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diff --git a/40522-0.txt b/40522-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..94ec686 --- /dev/null +++ b/40522-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5053 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40522 *** + + YORKSHIRE FAMILY ROMANCE. + + [Illustration: SIR JOHN HOTHAM.] + + + + + YORKSHIRE FAMILY ROMANCE. + + BY + + FREDERICK ROSS, F.R.H.S., + + + AUTHOR OF + + "CELEBRITIES OF YORKSHIRE WOLDS," + "PROGRESS OF CIVILISATION," ETC. + + HULL: + + WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. + + LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & CO., LIMITED. + + 1891. + + + + + Contents. + + + THE SYNOD OF STREONESHALH + THE DOOMED HEIR OF OSMOTHERLEY + EADWINE, THE ROYAL MARTYR + SIWARD, THE VICEROY + PHASES IN THE LIFE OF A POLITICAL MARTYR + THE MURDERER'S BRIDE + THE EARLDOM OF WILTES + BLACK-FACED CLIFFORD + THE SHEPHERD LORD + THE FELONS OF ILKLEY + THE INGLEBY BOAR'S HEAD + THE ELAND TRAGEDY + THE PLUMPTON MARRIAGE + THE TOPCLIFFE INSURRECTION + THE BURNING OF COTTINGHAM CASTLE + THE ALUM WORKERS + THE MAIDEN OF MARBLEHEAD + RISE OF THE HOUSE OF PHIPPS + THE TRAITOR GOVERNOR OF HULL + + + + +YORKSHIRE FAMILY ROMANCE. + + + + +The Synod of Streoneshalh. + + +Northumbria was at peace, after a long period of anarchy, bloodshed, +battles, and murders. Christianity had been restored by St. Oswald, +King and Martyr; York Cathedral, commenced by King Eadwine, had been +completed; the great Abbey of Lindisfarne had become a centre of +Christian light and civilisation; and several other churches and +religious houses were growing up over the length and breadth of the +land. Oswy, a wise, vigorous, and warlike King, one of the most +illustrious of his line, ruled Northumbria in its integrity; held +northern Mercia under his sway; had subjected the southern Picts and +Scots to his authority; and was Bretwalda of the Heptarchy. This +position, however, he had only gained, and this peace firmly secured, +after a great struggle and the shedding of much blood, and, it must +be added, after the perpetration of an atrocious crime. When Paulinus, +under the patronage of King Eadwine, had introduced Christianity into +Northumbria, Mercia was ruled by Penda, a ferocious Pagan, who made a +vow to Woden that he would exterminate the new heretical faith or lay +down his life in the attempt. Accordingly, he entered into a compact +with Cadwallon, a British Prince of Wales, and together they invaded +Northumbria. Eadwine met them in battle and was slain; Paulinus and +the Queen, with her children, fled to Kent, and the kingdom was +harried by the victors, who sought out the Christians and put them +indiscriminately to the sword. Cadwallon remained as ruler of the +kingdom, and under his barbarous measures Christianity became almost, +if not altogether, extinct, whilst the altars of Woden were +re-established in every direction. Osric and Eanfrid, grandsons of +Ælla, first King of Deira, after the death of Eadwine, were raised by +the voice of the people to the thrones of Deira and Bernicia. They had +been baptised at the court of their uncle by Paulinus, but now, as +they had no Christians to govern, they apostatised and relapsed into +the faith of Woden, but their reign was short; they laid siege to +Cadwallon in York, were defeated, Osric slain in the battle, and +Eanfrid put to death afterwards; and Cadwallon continued to rule the +Northumbrians with an iron hand. At this time there was a young +Prince, an exile in Scotland--Oswald, son of Æthelfred, King of +Bernicia--who had fled thither when a youth, and had been instructed +in the principles of Christianity by the monks of Iona. He heard of +the deaths of the two Kings, and of the misery to which his native +land was subjected by the tyranny and oppression of Cadwallon, and +determined upon going thither and attempting to drive out the usurper. +On his arrival the people flocked round his standard, and, with a +cross borne in front of his army, he met Cadwallon at Deniseburn, near +Hexham, and defeated him, Cadwallon falling in the fight. He +established his Court at York, as King of Northumbria, and eventually +became Sixth Bretwalda, extending his territories beyond the Tweed. He +restored Christianity, by means of missionaries from Iona, completed +the church of York, commenced by Eadwine, and founded other churches +and some monasteries, leading a life of usefulness, beloved by his +people for his piety and good government. But Penda was still living, +as bitter as ever against Christianity, and intelligence reached the +Court of York that he was preparing for a second invasion of +Northumbria, again to trample out the nascent Christianity. In order +to be beforehand with his enemy, Oswald invaded Mercia, where the +Pagan King was again victorious, and Oswald slain at Masserfield, +which came, in consequence, to be called Oswald's-town, corrupted in +modern times into Oswestry. Penda caused his body to be torn limb from +limb and cast abroad to be devoured by wild beasts, then crossed the +border into Northumbria, and ravaged the land with fire and sword. + +When the Mercians had retired, Oswy, an illegitimate half-brother of +Oswald, was called to the throne of Northumbria in the year 642; but +two years afterwards, Oswin, son of Osric the Apostate, disputed his +right on the ground of his illegitimacy, and being backed by a +numerous body of friends, Oswy agreed to a compromise, he taking +Bernicia, and Oswin Deira. Seven years after, a dispute arose between +the two Kings about the boundaries of their territories, and they took +up arms to settle the question by the sword. The two armies met at +Wulfer's Dun, near Catterick, when Oswin, perceiving the enemy's +forces to be much more numerous than his own, and reluctant to shed +blood recklessly, dismissed his men and went to the house of his +friend Count Hudwold, at Ingethlin (Gilling), to conceal himself for +the present, with a view of entering a monastery; but