POLITICAL HISTORY 



the justices of the peace. In April, 1588, an abstract of the returns made by 

 the deputy lieutenants certifies that Lancashire could furnish 1,170 trained 

 men, 700 calivers, 300 corslets, 80 bows, 20 bills, and 20 lances. Another 

 certificate adds 265 light horse." 



Probably by way of bringing the palatinate more closely under the eye of 

 the council, the queen, in June, 1587, appointed her secretary, Sir Francis 

 Walsingham, to the vacant chancellorship of the duchy." Other steps 

 thought necessary for the order of the county were also taken. On the 

 suggestion of the rector of Wigan, the Rev. Edward Fleetwood, those 

 justices who were deemed favourable to the cause of recusancy were removed 

 and others who were more reliable were put in their places." No less than 

 six hundred recusants were consequently presented at the summer assizes at 

 Lancaster in this year." In the summer of 1588 the danger of foreign 

 invasion upon the west was so much increased that points on the Lancashire 

 coast and heights inland were guarded by warning beacons," and, in particular, 

 attention was given to the possibility of an armed landing near the Peel of 

 Foudrey," in the northern part of the county of Lancaster. These pre- 

 cautionary measures were the direct outcome of a spirited public letter 

 written in June that year by the queen to all lords-lieutenant and so to 

 Lord Derby, in his capacity of lord-lieutenant of Lancashire, referring to the 

 alarm of present invasion, and requiring every man to arm in defence of 

 ' Country, Liberty, wife, children, lands, life, and that which is especially to 

 be regarded, for the preservation of the true sincere Religion of Christ.' " 

 The earl was to signify to the Privy Council what additional armed strength 

 could be provided upon this 'instant extraordinary occasion.' 



Everyone knows what happened to the great Spanish Armada, and the 

 rejoicings that took place all over England at the news of its dispersal and 

 destruction. In September, 1588, the earl of Derby, who had been in 

 Flanders and at court in the previous months,^' wrote from Lathom House 

 to Sir John Byron, his deputy lieutenant, and the Salford justices to give order 

 for a public service of prayer and thanksgiving for their great deliverance."* A 

 similar order was doubtless issued in each of the six hundreds of Lancashire. 



In the ' nineties ' another Spanish attempt, a landing in Ireland, was 

 feared, and in the spring of 1593 the queen wrote to the lord-lieutenant for 

 the putting in readiness of 138 soldiers for service in Ireland. Once or 

 twice already men had been asked for, and subsidies demanded for their fitting 

 out, and yet no further use of the men had been made. The earl acknow- 

 ledges in a letter to the Salford justices that by reason of the taxation for 

 soldiers for Ireland levied during the past eight years, he understands ' a 

 general grief and Mislike conceived in that notwithstanding two several 

 Assessments have been made and collected throughout the Shire, for the 

 furnishing of 200 soldiers ' for Ireland, ' and no employment made at all of 



" Harl. MS. 1926, art. 77, fol. 85, quoted Lanes. Lieutenancy, pt. 2, p. 201, note 27. 



" S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccii, 47 ; also Lanes. Lieutenaney, pt. ii, p. 1 80, note 2. 



" See letter of Rev. Ed. Fleetwood, dated 7 Sept. 1587. Cotton MSS. Titus, B. ii. 



" Baines, Hist, of Lanes, (ed. Harland), i, 184. 



" Harl. MS. 1926, art. 59, fol. 72 ; also Shuttleworth MSS. ; also Harl. MS. 1926, art. 42, fol. 58^. 



« Lansd. MSS. Cod. 56, art. 51. 



" Harl. MS. 1926, art. 54, fol. Sib. Quoted in full Lanes. Lieutenancy, pt. ii, p. 203-5. 



" Stanley Papers, ii, 26 Sept. 1588. 



" Harl. MS. art. 108, fol. 113; ibid. art. 109, fol. 1 14 ; ibid. art. 107, fol. 112^. 



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