Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/334

320 fifteen articles, which went, indeed, to restore everything of the old faith and ritual that had been taken away. The Statute of the Six Articles was to be put in force, the mass to be in Latin, the sacrament to be again hung up and worshipped, all such as refused it homage to be treated as heretics, souls should be prayed for in purgatory, images again be set up, the Bible be called in, and Cardinal Pole to be one of the king's Council. Half of the church lands were to be restored to two of the chief abbeys in each county; in a word, Popery was to be fully restored and Protestantism abolished.

In these articles the hand of the priest was more visible than that of the people; they were sent up to the Council, and Cranmer, at its command, replied to them, granting, of course, nothing. The insurgents then reduced their demands to eight, but with like success. A long reply was this time vouchsafed them in the king's name, and his father's letter to the men of Lincolnshire appears to have been the model on which it was composed. First, the little king was made to announce to them the burden of care that lay upon his juvenile shoulders on their behalf. "We are," he wrote, "your most natural sovereign lord and king, Edward VI., to rule you, to preserve you, to save you from all your outward enemies, to see our laws well ministered, every man to have his own, to suppress discontented people, to correct traitors, thieves, pirates, robbers, and such-like; yea, to keep our realms from other princes, from the malice of the Scots, of Frenchmen, of the Bishop of Rome."

Yet the king repudiated the idea as extremely ridiculous that his youth made him incapable of settling the most abstruse questions. Though as a natural man, he told them, he had youth, and by God's sufferance should have age, yet as a king he had no difference of years. Having thus reasoned with them, he then assumed the menacing tone of his father. "And now we let you know that as you see our mercy abundantly, so, if ye provoke us further, we swear by the living God ye shall feel the power of the same God in our sword, which how mighty it is no subject knoweth; how puissant it is, no private man can judge: how mortal no Englishman dare think." He concluded by threatening to come out against them in person, in all his Royal state and power, rather than not punish them. The rebels, seeing that no good came of the paper war, turned their force more actively against the city. They had no cannon to destroy the walls, so they burnt down one of the gates, and endeavoured to force an entrance there; but the citizens threw abundant fuel into the fire, and whilst it burnt, threw up fresh defences inside of the flames. Foiled in this attempt, they endeavoured to sap the walls; but the citizens discovered the mine and filled it with water. Still, however, they kept close siege on the town, and prevented the ingress of provisions, so that the inhabitants for a fortnight suffered the severest famine.

All this time Lord Russell lay at Honiton, not venturing to attack them, the Government sending him instead of troops only proclamations, by one of which a free pardon was offered to all who would submit; by another, the lands, goods, and chattels of the insurgents were given to any who chose to take them; by a third, punishment of death by martial law was ordered for all taken in arms; and by a fourth, the commissioners were commanded to break down all illegal enclosures. None of these produced the least effect. Lord Russell had sent to court Sir Peter Carew to urge the Protector and Council to expedite reinforcements; but the Protector and Rich charged Sir Peter with having been the original cause of the outbreak. The bold baronet resented this imputation so stoutly, and charged home the Protector in a style so unaccustomed in courts, with his own neglect, that men and money were promised. Nothing, however, but the proclamations just mentioned arrived, and at length the rebels dispatched a force to dislodge Russell from his position at Honiton. To prevent this, he advanced to Pennington Bridge, where he encountered the rebel detachment and defeated it. Soon after Lord Gray arrived with 300 German and Italian infantry, with which assistance he marched on Exeter, and again defeated the rebels. They rallied on Clifton Downs, and Lord Gray coming suddenly upon them and fearing they might overpower him, he ordered his men to dispatch all the prisoners they had in their hands, and a sanguinary slaughter took place. A third and last encounter at Bridgewater completed the reduction of the rising of the west.

Once broken up, no mercy was shown to the rebels; and with them perished or suffered numbers of the innocent. The whole country was given up to slaughter and pillage. A body of 1,000 Welshmen, who were brought by Sir William Herbert, afterwards Earl of Pembroke, did immense damage. Gibbets were erected, and the ringleaders were hanged upon them in various places. Arundel, the chief captain, and some others were taken to London and there executed. The provost of the western army, Sir Anthony Kingstone, made quite an amusement of hanging rebels, and did it with much pleasantry. Having dined with the Mayor of Bodmin, he asked him if he thought the gallows were strong enough. The mayor said he thought so. "Then," said Sir Anthony, "go up and try;" and he hanged him by way of experiment. It was calculated that 4,000 men perished in that part of the country in the field or by the executioner.

In Oxfordshire the insurrection was put down by Lord Gray, who had 1,500 soldiers, including Italians, under Spinola.

But the most formidable demonstration was made by the rebels in Norfolk. It commenced at Aldborough, and appeared at first too insignificant for notice. But the rumours of what had been done in Kent, where the new enclosures had been broken down, gradually infected the people far and wide. They did not trouble themselves about the religious questions, but they expressed a particular rancour against gentlemen, for their insatiable avarice and their grasping at all land, their extortionate rents, and oppressions of the people. They declared that it was high time that not only the enclosure mania should be put a stop to, but abundance of other evils should be reformed.

On the 6th of July, at Wymondham, or Windham, a few miles from Norwich, on occasion of a public play which was annually performed there, the people, stimulated by what had been done in Kent, began to throw down the dykes, as they were called, or fences round enclosures, and, according to Strype, one John