Hudwold betrayed +him, and Oswy sent Ethelwin to murder him, who faithfully executed his +mission. Eanfleda, Oswy's Queen, a daughter of King Eadwine, +afterwards, with the consent of her husband, founded a monastery at +Gilling, where prayers should be offered up for the soul of Oswin, and +for the pardon of Oswy. The people of Deira refused to recognise Oswy +as King; drove him back across the Tees when he came to take +possession, and elected Æthelwald, a son of Oswald, for their King. + +The hoary-headed old Pagan, Penda, although now well stricken in +years, could not witness the advance of Christianity, under Oswy, +without pious emotion, and he resolved upon still another invasion of +Northumbria in the cause of Woden. He entered into an alliance with +Athelm, King of the East Angles, and Æthelwald of Deira--the latter +incited by motives of policy--and the confederates marched against +Oswy. A great battle ensued at Winwidfield, near Leeds, when +Æthelwald, who was a Christian, repented of having entered into a +league with the enemies of that faith, and stood aloof. After an +obstinate fight, Penda and thirty of his chief officers were slain, +and the greater part of his army cut to pieces. This was the last +struggle in England between Christianity and Paganism. + +Thus there was peace in the land after the scenes of violence and +bloodshed occasioned by the fanatic fury of Penda, and Oswy found +himself in a position to carry out his views for establishing +Christianity on a sure basis. Before the battle of Winwidfield he had +made a vow that he would build a great monastery at Streoneshalh, +endow it with the twelve manors of Crown property lying round the +White Bay (Whitby), and that he would dedicate his daughter Eanfleda +to perpetual virginity and the service of God in the monastery, if he +should, by the blessing of God, be successful over his Pagan enemy. + +The Cathedral of York was now finished, and he sent the masons and +other workmen to erect the monastery and church on the lofty cliff +overhanging the outfall of the river Esk into the White Bay, and its +walls uprose with marvellous rapidity. As soon as it was completed it +was opened for monks and nuns of the Benedictine order, a colony of +whom migrated from Hartlepool; and the Princess Hilda, a woman highly +esteemed for her learning, virtue, and piety, was placed at the head +as Prioress. At this time there were two bodies of Christians in +Northumbria, antagonistic to each other on many points of doctrine and +ceremonial, the most important being the question of the proper time +for the celebration of the Easter festival, and most important was it +deemed in these primitive times, for both parties firmly believed that +the soul's salvation was imperilled by its non-observance on the right +day. The antagonistic sects were the priests and monks from Iona, +representatives of the primitive British Church--which had been +planted in the island, it was said, by Joseph of Arimathea--with their +converts, comprehending the greater portion of the Northumbrian +Christians; and on the other side, the ecclesiastics who had imbibed +their faith at the feet of Romish teachers. + +The origin of this antagonism of opinion came about in the following +way. Christianity had been extirpated in Northumbria by the sword of +Penda, and the people had relapsed into heathenism, very few remaining +who still clung to the faith as taught by Paulinus. This was the state +of the country when Oswald came to the throne. He had imbibed the +tenets of Christianity in the schools of Iona, and sent thither for +missionaries to re-convert his people, and founded the see of +Lindisfarne, which became the focus of religion and civilisation in +his kingdom. Thus, when Oswy ascended the throne, Christianity of the +ancient British type prevailed in the land. But there were others who +had been educated in Southern England, France, and Italy, who held to +the faith as promulgated by Augustine, Paulinus, and other Roman +missionaries, and a great deal of controversy, disputation, and even +quarrels on tenets of belief and religious observances, took place +between the two divisions of the Church. First and foremost, as stated +above, was that of the proper time for observing the festival of +Easter. The British Church celebrated it on the day of the full moon +next after the vernal equinox; the Romish, not on the day of the full +moon, but on the Sunday following. The former claimed St. John, the +beloved apostle, and the usage of the Eastern Church, as their +authorities; the latter, the example of Saints Peter and Paul, backed +by a decree of the council of Nice, and they branded as schismatics +all who refused to conform to their mode; whilst the British condemned +to hell-fire all who deferred the celebration until the Sunday after +the full moon. Bede said "It was not without reason that the question +disturbed the minds of a great number of Christians, who were +apprehensive lest after they had begun the race of salvation they +should be found to have run in vain." This state of things caused +great confusion, one section of the Church humbling themselves in +abstinence, prayers, and tears, whilst the other were lifting up their +voices in joyful celebration of the Resurrection. Even in the King's +Palace there was disunion, Oswy, who had been educated in Scotland, +and Eanfleda, his Queen, who had been taught in Kent, observing the +festival, one on the one day, the other on the other. + +It was obvious that something must be done to put an end to these +disputes, and Oswy at length determined upon calling together a Synod +to settle the matter once and for all. There was also another question +on which the two sections of the Church were at daggers drawn, that +of the tonsure, the Romish monks shaving the head all round, +emblematic of the crown of thorns; the British only in front as far +back as the ears; but this was not looked upon as a vital question, +and was easily arranged after the great Easter