POLITICAL HISTORY 



Fifteenth chargeable within the county of Lancaster ' was revived and levied 

 in the net sum of £2° 5 3^' ^'^•" 



The ' seventies ' were anxious times for England. The pope's hostile 

 proclamation by a bull releasing Elizabeth's subjects from their allegiance, 

 followed by the great massacre of Protestants in France in 1 572 and the 

 hatching and exposure of the Ridolfi plot for marrying the queen of Scots 

 to the duke of Norfolk, necessarily alarmed the queen and her advisers, and 

 made them feel how necessary it was to prosecute the campaign against the 

 recusants and to provide an armed force within the country to resist any 

 sudden rising on their part. In 1572 the old earl of Derby died, and was 

 succeeded in his title and estates by his son Henry, the queen's favourite." 

 On him, apparently, the queen conferred the lieutenancy of both palatinates 

 in succession to his father, and one of the new earl's first duties was to 

 superintend the general muster of 1 574, by which was obtained a list of the 

 serviceable men that could be furnished by the county. 



The various extant documents which certify to the Lancashire returns " 

 vary a little in detail ; but it will suffice to quote the verdict of the editor of 

 the Lancashire Lieutenancy, who puts the total number of men mustered in 

 Lancashire in this commission as between five and six thousand, of whom 

 though all were ' able ' only about one-half, or rather less, were armed. ^^ 

 The distribution was as follows : — 



Compared with the musters of the other counties Lancashire came out 

 favourably ; but in respect of the proportion of soldiers to the aggregate 

 population it ranked second in England, being exceeded only by Middlesex.*" 



The importance of keeping a county of such military capacity on the 

 side of the crown was fully appreciated by Elizabeth, though not sufficiently 



" Harl. MS. 1926, art. 5, fol. 22. Quoted Lanes. Lieutenancy, pt. i, 24, No. 8. 



" Burghley, State Papers, ii, 184. Also Thos. Challoner writing in 1576 says he was 'with Elizabeth 

 Queene well lik't and of her subjects in great favour.' 



" Harl. MSS. Cod. 1926, art. 3, fol. 5-i9<3 ; and Harl. MS. 1926, art. 4, fol. 20, for the general levy 

 of arms, armour, and horses in Lanes. ; and for the certificate and summary of the same muster. Quoted 

 Lanes. Lieutenancy, pt. i, 34-61, No. 10, 11. 



" The editor of the Lanes. Lieutenancy has (i, 61) a lengthy note as to the various discrepancies in the 

 table of returns, as shown by the detailed numbers quoted in the text of the Harl. MS. and those given in 

 the above table, in which he remarks that the totals given in the text (as distinguished from the table) are 

 2,375 furnished and 2,495 unftirnished. Add to these, he says, the 600 pioneers and it gives for the total 

 number of men mustered in Lancashire under this certificate 5,470. Add again the 1,230 men given in the 

 first-quoted Harl. MS. as furnished ' by the Statute,' and the total is 6,700 men for Lancashire. 



" Cf Baines, Hist, of Lanes, (ed. Harland), i, 171. 



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