Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/198

 1 84 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 53. sion sat at York, and the trials began. The most im- portant of the prisoners were carried to London that their examinations might be taken by the council before their execution. Of the rest, a number of gentlemen were tried, of whom eleven were found guilty. Four of the.se were immediately put to death ; seven were recommended to mercy for reasons which might not have been anticipated, but which, when mentioned, become intelligible. The first, Henry Johnson, had married a daughter of old Norton. He was described as ' a simple person abused by his wife ; ' but he was not to be spared for ' his simplicity/ His estates were settled on his wife, ' so that by his life the Queen would have his lands, and by his death his wife would have them/ Two others, Leonard Metcalf and Richard Claxton, were in the same predicament. They were both men of hitherto blameless conduct, but the argument in their favour was that the Government would lose by their execution. John Markinfield, a boy under twenty, was attainted 'only to bring his title to his brother's lands to the Queen/ 1 ' It was not meant that he should die, for that he had no land/ Ralph Coniers was a Protestant who had been led into the rebellion only by loyalty to the Earl of West- 1 The elder Markinfield, who had been one of the principal movers of the rebellion, was with Westmore- land at Fernihurst. If he was not given up he could be attainted by Parliament; but his brother had some right in the estates which his attainder would not touch.