dispute was settled. + +The King decided upon holding the Synod in his new monastery of +Streoneshalh, and had summoned all the most notable ecclesiastics on +both sides to discuss the question. It was a picturesque spectacle to +see the Royal train and the monks and priests winding their way up the +steep hill from the valley of the Esk and entering the portals of the +priory on the summit, where it stood overlooking the expanse of sea, +with its rounded arches and stunted pillars, radiant in the sunshine, +and glitteringly white in the freshness of its architecture. The +disputants assembled in the great hall, the King taking his place on +the dais as president, with the prioress Hilda by his side. + +On the Scottish side were ranged Hilda, who, although she had been +baptised by Paulinus, had been instructed at the feet of Aidan, the +Ionian Bishop of Lindisfarne; Colman, Bishop of Lindisfarne; Cedd (a +Northumbrian), Bishop of the East Saxons; and a train of monks and +priests from Icolmkill and Lindisfarne. On the Romish side were Queen +Eanfleda; Prince Alfred, son of Oswy; Wilfrid, Abbot of Ripon, who had +been educated in Rome, a most able, eloquent, and learned man, the +first Churchman of his age; Agilbert, Bishop of Paris, formerly of the +West Saxons; James, the deacon who had been left by Paulinus in charge +of the infant Northumbrian Church; Ronan and Agathon, priests who had +been educated in France, and others who had received instruction from +Italian priests and monks. + +Oswy maintained a neutrality as president, although he adhered to the +British mode; and Cedd acted as interpreter. + +The King opened the Synod by briefly stating its object, the necessity +of conformity in so important a point as that it was called together +to discuss, praying the Holy Spirit to guide them in the debate; and +concluded by calling upon Bishop Colman to open the discussion. + +The Bishop said that Easter, as observed by his Church, was derived +directly from the Apostles, not from a Romish bishop or a council of +fallible men. Bishops Finan, Aidan, and Columba had so observed it; +but their authority, though eminently holy men, was not sufficient. +Their warrant was based on the custom of St. John, the beloved +disciple of Christ, therefore, recognising his high authority, and the +fact that it was so observed by the Eastern and eldest-born Church, no +one could dispute its being the true method. + +Bishop Agilbert was called upon to reply, but excused himself, as not +knowing the Northumbrian tongue sufficiently well to make himself +understood. Wilfrid, the Abbot, the great champion of his side, whose +name was afterwards known from Rome to York, and who became Archbishop +of York, thereupon rose and said, "Easter, as we observe it, is the +same as we ourselves have seen it observed at Rome, where the blessed +apostles, Saint Peter and Paul, lived, preached, suffered, and are +buried; and as, in our travels through Italy and France, whether for +study or pilgrimage, we have always seen it observed. We know also, by +relation, that the same obtains in the Churches of Asia, Africa, +Egypt, and Greece, nay, among all the churches of the world, excepting +in this remote and obscure island, where a few obstinate Britons +pretend to dispute the affair with the whole world." + +At this taunt Bishop Colman said, "I marvel, brother Wilfrid, that you +call ours a foolish contention, when we have for our pattern and guide +so worthy an apostle as St. John, who alone leaned upon our Saviour's +breast." + +Wilfrid, touched with compunction at having spoken too harshly, +replied, "God forbid that I should accuse St. John," and entered into +a learned statement of the early Christians accommodating their rites +and ceremonies in accordance with those of the Jews, and that St. +John, who kept the laws of Moses literally, thus celebrated the feast +of Easter on the first day of the Jewish Passover, whether on Sunday +or any other day. But St. Peter, knowing that Christ rose from the +grave on a Sunday, celebrated the feast on that day of the week, in +accordance with a command which he received from our Lord, which is +certainly a higher authority than that of St. John; and the decree of +the council of Nice, in 525, was but a confirmation thereof. Colman +replied, "Athanolius, so commendable for his holiness, and Father +Columba, whose sanctity is proved by miracles, kept Easter as we do, +and I do not deem it wise to depart from their method." + +"Their holiness and miracles," responded Wilfrid, "I dispute not; but +I have no doubt that when, in the day of judgment, they say, 'Lord, +have we not prophesied, cast out devils, and wrought miracles in Thy +name?' He will answer, 'Begone; I know you not.' Can you compare +Columba with the most blessed of the Apostles, to whom Christ said, +'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the +gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and to thee I give the +keys of the kingdom of heaven.'" + +"Did our Lord speak this to St. Peter?" asked the King, of Colman. + +"Most certainly," was the reply. + +"Hitherto," continued the King, "I have observed the rule of St. John, +and in ignorance, but now mine eyes are opened. You both agree that +the words of our Lord, quoted by the Father Abbot, were spoken to St. +Peter, and I deem it not wise to withstand or gainsay so potent a +person as the doorkeeper of heaven, lest when I come thither I find +them closed against me; and I should recommend this assembly to +decide upon celebrating the festival after the mode of St. Peter." +The result of this speech was that several went over from the British +to the Roman side, and, after a few other speeches, the question was +put to the vote, and decided almost unanimously in favour of the +Romanists. Cedd, Bishop of the East Saxons, was one of the converts, +but Colman declined submission, soon after resigned his bishopric, and +with his monks and priests returned to Iona. + +Ultimately, however, all the branches of the Church