A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



and 'took such as he had."" During the subsequent negotiations between 

 the royal officers and the commons, Derby was instructed to be ready to raise 

 the forces of Lancashire and Cheshire at a moment's notice and his activity 

 excited suspicions of the Icing's good faith. Aske complained that there was 

 such mustering in Lancashire that the commons adjoining could not be kept 

 in order ' for fear of being overrun.' '" 



After the final outbreak, which barely touched Lancashire, the earl of 

 Sussex was associated with Derby in the work of punishing the guilty 

 and restoring order in the county.'" A number of offenders (including 

 the abbot of Whalley) were hanged at Lancaster, Whalley, and Manchester,"' 

 and on 21 March, 1537, Sussex wrote that he 'expected to leave the 

 people as obedient, faithful, and dreadful subjects as any in the realm.' 

 He incidentally expressed his opinion that there was not a ' skacer ' county 

 both for horse meat and man's meat in England."" 



Some things came out in the course of the general inquiry into the 

 insurrection which suggested that the hopes which the rebels had cherished 

 of support from the earl of Derby might not have been without some 

 justification in his views on certain points, but his conduct throughout had 

 been so correct that no notice could be taken of these suspicions. That 

 he was popularly supposed not to be over sympathetic with the subsequent 

 developments of royal policy seems to be attested by the false report set 

 about in the autumn of 1538 that he had been sent to the Tower.'" 



The quiet which fell upon the county during the remaining years of 

 the reign was broken only by musterings for the wars. When the earl of 

 Hertford invaded Scotland in 1 544 Lancashire furnished 3,000 archers and 

 billmen out of a total of 12,300 provided in combination with Cheshire, 

 Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and Nottinghamshire."' 



Part II — From the Reign of Henry VIII 



Though Lancashire took no considerable part in the great rising of 1536 it 

 had to suffer its share of the penalties awarded to the rebellious north. For the 

 better preservation of order in these distant parts of the kingdom two consti- 

 tutional changes were then introduced which very closely affected the subse- 

 quent history of this county as well as that of the north generally, and proved 

 very far-reaching in their effect. These were the revival of the ' Council of 

 the North ' of Edward IV and the appointment of lords-lieutenant to 

 administer the political and military government of the counties. 



The revival of the ' Council of the North ' was a stroke of masterful 

 policy rendered necessary perhaps by extraordinary events. By it there was 

 now placed upon the proud and stubborn neck of the northerners a yoke 

 which at the end of a hundred years became so insufferable that, as will be 

 seen, they threw it off with violence, breaking in pieces not merely the yoke 

 itself, but the government that had kept it there so long. 



"^ L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xi, 1097. '" Ibid. 1 1 34-5, 1227. 



^^'Ibid. xii, 302. '^' Ibid. 632. 



=" Ibid. 695. »' Ibid, xiii (2), 632. 



"* Ibid, xix (2), App. 8. Cheshire 2,000, Yorkshire 6,000, Derbyshire 800, Nottinghamshire 500. The 

 four northernmost counties supplied together 7,473. 



218 



