History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth Volume III Part 21

[Sidenote: The fishermen of St. Kevern, in Cornwall, will have a banner.]

[Sidenote: They will rise in Christ's name.]

[Sidenote: Sir William G.o.dolphin places Cromwell on his guard.]

The parish of St. Kevern had already earned a reputation for turbulence.

Here had been born and lived the famous blacksmith Michael Flammock, who forty-five years before had led the Cornish men to Blackheath; and the inhabitants were still true to their character--a wild, bold race, fit instruments for any enterprise of recklessness. A painter from the neighbourhood came one day to Sir William G.o.dolphin, and told him that he had been desired by one of these St. Kevern men to "make a banner for the said parish, in the which banner they would have, first, the picture of Christ, with his wounds, and a banner in his hand; our Lady on the one side, holding her b.r.e.a.s.t.s in her hand, St. John the Baptist on the other; the King's Grace and the queen[394] kneeling, and all the commonalty kneeling, with scrowls above their heads, making pet.i.tions to Christ that they might have their holy-days." The painter said he had asked what they intended to do with such a banner. The man gave him an incoherent account of certain people whom he had seen at Southampton, when he had been up selling fish there, and who had asked him why the Cornish men had not risen when the north rose; and now, he said, they had promised to rise, and were sworn upon the book. They wanted the banner to carry round among the neighbouring parishes, and to raise the people in Christ's name.[395] G.o.dolphin would not create an alarm by making sudden arrests; but he despatched a private courier to London, and meanwhile held himself in readiness to crush any mutinous meetings on the instant of their a.s.semblage: "If there be stirring among them,"

he said, "by the precious body of G.o.d I will rid as many as be about the banner, or else I and a great many will die for it."[396]

[Sidenote: Intention of declaring Lord Exeter heir-apparent.]

Conspiracies against Henry VIII. met usually with ill luck. Lord Exeter had traitors among his domestic servants, who had repeatedly warned the council that all was not right, and that he was meditating some secret movement.[397] At length particular information was given in, which connected itself with the affair at St. Kevern. It was stated distinctly that two Cornish gentlemen named Kendall and Quyntrell had for some time past been secretly employed in engaging men who were to be ready to rise at an hour's warning. When notice should be given they were to a.s.semble in arms, and declare the Marquis of Exeter heir-apparent to the throne.

Here was the key to the high promises of Reginald Pole. The government were on the eve of a fresh Pilgrimage of Grace--a fanatical mult.i.tude were about to rise again, with a Plantagenet pretender for a leader.

[Sidenote: Private inquiries are made in Cornwall.]

But Henry would not act without clearer proof against a n.o.bleman of so high blood and influence. Cromwell sent orders to G.o.dolphin to secure the man who had ordered the banner.[398] The king despatched two gentlemen of the bedchamber into Cornwall, to make private inquiries, directing them to represent themselves as being merely on a visit to their friends, and to use their opportunities to discover the truth.[399]

[Sidenote: Evident proof of Exeter's intended treason.]

[Sidenote: Possible explanation of the conduct of his adherents.]

The result of the investigation was an entire confirmation of the story.

For several years, even before the divorce of Queen Catherine, a project was found to have been on foot for a movement in favour of Exeter. The object had sometimes varied. Originally the enterprise of Blackheath was to have been renewed under more favourable auspices; and the ambition of Cornwall and Devons.h.i.+re was to avenge their defeat by dethroning Henry, and giving a new dynasty to England. They would be contented now to set aside the Prince of Wales, and to declare Exeter the next in succession.

But the enlistment was as certain as it was dangerous. "Great numbers of the king s subjects were found to have bound themselves to rise for him."[400] We have here, perhaps, the explanation of these counties remaining quiet during the great insurrection. Exeter himself might have been willing (if the a.s.sistance of the Emperor was contemplated he must have been willing) to acknowledge the higher claims of the Princess Mary. But his adherents had possessed themselves of larger hopes, and a separate purpose would have embarra.s.sed their movements. This difficulty existed no longer. Mary could have no claims in preference to Prince Edward; and the fairest hopes of the revolutionists might now be to close the line of the Tudor sovereigns with the life of the reigning king.

[Sidenote: October. Arrest of an agent of the Poles.]

[Sidenote: The prisoner is seen by Sir Geoffrey Pole.]

The meshes were thus cast fairly over Exeter. He was caught, and in Cromwell's power. But one disclosure led to another. At or near about the same time, some information led to the arrest of a secret agent of the Poles; and the att.i.tude and objects of the whole party were drawn fully into light. The St. Kevern fisherman had mentioned two men at Southampton who had spoken to him on the subject of the new rebellion.

Efforts were made to trace these persons; and although the link is missing, and perhaps never existed, between the inquiry and its apparent consequences, a Southampton "yeoman" named Holland was arrested on suspicion of carrying letters between Cardinal Pole and his mother and family. There is no proof that papers of consequence were found in Holland's custody; but the government had the right man in their hands.

