POLITICAL HISTORY 



the light play of football in the same place : and once rode a-hunting the hare, she 

 galoping as fast upon every occasion and her whole retinue being so well horsed, that 

 we upon experience thereof, doubting that upon a set course some of her friends out of 

 Scotland might invade and assault us upon the sudden to rescue and take her from us, 

 we mean hereafter, if any Scottish riding pastimes be required that way, so much to 

 fear the endangering of her person by some sudden invasion of her enemies that she 

 must hold us excused in that behalf. 1 



The dangers surrounding her presence at Carlisle were obvious. 2 

 On 13 July she was removed to Bolton Castle, the residence of Lord 

 Scrope, the warden of the Western March. The intrigues which 

 gathered round her were dangerous to the peace of the county. The 

 Earl of Northumberland, who soon raised the standard of rebellion, 

 had a vast territorial influence in the district, and many of the country 

 gentlemen sympathized with his plans on behalf of the exiled queen. 

 Though there were few acts of treason committed in Cumberland in 

 connection with the rebellion of the earls in 1569, public feeling was 

 in a heated condition and a source of anxiety. 3 When the danger passed, 

 a fresh trouble arose in which one of the most powerful families in the 

 county was to play a principal part. 



Thomas, Lord Dacre, at his death in 1566 had left an infant son 

 George, who was killed in 1569 by a fall from his vaulting-horse at 

 Thetford. The estates passed to his three sisters as co-heiresses. 

 But Leonard Dacre, their uncle, who was next heir male, ' stomached 

 it much,' as Camden said, ' that so goodly an inheritance descended 

 by law to his nieces.' 4 Their mother, after Thomas, Lord Dacre's 

 death, had married the Duke of Norfolk, who eventually became 

 guardian of her daughters ; 8 and Leonard Dacre proceeded to at- 

 tempt by intrigue what he was likely to lose at law. It was a 

 dangerous game, but he played it with the art of a master. He 

 plunged headlong into the proposal for the marriage of the Scottish 

 queen with the duke. Whilst courting the patronage of Elizabeth, 

 he was deeply implicated in the treasonable schemes against her. He 

 encouraged the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland to rebellion, 

 and at the same time offered his services for its suppression.* After the 

 flight of the earls, he fortified Naworth and held it with a force of 

 3,000 men on the pretence of an expected invasion from Scotland. 



1 Cotton MS. Calig. B. ix. 291. 



* S.P. Dom. Eliz. Add. xiv. 17. It was suspected that the affray in Carlisle Cathedral in 

 August 1568 was connected with her cause (ibid. xiv. 22 [1-9]). 



3 Lord Scrope informed Sir William Cecil, on 30 November 1569, that Cumberland stood in great 

 peril for a few days, and very likely would have entered into rebellion, by means of some tenants and 

 agents of the Earl of Northumberland, had not great care been exercised on his part to prevent it (S.P. 

 Dom. Eliz. Add. xv. 56). The earl's tenants in the lordship of Cockermouth were capable of 

 mustering a force of 1,200 men (ibid. xv. 76 [i.J. The Bishop of Carlisle made a long declaration about 

 a conspiracy to kill him and take Carlisle Castle, of which he had charge during the temporary absence of 

 Lord Scrope (ibid. xv. 89-90). 



4 Hist, of Elizabeth, p. 136. 



5 For the story of the litigation over the Dacre estates, see the account written by Lord William 

 Howard, one of the duke : s sons, who married Lady Elizabeth Dacre, one of the co-heiresses (Household 

 Books of Lord W. Howard, [Surtees Soc.], 365-93). On Leonard's title to the barony of Dacre, the note 

 of objections and answers in S.P. Dom. Eliz. Add. xviii. 1 1 (v.) may be consulted. 



8 Ibid. xiv. 104. 



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