 not hold the manor. His son James Lord Audley was a ruined man, 

 and when the Cornishmen rose in rebellion in 1497 against the king's 



1 Rymer, xii. no. 2 Paston Letters, iii. 876. 



365 