conformed to the +rule of St. Peter--the Picts in 699, the Scots, comprehending the +monks of Iona, in 716, and the Britons or Welsh in 800. + + + + +The Doomed Heir of Osmotherley. + + +The Vale of Mowbray is one of the many beautiful pieces of landscape +scenery with which the county of Yorkshire abounds; a favourite +sketching-ground for artists, and often seen, in detached portions, on +the walls of the Royal Academy. An equal favourite, also, is it with +the tourist and worshippers of natural beauty. If Dr. Syntax, when he +mounted Grizzle to go in search of the picturesque, had come to the +Vale of Mowbray, we may fancy that he would have considered his quest +at an end, and his purpose accomplished. + +In the Saxon era it presented a somewhat different aspect from what it +does now; more strikingly magnificent and grand in its wild, natural +beauty. Instead of cornfields, pastures, hedgerows, churches, mills, +and mansions, it was one expanse of forest, with towering oaks, elms, +and poplars; and, beneath a tangled undergrowth of brushwood and +briar, the home and haunts of the antlered stag, the wild boar, the +wolf, and innumerable other wild creatures, four-footed, on the sward +below, or pinion-borne amid the foliage above. It must not be +supposed, however, that the vale was given up entirely to these +denizens of woodland, and destitute of human inhabitants. The Lord of +the valley was Earl Oswald, a Saxon, or, to speak more accurately, an +Anglian nobleman--the greatest landed proprietor for many miles round. +His mansion was seated on a gentle slope of the Hambleton Hills; a +one-storied edifice, consisting of a large hall, where he, his +retainers, and domestic servants, partook of their meals, and where +the latter slept by night, on straw or rushes spread on the floor, +with some smaller family sleeping and guest rooms, a kitchen, +brewhouse, and other necessary appliances of a nobleman's household, +including a chapel with open, round-headed doorway, draped with a pair +of woollen portieres, generally looped back, and displaying in the +interior some roughly carpentered benches, and a lamp pendant from the +roof. + +Around the mansion was some arable land, with granaries and stacks; +pasture land for horses, oxen, and sheep, protected by stockades from +the incursions of wolves and other beasts of prey; an orchard and a +vegetable garden. Scattered about in clearings of the forest were the +homesteads of the class correspondent with the modern tenant-farmer, +with their oxen, swine, wains, and rude implements of husbandry; and, +nestling around the mansion, an aggregation of wattled and mud-built +dwellings, the abodes of the villeins or serfs, hence denominated a +village, in the centre of which stood the church, a very primitive +structure of wood, consisting of nave and chancel only, without side +aisles, transept, or tower. + +Earl Oswald was a young man of five-and-twenty years, comely in aspect +and benign in manner; and was a considerate overlord and kind master. +He had not long been in possession of his estates, his father having +died only twelve months previously, his death having been occasioned +by an accident when pursuing the wild boar in the forest. The present +Earl was the last of his race, having no brothers or other relatives +to inherit the earldom, which would become extinct in case of his +death without issue; consequently it behoved him, in order to continue +the succession, to look out for a wife. But at that time the choice +was very limited; it was essential that he should marry a lady with +some pretensions to aristocratic birth, in order to keep up the +dignity of his family; and as people, even nobles, did not then travel +far away from home, visiting only such families as resided within a +moderate distance, his choice was rather restricted. It happened, +however, that one day, when hunting in Cleveland, he met with a Thegn, +one of the lower order of nobility, who invited him to his house to +spend the night, as he was some distance from home. At supper he was +introduced to the Thegn's daughter, Gytha, a beautiful young maiden, +some three or four years younger than himself, and was so charmed with +her beauty, amiability of deportment, and sensible conversation, that +he became enamoured of her, and mentally resolved that if there were +no obstacles in the way he would make her his countess and the mother +of his heir. He made no declaration on that occasion, but finding the +hunting round the bases of the great Cleveland hill, the Ottenberg, +now called Roseberry Topping, fruitful of sport, he came again and +again, seldom letting a week pass without one or two visits, and never +failing to call at the Thegn's house, where he was always cordially +welcomed by Gytha and her father. The friendship thus commenced soon +ripened into intimacy, and when the Earl found that his attentions had +made an impression on the heart of the fair maiden, he began to +whisper in her ear the tale of love. As maidens, in those practical, +unsophisticated days, knew not the art of coquetry, and were not apt +at disguising the feelings of their hearts, Gytha listened with +pleasure to his flattering tale, confessed at once that she +reciprocated his love, and without any needless circumlocution or +affected bashfulness consented to become his wife, which met with the +full approbation of her father, and a month afterwards he bore her +away to become the mistress of the mansion in the Mowbray Vale, and, +it was hoped, the mother of the future lord of the domain. + +Months past along--delicious months--one succession of honeymoons; the +happy pair never tiring of each other's company. In the mornings the +Earl would go forth to superintend the operations of ploughing, +sowing, or harvesting, or to look after the careful tending of his +flocks and herds; and occasionally, for pastime or for the benefit of +the larder, would penetrate the recesses of the forest, hunting-spear +in hand, and surrounded by his hounds; whilst the Lady