A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



the queen's orders to come before the council at York he grew suspicious. At last on 10 November 

 the messenger sent by Sussex to Topclifife returned saying that Northumberland had refused to come 

 and, on a false rumour that Sir Oswald Wilsthrope had come to arrest him, had fled, at the same 

 time causing the bells to ring an alarm to raise the country. The rebels assembled at Brancepeth 

 and went thence to Durham, where they entered the cathedral, threw down the communion table 

 and replaced the altar stone and restored the ancient form of service. The forces at York were 

 small, and had the rebels attempted to carry out the plan at one time suggested of making a sudden 

 raid on the city on a Sunday during service time, there can be little doubt that the city would have 

 fallen an easy prey. As it was, Sussex and Lord Hunsdon, who had been joined with him in 

 command, dared not risk a battle, and had to stay behind their walls while the rebels advanced 

 southwards with growing forces. By 20 November they had reached Wetherby and Tadcaster, 

 their aim being to seize Tutbury and release Mary, but their design being known the royal 

 prisoner was hurried south to Co\entry. Foiled in one half of their scheme and finding that the 

 southern districts were not inclined to rise for the cause of religion, while Pontefract was held by 

 Sir Thomas Gargrave and Doncaster by Lord Darcy, the rebels retreated aimlessly northwards, and 

 by the 28th had reached Richmondshire. They then turned to the siege of Barnard Castle. 

 Sir George Bowes, who was in command there, offered a steady resistance. To lessen the strain upon 

 his provisions he caused his cavalry to cut their way through the enemy by a sudden sally, but 

 wholesale desertions occurred from his garrison and he was obliged to surrender the castle on the 

 terms that he and the remainder of the garrison might go free. This success did not much assist the 

 rebellion. By the middle of December the royal forces had reached Yorkshire and were marching 

 north ; the insurgent army melted away, its leaders fled ; the Earl of Westmorland was fortunate 

 enough to escape to the Continent, but the Earl of Northumberland after crossing the border was be- 

 trayed by Hector Armstrong to the Scottish Regent and by him eventually handed over to his enemies. 

 Elizabeth had been frightened and, what was still worse in her eyes, put to expense by the rising, and 

 the vengeance which she exacted was terrible. In January Sir George Bowes was sent as provost 

 marshal to make an example of those who had participated in the rebellion. The number of the York- 

 shire peasantry involved does not seem to have exceeded about 4,000 or 5,000 ; about one in every six 

 seems to have been condemned to death, though the actual number executed was, from various 

 causes, about 500. In every town where any had risen one or more persons were hanged ; 

 practically all the constables of the North and West Ridings and Richmondshire seem to have 

 suffered. The men of position who had lands to escheat were reserved for more leisurely trial ; 

 eleven of these were condemned to die, but seven were with some diflSculty reprieved. Finally on 

 22 August 1572 the Earl of Northumberland was beheaded on a scaffold set upi in the Pavement 

 at York. 



At the time of the threatened invasion by the Spanish Armada Hull was ordered to send to 

 the royal fleet two ships and a pinnace;"* the authorities at first endeavoured to evade this 

 obligation by pleading that their ships were all absent on voyages, but it would seem that a sharp 

 letter from head quarters brought the necessary ships into port,'' and the question then arose of the 

 cost of fitting them out. York, as reaping so much gain from the commercial port of Hull, was 

 ordered to contribute ; Scarborough also, as a member of Hull, assisted, and some of the larger 

 inland towns, such as Halifax, Leeds and Wakefield,"* helped. At the same time troops were 

 being put under arms to repel any landing, and it would seem that twelve days' training was 

 considered sufficient to fit these raw levies to face the veterans of Spain. At any rate the 

 300 men from Ryedale and Bulmer who were put under Sir William Fairfax at the end of May 

 1588 were to be trained four times before 22 July, each time three days together; for the first 

 training only a small charge of powder was to be used as most of the men were unused to guns, 

 and had to be got accustomed to the flash and recoil by degrees."' Every hundred infantry were 

 to be composed of 35 men with corslets, 40 with culivers or hand guns, 15 with bills and 10 with 

 bows. A body of horse was also to be raised, the wealthier gentry being required to provide one 

 or more troopers."' The chief difficulty with regard to cavalry in Yorkshire seems to have been 

 the unwillingness of the gentry to set a. precedent, which might afterwards be used to their injury, 

 by providing more men than they were legally bound to find."' This tendency appears again next 

 year, in July 1589, when Lord Eure and the other justices of the peace for the county met to 

 consider the number of soldiers that they should return as available. It was agreed to certify 6,000 

 trained footmen, with another 4,000 untrained, who were not to be sent out of the county, and 

 400 light horsemen ; a cautious note was added that 200 more horsemen with petronels could 

 probably be raised, but the lord lieutenant was to keep this private and not certify it to the council 



" ActsqfP.C. 158S, p. 10. 



'* Acts ofP.C. 1 5 88, pp. 46, 282. 



" Ibid. 103. 



416 



" Cal. S.P. Dom. 1581-90, pp. 374-7. 

 •* Far. Coll. (Hist. MSS. Com.), ii, 102. 

 " Cal. S.P. Dom. Add. 1580-1625, p. 250. 