He was to be taken to London; and, according to the usual mode of conveyance, he was placed on horseback, with his feet tied under his horse's belly. On the road it so happened that he was met and recognized by Sir Geoffrey Pole, Reginald's younger brother. The worthlessness of conspirators is generally proportioned to their violence. Sir Geoffrey, the most deeply implicated of the whole family, except the cardinal, made haste to secure his own safety by the betrayal of the rest. A few words which he exchanged with Holland sufficed to show him that Cromwell was on the true scent. He judged Holland's cowardice by his own; and "he bade him keep on his way, for he would not be long after."[401]

[Sidenote: A pardon is promised to Exeter if he will make a free confession.]

Lord Exeter's chances of escape were not yet wholly gone. His treasons were known up to a certain point, but forgiveness might generally be earned by confession and submission; and Cromwell sent his nephew Richard to him, with an entreaty that "he would be frank and plain."[402] But the accused n.o.bleman would make no revelation which would compromise others. His proud blood perhaps revolted against submission to the detested minister. Perhaps he did not know the extent to which his proceedings had been already discovered, and still less antic.i.p.ated the treachery by which he was about to be overwhelmed.

[Sidenote: Sir Geoffrey Pole betrays the conspiracy.]

[Sidenote: Intentions of the Poles.]

Sir Geoffrey Pole made haste to London; and, preventing the accusations which, in a few days, would have overtaken him, he secured the opportunity which had been offered to Exeter of saving himself by confession. He presented himself to the Privy Council, and informed them that he, with Lord Montague, the Marquis and Marchioness of Exeter, Sir Edward Neville, and other persons whom he named, were in treasonable correspondence with his brother Reginald. They had maintained a steady communication with him from the time of his legacy into Flanders. They were watching their opportunities. They had calculated the force which they could raise, the Marquis of Exeter's power in the west forming their especial reliance. The depositions survive only in portions. It does not appear how far the Poles would have supported Exeter's ambition for the crown; they intended, however, this time to avoid Lord Darcy's errors, and not to limit themselves to attacks upon the ministers.[403]

The death of Lord Abergavenny had been inopportune;[404] but his brother, Sir Edward Neville, with Lady Salisbury, would supply his place in rallying the Neville powers. The Yorks.h.i.+re rising had proved how large was the material of an insurrection if adequately managed; and the whole family, doubtless, shared with Reginald, or rather, to them Reginald himself owed the conviction which he urged so repeatedly on the Emperor and the Pope, that, on the first fair opportunity, a power could be raised which the government would be unable to cope with.

[Sidenote: November. Combination of dangers driving the government to severity.]

If it is remembered that these discoveries occurred when the Bull of Deposition was on the point of publication--when the "Liber de Unitate"

was pa.s.sing into print--when the pacification of Nice had restored the Continent to the condition most dangerous to England--when the Pope was known to be preparing again a mighty effort to gather against Henry the whole force of Christendom, this was not a time, it will be understood easily, when such plottings would be dealt with leniently by a weaker hand than that which then ruled the destinies of England.

[Sidenote: The king is reluctant to prosecute.]

[Sidenote: Lady Salisbury is examined by Lord Southampton,]

[Sidenote: Whom he finds rather like a strong man than a woman.]

[Sidenote: She is placed under surveillance at Cowdray.]

Exeter, Montague, and Neville were sent to the Tower on the 3d and 4th of November. Lady Exeter followed with her attendant, Constance Beverley, who had been her companion on her secret pilgrimage to the Nun. It is possible that Sir Geoffrey's revelations were made by degrees; for the king was so unwilling to prosecute, that ten days pa.s.sed before their trial was determined on.[405] Lady Salisbury was not arrested; but Lord Southampton went down to Warblington, her residence in Hamps.h.i.+re, to examine her. She received his questions with a fierce denial of all knowledge of the matters to which they referred, and, for a time, he scarcely knew whether to think her innocent or guilty.

"Surely," he said, in giving an account of his interview, "there hath not been seen or heard of a woman so earnest, so manlike in countenance, so fierce as well in gesture as in words; either her sons have not made her privy to the bottom and pit of their stomachs, or she is the most arrant traitress that ever lived."[406] But her rooms were searched; letters, Papal bulls, and other matters were discovered, which left no doubt of her general tendencies, if they were insufficient to implicate her in actual guilt; and one letter, or copy of a letter, unsigned, but, as Southampton said, undoubtedly hers, and addressed to Lord Montague, was found, the matter of which compromised her more deeply. She was again interrogated, and this time important admissions were extracted from her; but she carried herself with undaunted haughtiness. "We have dealed with such an one," the earl said, "as men have not dealed with tofore; we may rather call her a strong and constant man than a woman."[407] No decisive conclusions could be formed against her; but it was thought well that she should remain under surveillance; and, three days later she was removed to Cowdray, a place belonging to Southampton himself, where she was detained in honourable confinement.