Gytha directed +the domestic affairs of the house, or occupied herself in her bower, +with her handmaidens, embroidering a set of arras for the adornment of +the hall; but they always spent the after-part of the day together in +caressing converse. + +The months thus passed along, and began to resolve themselves into +years, but still the great hope of their lives was not accomplished, +that of giving an heir to carry downwards the honours and possessions +of the family. For a long time they flattered themselves with this +hope, despite the length of time that had elapsed since their +marriage; but when three or four years had gone into the past without +any fruition of their hopes, they began to despond. The Earl became +moody and melancholy in contemplating the probable and almost certain +extinction of his race; and his lady wept and mourned in secret, at +the bitter disappointment her husband experienced, no less than at the +denial to herself of the delights and pleasant anxieties of maternity. + +Another year or two, with their wintry storms and summer sunshine, +went by, and the Earl had sunk into the depths of despair, when, after +all hope had departed, a gleam of sunshine shot athwart "the winter of +his discontent," heralding the coming of a glorious summer. The +probable birth of a living child, and, it might be, heir, was +announced to him, and he immediately became a changed man; from the +slough of despondency he sprang up, radiant with expectancy, buoyant +in spirit, and gladdened at heart; and the Lady Gytha underwent an +equal change, from tears and brooding to the delicious anticipation of +fondling on her breast and presenting to her husband, as the outcome +of their loves, an heir to his lands and dignities. + +It was a proud day for Earl Oswald when the women of his household +brought him news of the birth of a male child, healthy and +well-formed, with promise of developing into vigorous life, indeed, in +the nurse's opinion, it was one of the most wonderful infants that +ever came into the world, and he was further gratified to learn that +the mother was doing well, whom he waited upon as soon as the feminine +portion of the community, who ruled supreme at this interesting +crisis, permitted, to congratulate her on the auspicious event. Nor +did he confine himself to mere gratulations and expressions of +rejoicing; in demonstration of his gratitude to Heaven for his +long-hoped-for heir, every day, for the succeeding week, he sat at the +entrance door of his mansion and administered, with bountiful hand, +food and stycas to all mendicant wayfarers, dispensed gifts to his +servitors and slaves, and bestowed liberal donations on the Church and +the monastic fraternities, with a stipulation in the latter case that +they should pray for the welfare of the newly-born Christian child. + +The infant throve apace, and waxed more beautiful every day, with his +blue Saxon eyes and fair flaxen hair, the darling of his mother, the +cherished hope of his father, and the petted plaything of all the +household. He had attained the mature age of twelve months, when a +terrible calamity befel the family, a calamity, however, which was +common enough in those days of turbulence, bloodshed, and war. It was +the time when the Danish Vikings were most active in making landings +on the British coasts, ravaging the country, and massacring the people +who opposed them, and then sailing homeward with the spoils of the +plundered villages and monasteries. Northumbria lay especially open +to their incursions; Ravenspurn, Flamborough, and Lindisfarne, were +their principal landing places, and the Humber, the Tees, and the +Tyne, their high roads into the interior. They had, indeed, +established a permanent encampment on the headland of Flamborough, and +intrenched themselves by enlarging a natural ravine, deepening it, and +throwing up earthworks, so as to constitute it a formidable defensive +barrier stretching across the peninsula, which still exists, and is +popularly known as "Danes' Dyke." + +News reached Earl Oswald that a large fleet of vessels had arrived at +Flamborough, and that the Danes, in great numbers, were marching with +sword and firebrand across the Wolds, and in the direction of his +home. The news was sent by the leading men of the district, who were +gathering their vassals and slaves together to resist the invaders, +and he was requested to come to their assistance with all the men he +could muster. He lost no time in obeying the call, and after bidding +an affectionate farewell to his wife, and exhorting her to great +watchfulness and care over little Oswy, who, said he, is the only hope +for the continuance of my race in case of any mischance to myself--he +went forth at the head of his retainers, and joined the army, which +had assembled in the neighbourhood of Driffield, to check the progress +of the enemy. + +About a couple of miles to the north-east of Driffield, there was a +valley running east and west, along which it was anticipated the foe +would come, and here the Saxons decided to await their approach. They +took up their position on the southern slopes, and threw up some rough +earthworks to protect their front, and, after lying there a couple of +days, their scouts brought intelligence that the Danes were but a mile +distant, and that in their track could be seen the flames of villages +which they had fired in their march. Presently they made their +appearance; a vast host of fierce-looking warriors, who, on perceiving +the Saxons, set up a wild barbarian shout, and clashed their weapons +together as if eager for the conflict. The Saxons uttered a shout of +defiance in response, but remained quietly behind their intrenchments, +whilst the Danes rushed forward impetuously, and clambering up the +slope, the battle began. The field was obstinately contested on both +sides, the fight lasting the entire day, neither gaining any absolute +advantage, the bravery being equal on both sides, and what the Saxons +lacked in numbers was made