THE NORTHERN REBELLION, 1569

In the north of England, a large number of the nobility, gentry, and people remained firm in their attachment to the old faith.

When the beautiful but unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, having fled from her own country, came to England, she put herself under the protection of Elizabeth, her cousin, but also enemy and rival. She was devotedly attached to the Catholic religion, and Catholics considered her to have a better claim to the crown of England than Elizabeth, as the latter was illegitimate according to the views of the Catholic Church, and had been bastardised by Act of Parliament. Mary was confined for a short time in Bolton Castle, Wensleydale, under the care of Lord Scrope. Thence Mary was removed to Sheffield Castle, and afterwards still further south to Tutbury, and lastly to Fotheringay, in Northamptonshire.

In the late autumn of 1569, in the eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, insurrection, known as the "Rising of the North" took place at the head of which were Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland and Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland. The aim of this movement was to re-establish the religion of their ancestors, to remove Evil Counsellors, to release the Scottish Queen from her unjust imprisonment, and to restore the Duke of Norfolk and other peers to their liberty and to the Queen's favour. Northumberland and Westmoreland, both ardent Catholics and declared friends of Mary, revealed their views and objects to the most trusty of their adherents. From all they received promises of co-operation. The first meetings of the conspirators were held at the Earl of Northumberland's seat near Topcliffe, whence the two Earls published a manifesto in which they declared that they intended to attempt nothing against the Queen to whom they avowed unshaken allegiance but that their only object was as just stated:

"We, Thomas, Earl of Northumberland, and Charles, Earl of Westmorland, the Queen's true and faithful subjects, to all that came of the old Catholic Religion, know ye that we, with many other well-disposed persons, as well of the Nobility as others, have promised our Faith to the Furtherance of this our good meaning. Forasmuch as divers disordered and well-disposed persons about the Queen's Majesty, have, by their subtle and crafty dealings to advance themselves, overcome in this Realm, the true and Catholic Religion towards God, and by the same abused the Queen, disordered the Realm, and now lastly seek and procure the destruction of the Nobility; We, therefore, have gathered ourselves together to resist by force, and the rather by the help of God and you good people, to see redress of these things amiss, with the restoring of all ancient customs and liberties to God's Church, and this noble Realm; lest if we should not do it ourselves, we might be reformed by strangers, to the great hazard of the state of this our country, whereunto we are all bound. God save the Queen."

There can be no doubt that one of their objects was to carry off Mary Queen of Scots from her prison at Tutbury.

Queen Elizabeth received repeated intimations of the Earls' disaffection, and the two were summoned to Court to answer for their conduct. They had already gone too far to trust themselves in the Queen's hands, and they, therefore, preferred to die fighting in the field rather than on the scaffold. This royal order precipitated the rising before their plans were fully matured, or the probable strength of the forces at their command had been calculated.

Among the disaffected Richard Norton of Norton Conyers, Co. York, was one of the most eager for immediate action together with several of his sons, his brother Thomas and other relations. Richard Norton was a personage of note in the country.

Richard Norton was at Topcliffe - one of the residences of the Earl of Northumberland, when the Earl, acting under fear of immediate arrest, left that place in company with Norton and joined the Earl of Westmoreland at Brancepeth. Northumberland thought the time inopportune for insurrection but the fiery eagerness of Norton and his sons to begin the struggle urged on the two Earls who were nominally their leaders. They marshalled their army and took the field with the avowed object of restoring the religion of their ancestors.

At the head of a small body of armed horsemen they marched to Durham and their first step was the occupation of that city. The Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland entered the Cathedral with their followers armed to the teeth. Behind them Richard Norton followed with massive gold crucifix hanging from his neck and carrying an old banner of the "Pilgrimage of Grace� which displayed the crucifixion with Christ's five wounds. The insurgents after their entrance to the Cathedral threw down the Communion Table and tore the English Bible and Prayer Book. On 30 Nov 1569 Mass was sung with the old ceremonies. They retained possession of the Cathedral, the parish churches for ten or twelve days. They then marched southward, restoring the ancient service at Staindrop, Darlington, Richmond, and Ripon, as far as Bramham Moor, where their forces amounted to four thousand foot and seventeen hundred horse, well mounted.

They then proposed to proceed to York, in the hope of taking the episcopal city; but on learning that Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex had raised a powerful army against them, they turned first to Raby Castle one of the Earl of Westmorland's seats and thence to Barnard Castle which was shut against them by Sir George Bowes and his brother, and which they besieged for eleven days before the fortress surrendered on honourable terms.

The last stand in this insurrection was made by Leonard Dacre, who fled to his castle at Naworth, where he collected 3000 fierce Cumbrians, and gave battle to a detachment of the royal army, under Lord Hunsdon, at Gelt's Bridge; but, after a fiercely contested fight, he was defeated. Among the insurgents were many women, who fought with a courage and determination that inflamed and animated their male companions to dare or to die. Dacre escaped and fled to Scotland, and these to Flanders, where he died in exile, in 1575.

The Earl of Northumberland was captured and shut up by the Regent Murray at Lochleven and in 1572 he was given up to Elizabeth and after being led through Durham, Raby and Topcliffe, he was conveyed to York, where he expiated his crime on the scaffold without the formality of a trial, beheaded in the Pavement at York 22 Aug 1572. His head was set on a high pole over Micklegate Bar, where it remained for about two years, and was then stolen in the night by some persons unknown.

Lord Westmorland found protection and concealment for a long time at Fernyhurst Castle, Lord Kerr's house in Rosburghshire, but meanwhile the Earl's cousin Robert Constable, was hired by Sir Ralph Sadler to endeavour to track the unfortunate nobleman, and, under the guise of friendship, to betray him.

Despite, however, the efforts of Government, Westmorland succeeded in effecting his escape to Flanders; but his vast inheritance was confiscated, and he suffered the extremity of poverty. Brencepeth, the stronghold of the Nevilles in war, and Raby, their festive Hall in peace, had passed into strangers' hands, and nothing remained for the exiled Lord. He subsisted on a miserable pittance from the King of Spain, dying penniless and forgotten on 16th Nov 1601.

Though the insurrection was suppressed so easily the Earl of Essex and Sir George Bowes put vast numbers to death. Sixty-six people were executed at Durham, many others were executed at York and some were removed to London.

Richard Norton, his sons, Christopher and Marmaduke, and his brother Thomas Norton, and about fifty others of noble extraction or of other distinction were tainted of high treason 7 Nov 1569 and their possessions forfeited. Richard Norton fled to Flanders where doubtless he rejoined the Earl of Westmorland, and died there in poverty 9 Apr 1585 (aged 91), the Patriarch of the Rebellion. His brother Thomas was hanged and quartered in the presence of his nephew Christopher at Tyburn on 27 May 1570.

Thus ended the Rising of the North, the last open attempt made by the Catholics to re-establish the faith of their fathers in this kingdom. Instead of helping their cause it brought untold sufferings upon innumerable families, and the publication of a bull from the pope, in which Elizabeth was declared guilty of heresy, and her English subjects absolved from their allegiance, only served to increase the burdens and persecutions under which they groaned. Little mercy was shown to any person implicated in the rising; upwards of 800 perished on the gallows, and 57 noblemen and gentlemen were attainted by parliament, and their estates confiscated. Severe penal enactments were passed, by which anyone refusing to attend the reformed service was liable to fine and imprisonment; to become a priest, or to harbour one, or be present at mass, were crimes punishable with death. At York alone, 28 priests were hanged, bowelled, and quartered for exercising their sacerdotal functions, 11 laymen were executed for harbouring priests, and one woman was barbarously pressed to death for the same crime.