Page:VCH Herefordshire 1.djvu/447

 POLITICAL HISTORY Delabeare, and Ralph Hakluyt, were directed to arrest and hold to bail in jTioo each eighteen persons, and to cause them to appear before the Kings Council.^*^ Croft, who is identical with the former tutor of Edward IV, was made Treasurer of the King's Household in the first year of Henry VII,^ and two years later, at the battle of Stoke, he was created a knight banneret,^*^ together with Sir James Baskerville of Eardisley. Immediately after Henry's accession Buckingham's attainder was reversed, and his son Edward, restored to his father's possessions, became the greatest noble not only in Hereford- shire but in the Marches generally. Early in i486 Henry visited Hereford in a tour through the kingdom. About the beginning of 1493 a council was appointed for Arthur, prince of Wales, and after his death in 1502 it continued to exist in order to administer the Marches. Separate commissions of the peace were issued for Herefordshire at this time and in the early part of Henry VIII's reign, but they usually included the president and two or three members of the Council in the Marches. ^'^ Commissions of the peace, including the president and some of the members of the Council in the Marches, were also appointed occasionally for North and South Wales and the counties of Salop, Hereford, Gloucester, Worcester, Chester, and Flint, to make inquisition of treason and other ofFences.^^^ Thus the Lord President and five associates were appointed in 15 10 to punish rebellions, insurrections, murders, &c., and to array the fencible men. Similar commissions were issued in 15 12, 15 13, 15 15, and 1518.^'" On 7 March, 152 1—2, a similar commission of oyer and terminer was issued for the same districts, with power to raise soldiers, if required, and to keep them for the king's use."^ Although the English counties were originally exempt, as has been shown, from the direct jurisdiction of the Council in the Marches,^^^ the council early in Tudor times began to exercise jurisdiction over them. At least as early as 15 10 the council bore the title of the Council in the Principahty of North and South Wales, in the counties of Salop, Hereford, Gloucester, Worcester, Chester, and Flint, and in the Marches of Wales.^'^ The trial and execution of the duke of Buckingham in 1521 greatly increased the influence of the crown in the Marches. Within Buckingham's lordships, peace and order had not been very strictly preserved. ^^* The breach with Rome was a new cause of disorder, for in the Welsh borders Catholic feeling was very strong,"* as indeed it was in Hereford itself ^^* In 1534 an Act"^ was passed for the punishment of Welshmen attempting any assaults or affrays upon the inhabitants of the counties of Hereford, ''' Materials illustrative of the Reign of Hen. VII, ed. Campbell (Rolls Ser.), i, 223. ^*« Rymer, Foedera (1708), xii, 277. ^s' Cott. MSS. Claudius, C. iii, fol. 10. '^ L. and P. of Hen. nil (ed. Brewer and Gairdner), i, 1963, 3686, 5506 ; ii, 207, 719, 1192 • iii 1 186, 2415 ; iv, 1610, &c. y ' > '"^ Ibid, i, 956. >» Ibid, i, 3289, 4198 ; ii, 726, 4141. *si Ibid, iii, 2145(7). '"' This IS expressly stated m the draft of the Bill relating to the council, thrown out by the Lords in March, 1606 (S.P. Dom. Jas. I, xix, 33-4) ; but it must be remembered that the declaratory clauses of this Bill were seriously controverted; ibid, xix, 35. m3 ^ ^^^ p_ of Hen. nil, i, 1513 1839 "»* See Hen. VIII to Buckingham, B.M. Add. MS. 32091, fol. 107, printed by Miss Skeel ; Council in the Marches, 35-6. »'' For disorders in Herefordshire see Sir John Huddlestone to Cromwell, 10 May, 1534 ; L. and P. of Hen. VIII, vii, 634. 336 For sympathy with Queen Catherine see mayor of Hereford to Cromwell, 6 Tune, 1534 • L and P of Hen. VIII, vii, 802. f^i 26 Hen. VIII, cap. 11.' I ^77 48