up by the superiority of their position, +and the shelter afforded by their earthworks. Great numbers of brave +men fell on both sides, the Danes, from their exposed position, losing +more than their antagonists, and when the darkness of night fell, +separating the combatants, they deemed it expedient to retreat upon +Flamborough. + +The following day the Saxons went over the field to succour the +wounded and bury the dead. Among the former was found Earl Oswald, who +was taken in charge by his retainers and conveyed to his home; and the +latter were buried, Saxon and Dane together, and tumuli raised over +their bodies. Their grave-mounds may still be seen spread over two or +three acres of ground, over-canopied by trees, and are popularly known +by the name of "Danes' Graves," and the valley where the battle was +fought still bears the name of "Danes' Dale." + +A speedy messenger was sent to inform Lady Gytha of what had befallen +her husband, and it was with anguished heart that she received the +mournful cavalcade which carried him, wounded and almost insensible, +to his home. He lived two or three days, but in the end, despite the +most skilful of leechery and the most assiduous nursing, he succumbed +to the loss of blood he had sustained during the night he lay on the +field. In his dying moments he again besought his wife to protect and +bring up in godly fashion his infant heir; and she, with heartbroken +sobbing, entreated him to have no apprehensions on that head, as now +she would have nothing to live for but that one sole purpose. And the +Earl closed his eyes in death, and was buried in the little wooden +church hard by, which had been built by his grandfather--buried with +all the pomp befitting his rank; and the Lady Gytha returned to her +mansion to grieve over her loss, devote herself to the instruction of +her beloved child, and look after the interests of his estates. + +It chanced one day that the widowed lady and her orphan child were +disporting themselves on the grass-plot in front of the house, when a +withered old crone came up and implored charity. The Lady Gytha, who +was ever beneficent to the poor, sent into the house for some +victuals, which she gave to the old woman, bidding her sit under the +shade of a tree and eat thereof, condoled with her under her +infirmities, and supplemented her gift of food with a few coins. +Whilst she was conversing with the woman, the little Oswy was running +about after some ducks, and, chasing them to the edge of a pond, fell +in, but was immediately rescued. At the same moment a dog that was +chained up near by gave two prolonged howls, which attracted the +attention of the stranger, who, after musing awhile, said, "Lady! you +have been very kind in your largesses to me, whom you know not, and I +can only repay you by a warning, which I pray you to take heed of. I +am an old woman, and have lived long in this world, not without +learning somewhat that is hidden to others. I have studied omens and +forebodings, and have acquired the power of predicting the future from +signs of the present. Know then, lady, that I can foresee from the +mishap of your little son, and the language of the dog, that he will +undergo great peril from water, and that this will happen, unless +prevented by fit precaution, in his second year, as is indicated by +the two howls of the dog;" and, having said this, she hobbled off, +leaning on her walking-staff, without leaving time for reply. + +Lady Gytha, although she did not place much credence in the prediction +of the old woman, was imbued, to some extent, with the superstitions +and credulities of the age, and she summoned into her presence an +astrologer, requesting him to cast the nativity of the child. He noted +down the time and particulars of his birth, and promised a reply +within the week. After a few days' absence he returned, and appeared +before Lady Gytha with a clouded brow, she receiving him with a tremor +of anxiety. "What do the stars reveal?" enquired she. "Are the tidings +good or evil?" "Lady," replied he, "I have calculated the star of his +nativity, and sorry am I to tell that it augurs evil rather than good. +A great peril awaits the child, on the fourth day of the third moon +after his second birthday. It is recorded in the starry volume that on +that occasion he will perish by drowning." + +"Oh, say not so, wise sir. It would kill me as well. Are you assured +that this fate is inevitable?" + +"Fate, lady, is inevitable; but there is one planet which presents a +disturbing element in his horoscope, and it is possible that this fate +may have been miscalculated, and that, through the influence of the +planet, the threatening may be averted; and it will become you that, +at the date indicated, you should take all possible precaution, in +order that he should not be brought into the neighbourhood of water of +any kind." + +The astrologer, having been rewarded generously for his services, and +assured that all due precautions should be taken, he departed, +murmuring to himself, "Fate is fate, and it cannot be averted." + +The Lady Gytha's whole existence was now absorbed in that of her +child. He was scarcely ever out of her reach and sight, she watched +over him with more than maternal care, if that were possible, and he +continued to blossom out, with the promise of becoming everything she +could wish--her support, her comfort, and the pride of her after-life. +But these prospects of the future were overshadowed by a cloud--an +anxious foreboding of what might happen on the fourth day of the third +moon of his second year, which the stars marked with a doubtful and +perhaps fatal prognostic. Could he but pass that dangerous point of +life, the lowering cloud would dissolve into thin air, and for the +future might be anticipated the glad sunshine of existence. + +The fatal day came nearer and nearer. He had passed his second +birthday, and the mother had meditated often and often on the means +whereby he should be delivered from the threatening evil. It