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Percy Cumberland; the authorities ignored his demand for compensation.

On 16 May 1568 Mary Queen of Scots landed at Workington in Cumberland, and was conducted by the deputy-warden of the marches, Sir Richard Lowther [q. v.], to Carlisle two days later. Northumberland asserted that the custody of the fugitive queen should by right be entrusted to him, as the chief magnate of the district. The council of the north seems to have given some recognition to his claim. Leaving his house at Topcliffe, he arrived at Carlisle, and was admitted to an interview with Mary Stuart. He expressed the fullest sympathy with her in her misfortunes. His friendly bearing was hotly resented by the government. Orders were at once sent from London that he should leave Carlisle forthwith. He obeyed with reluctance, and, meeting Sir Francis Knollys [q. v.], Queen Mary's new keeper, at Boroughbridge, bitterly complained that he had been treated with gross disrespect (, Queen Elizabeth, i. 272–275).

Northumberland's dissatisfaction with Elizabeth's government now reached a crisis. Simple-minded by nature, he had no political ambitions, but he was devoted to the religion of his fathers, and had inherited a strong sense of his own and his family's importance in the border country. Had no efforts been made to thwart the peaceful exercise of his family's traditional authority, he would doubtless have spent his life in the sports of hunting and hawking, which he loved, and in exchanging hospitalities with his neighbours. But the imprisonment of Queen Mary—a champion of his faith—in his neighbourhood, and the rejection of his pretensions to hold free communication with her, roused in him a spirit of rebellion which his catholic friends and neighbours, who avowedly hated protestant rule, fanned into flame. Emissaries from Spain were aware of the discontent with the government which was current among the northern catholics, and they entered into communication with Northumberland, and promised him the aid of Spanish troops if any widespread insurrection could be arranged. An army of Spaniards would be sent over by the Duke of Alva. During 1569 Vitelli, marques of Catena, arrived in London under pretence of conducting an embassy, in order to be in readiness to take the command of a Spanish force on its landing. Thus encouraged, Northumberland allied himself with Charles Neville, ninth earl of Westmorland [q. v.], and together they resolved to set Queen Mary free by force, and to restore the catholic religion. A benediction on the enterprise was pronounced by Pius V. The Earl of Sussex, president of the council of the north, was on friendly terms with both the earls, and in September 1569 sumptuously entertained them and their retainers. He soon saw grounds for suspecting their loyalty; but they had formulated no plan of campaign, and there were no open signs of coming trouble. At Sussex's suggestion, the two earls were suddenly summoned to London early in November 1569. Northumberland excused himself in a letter, in which he declared his fidelity to the crown (14 Nov.). But the ruse of the government created a panic among the conspirators, and hurried them prematurely into action. On 15 Nov. some soldiers arrived at Northumberland's house at Topcliffe, bearing orders for his arrest as a precautionary measure. He succeeded in eluding the troops, and joined Westmorland at his house at Brancepeth. There they set up their standard and issued a proclamation announcing their intention to restore the catholic religion, and inviting assistance. Another proclamation followed, promising the release of Queen Mary, who was in confinement at Tutbury. The earls and their retainers were immediately joined by many of the neighbouring gentry, and they soon found themselves at the head of a force of seventeen hundred horse and four thousand foot. The cavalry was a well-trained body; the infantry was an undisciplined rabble. The next day (16 Nov.) the rebels marched to Durham, where they destroyed the service-books and set up the mass in the minster. On the 17th they moved south to Darlington; between the 18th and the 20th Northumberland visited Richmond, Northallerton, and Boroughbridge, appealing to the inhabitants to join him. On the 20th the two earls, with the Countess of Northumberland, celebrated mass at Ripon.

On Tuesday, 22 Nov., the whole body of rebels mustered under the two earls on Clifford Moor. Sir George Bowes, who had thrown himself into Barnard Castle, assembled an army in their rear, while Sir John Forster and Sir Henry Percy, Northumberland's brother, were collecting troops for the queen on the borders. The government published answers to the two earls' proclamation, and Northumberland was, with much ceremony, expelled at Windsor from the order of the Garter. From Clifford Moor the earls at first resolved to march on York, where the Earl of Sussex lay. But they suddenly changed their plans, and determined to besiege Bowes in Barnard Castle. Bowes held the fortress gallantly against them for eleven days, and then marched out with the