The general case meanwhile continued to enlarge. The surviving materials are too fragmentary to clear the whole circ.u.mstances; but allusions to witnesses by name, whose depositions have not been preserved, show how considerable those materials were. The world at least were satisfied of the guilt of the chief prisoners. "They would have made as foul a work,"

says a letter written from London on the 21st of November, "as ever was in England."[408] Henry made up his mind that they should be proceeded against. Treason at home was too palpably connected with conspiracies against England abroad; and the country could not risk a repet.i.tion of the Pilgrimage of Grace.

[Sidenote: Circular issued to the justices of the peace,]

[Sidenote: Directing them to search out all the cankered clergy in their districts.]

While preparations were made for the trials, the king took the opportunity of issuing a calming circular to the justices of the peace.

The clergy, as before, had been the first to catch the infection of disorder: they had been again eager propagators of sedition, and had spread extravagant stories of the intentions of the government against the Church. Emboldened by the gentleness with which the late insurgents had been handled, "these miserable and Papistical superst.i.tious wretches," the king said, "not caring what danger and mischief our people should incur, have raised the said old rumours, and forged new seditious tales, intending as much as in them lyeth a new commotion.

Wherefore, for the universal danger to you and to all our good subjects, and trouble that might ensue unless good and earnest provision to repress them be taken thereupon, we desire and pray you that within the precincts of your charges ye shall endeavour yourselves to enquire and find out all such cankered parsons, vicars, and curates as bid the paris.h.i.+oners do as they did in times past, to live as their fathers, and that the old fas.h.i.+ons is best. And also with your most effectual vigilance try out such seditious tale tellers, spreaders of brutes, tidings, and rumours, touching us in honour and surety, or [touching]

any mutation of the laws and customs of the realm, or any other thing which might cause sedition."[409]

[Sidenote: December 3. New trials in Westminster Hall.]

[Sidenote: The Marquis of Exeter arraigned.]

And now once more the peers were a.s.sembled in Westminster Hall, to try two fresh members of their order, two of the n.o.blest born among them, for high treason; and again the judges sate with them to despatch the lower offenders. On the 2d and 3d of December Lord Montague and Lord Exeter were arraigned successively. On the part of the crown it was set forth generally that "the king was supreme head on earth of the Church of England, and that his progenitors, from times whereof there was no memory to the contrary, had also been supreme heads of the Church of England; which authority and power of the said king, Paul the Third, Pope of Rome, the public enemy of the king and kingdom, without any right or t.i.tle, arrogantly and obstinately challenged and claimed; and that one Reginald Pole, late of London, Esq^{r.}, otherwise Reginald Pole, late Dean of Exeter, with certain others of the king's subjects, had personally repaired to the said Pope of Rome, knowing him to be the king's enemy, and adhered to and became liege man of the said Pope, and falsely and unnaturally renounced the king, his natural liege lord; that Reginald Pole accepted the dignity of a cardinal of the court of Rome without the king's license, in false and treasonable despite and contempt of the king, and had continued to live in parts beyond the seas, and was there vagrant, and denying the king to be upon earth supreme head of the Church of England."

Caring only to bring the prisoners within the letter of the act, the prosecution made no allusion to Exeter's proceedings in Cornwall. It was enough to identify his guilt with the guilt of the great criminal.

Against him, therefore, it was objected--

"That, as a false traitor, machinating the death of the king, and to excite his subjects to rebellion, and seeking to maintain the said Cardinal Pole in his intentions, the Marquis of Exeter did say to Geoffrey Pole the following words in English: 'I like well the proceedings of the Cardinal Pole; but I like not the proceedings of this realm; and I trust to see a change of this world.'

[Sidenote: Treasonable language is sworn against him.]

"Furthermore, that the Marquis of Exeter, machinating with Lord Montague the death and destruction of the king, did openly declare to the Lord Montague, 'I trust once to have a fair day upon those knaves which rule about the king; and I trust to see a merry world one day.'

"And, furthermore persevering in his malicious intention, he did say, 'Knaves rule about the king;' and then stretching his arm, and shaking his clenched fist, spoke the following words: 'I trust to give them a buffet one day.'"

[Sidenote: December 3. He is condemned.]

Sir Geoffrey Pole was in all cases the witness. The words were proved.

It was enough. A verdict of guilty was returned; and the marquis was sentenced to die.

[Sidenote: Lord Montague also sentenced to die.]

If the proof of language of no darker complexion was sufficient to secure a condemnation, the charges against Lord Montague left him no shadow of a hope. Montague had expressed freely to his miserable brother his approbation of Reginald's proceedings. He had discussed the chances of the impending struggle and the resources of which they could dispose.

He had spoken bitterly of the king; he had expressed a fear that when the world "came to strypes," as come it would, "there would be a lack of honest men," with other such language, plainly indicative of his disposition. However justly, indeed, we may now accuse the equity which placed men on their trial for treason for impatient expressions, there can be no uncertainty that, in the event of an invasion, or of a rebellion with any promise of success in it, both Montague and Exeter would have thrown their weight into the rebel scale. Montague, too, was condemned.