was +plainly revealed to her that the danger arose from water, and she +reasoned that if she could place him out of the neighbourhood of +river, pools, or springs, the evil might be turned aside and the +augury baffled. When thinking the matter over, there suddenly rose up +before her mind's eye the steep slopes of Ottenberg, the Cleveland +hill, about which she had often clambered and gambolled when a child, +and it struck her that if she could convey young Oswy to the summit, +he would be removed so far away from any running or standing stream, +or pool of water, that there could be no possibility of the fulfilment +of the prediction, and she resolved upon taking him thither. + +Accordingly she proceeded to her father's house at its base, and on +the summer's night preceding the fateful day, clomb the side of the +hill with her child in her arms. She arrived at the summit as the sun +was rising from the sea on the eastern horizon, and lighting up the +glorious panorama visible from that elevated position. She partook of +some refreshment which she had brought with her, and, although she +felt no fatigue in making the ascent, owing to her anxiety, now that +she had reached what she deemed a place of security, nature began to +give way, and a sense of exhaustion to oppress her. She sat there, +with her child clasped in her arms, as the sun rose higher in the +heavens, and darted forth its heated rays upon her unsheltered head. +Under its influence she began to feel drowsy, but battled with the +feeling, determined not to lose her hold of the child until the day +had passed. At length, however, she unconsciously and insensibly +succumbed, and fell asleep, sinking on the turf and relaxing her +grasp. The young Oswy disengaged himself, and wandered away, plucking +the wild flowers, and looking with infant delight at the gulls winging +their flight over the sea. + +An hour or two elapsed, and the Lady Gytha awoke. At first she could +scarcely understand where she was, but in a few minutes she came to +full consciousness, and was startled to find that her child was not +with her. She sprang up, called him by name, but elicited no response, +and she feared he had fallen down the side of the hill. With beating +heart she sought around, and on turning a projecting shoulder of the +hill was agonised to perceive the object of her search lying with his +face in a stream of water that was issuing from a fissure, and, on +taking him up, found life to be extinct. The pen fails in attempting +to depict her frantic grief, but it may be briefly stated, that she +carried down the lifeless body, conveyed it to her home, and laid it +beside its father in the little timber church. For her there was no +further earthly joy, and fixing her thoughts on the only source of +consolation, she founded a small religious house in the Vale of +Mowbray, where she spent the few remaining years of her life in +religious meditation and devotional exercises. She was buried beside +her beloved child in the little church, around which a village grew +up, which was called, in remembrance of the burial-place of Oswy and +his mother--Osmotherley. + +According to the legend, the spring at the summit of the hill gushed +forth miraculously, in order that the decree of Fate should not be +frustrated. + + "On the proud steep of Ottenberg still may be found + The spring which rose his sad doom to complete; + And on its verge the villagers sit round, + In wonder recording the fiat of Fate." + + + + +Eadwine, the Royal Martyr. + + +A pious and benevolent monk of Rome, passing one day through the slave +market of that city, noticed a group of beautiful fair-haired boys and +youths, who were exposed for sale. Compassionating their condition, he +enquired whence they came. "They are Angles," was the reply. "They are +beautiful enough to be _angeli_," said the monk. "What part of Anglia +come they from?" "Deira." "Then shall they be saved, _de ira_, from +the wrath of God. Who is their King?" "Ælla." "Then," continued the +monk, "shall Alleluias resound through their land," and he there and +then determined to go thither as a missionary, and preach the Gospel +to them, but before he could complete his arrangements, he was +raised to the Pontifical throne as Gregory I., afterwards called +Gregory the Great. Incapable, therefore, of going himself, he sent +Augustine, with Paulinus and other monks, as missionaries to the +Saxons of Britain. Instead, however, of going to the kingdom of Deira, +they landed in that of Kent, gained the ear of King Ethelberht, who +embraced Christianity, and established the see of Canterbury, with +Augustine as Bishop thereof. + +Ælla, the first king of Deira, died in the year 588, leaving a son, +his heir, then three years of age, and an elder daughter, Acca, +married to Ethelfrid, King of Bernicia, the great kingdom of +Northumbria being then divided into Bernicia and Deira, both extending +from sea to sea, and separated by the river Tees. Taking advantage of +his brother-in-law's tender age, Ethelfrid usurped the throne of +Deira, and became King of the whole of Northumbria, and the boy +Eadwine was taken into exile by his friends. For many years, until he +grew up to manhood, he wandered about from one refuge to another, +until at last he found a safe asylum at the court of Redwald, King of +the East Angles. Ethelfrid sent a demand that he should be delivered +up to him, and Redwald, in reply, said to the messenger, "Tell thy +master that I have promised to protect him, and will not give him up +at the dictate of any King, however powerful he may be." Eventually, +however, persuaded by bribes, and terrified by threats, he agreed to +deliver him up. Eadwine, hearing of this, wandered forth into the +forest, and, "as he sate solitary under a tree, in dumps, musing what +was best to be done," a venerable stranger suddenly appeared before +him, and said, "Noble Prince, thou knowest me not, but I come to tell +thee that thou shalt be restored to thy kingdom, and moreover shall +become Bretwalda of the Saxon Kings, if thou listenest but to those +that shall be sent to thee, to teach the worship of the only true +God." Eadwine, dazzled by the prospect, readily promised to do so, +when the stranger placed his hand upon his head, saying, "Remember +that as a sign," and vanished as mysteriously as he had appeared. On +his return to the palace, he found that, at the intercession of the +Queen, Redwald had withdrawn from his engagement, and was now +determined to protect the fugitive to the utmost of his power. +Ethelfrid, in consequence, raised an army for the invasion of East +Anglia, but was met by Redwald, and a desperate battle ensued on the +banks of the river Idle, in which the usurper was defeated and slain, +and Eadwine proclaimed King of Northumbria. He proved himself to be +an able and vigorous ruler, adding the Isles of Man and Anglesea to +his dominions, and extending his territories northward to the Forth, +where he built a fortress, around which a town gradually grew up, +which was called Edwin's burgh--the infant Edinburgh. He raised his +kingdom to a height of power it had never before attained, and in the +year 624, on the death of Redwald, he attained the dignity of +Bretwalda, or Supreme King of the Saxons, and President of the +Heptarchian Witenagemot, whenever any such should be called together. + +His first wife, Quenborga, daughter of Ceorl, King of Mercia, having +died, he sent Ambassadors to ask the hand of Ethelburga, daughter of +Ethelberht, King of Kent, in marriage, but her brother, Eadberht, then +on the throne, replied, "I cannot consent, for it is not meet that a +Christian Princess should mate with a pagan." The Ambassadors returned +to Northumbria, and extolled so highly the beauty and amiability of +the Princess, that Eadwine determined to make her his Queen at any +cost, and, after some further negotiation, agreed that she should +enjoy her own religion, have priests to celebrate the rites thereof, +and, moreover, that he would himself examine the grounds of the +Christian faith, and if he found them superior to those of Woden, +would renounce the latter and embrace the former. Accordingly the fair +young Christian came to Northumbria, accompanied by Paulinus and three +or four preaching monks, and the marriage was celebrated with great +splendour at York, the Pope sending her, on the occasion, a silver +mirror and a gilt ivory comb, which latter is supposed to have been +found near Whitby in 1872. + +Faithful to his stipulation, the King allowed his Queen the utmost +freedom in religious matters, and permitted the monks to go forth +throughout his realm, preaching and making proselytes. Still he +himself adhered to the worship of Woden, in the great temple of +Goodmandingham, over which Coifi presided as high priest, and which +was contiguous to one of his palaces--that of Londesborough, near +Market Weighton. About this time Cuichelm, King of Wessex, jealous of +his ascendancy as Bretwalda, sent a messenger to assassinate him, who +failed in his object, and Eadwine prepared to make war against +Cuichelm for his dastardly conduct. Two days after this event his +daughter Eanfleda was born, and, at the urgent request of the Queen +and Paulinus, he permitted her to be baptised and dedicated to the +service of the God of his Queen, as a thank-offering for his escape. +He promised Paulinus also, that if his God were sufficiently potent to +give him a victory over Cuichelm, he would, on his return, take into +serious consideration the question of embracing Christianity and +proclaiming it the religion of Northumbria. At the close of their +conversation, Paulinus placed his hand on the King's head, and said, +"You have been restored to your kingdom, you have extended its limits, +and become the greatest of the Saxon kings of England--the +Bretwalda--know you this sign?" Eadwine replied that he did. "And," +continued Paulinus, "there was another promise besides these of a +secular nature, that teachers should be sent to instruct you in the +true faith. Behold, here we are--I and my companions." This was more +convincing to the King than any amount of logical argument, and he +marched with confidence into Wessex, gained a decisive victory, and on +his return summoned a gemôt of nobles at his Londesborough Palace to +discuss this great religious question. + +The chief speaker at the assembly was the high priest Coifi. "Know, O +King!" said he, "that I have long been of opinion that our gods are +worthless, and can do nothing for us, and I now perceive that the God +of Paulinus is God alone, the creator of the world, and the true +object of worship." The King acquiesced in his views, and the nobles, +taking their cue from them, gave their assent to the deposition of +Woden, and the substitution of Christ as the God of the Saxons. + +It was then determined that the great temple of Woden should be +desecrated, and the King inquired who would dare to do it. "I," +replied Coifi, "I have spent my life hitherto in ministering at the +altar of a false and impotent god, and it is fitting that I should +overturn that altar." A day was fixed for the purpose, and then the +King and his nobles, followed by a crowd of people, proceeded from +Londesborough to Goodmandingham, and in the midst Coifi, mounted on a +war steed and brandishing a lance in his hand. As the priests of Woden +were only permitted to ride mares, and not to bear arms of any kind, +the people gazed upon him with superstitious horror, expecting that +either the earth would open and swallow him, or a thunderbolt descend +from the sky and strike him dead; but neither occurred, and the sun +shone as serenely as if no such monstrous act of impiety were taking +place. Without hesitation Coifi rode boldly into the temple, and, +poising his lance, hurled it at the idol, upon which the people +without, not daring to enter, fearing lest the temple should fall and +bury them in its ruins, set up a loud yell of horror, and flung +themselves down on the sward, but when they beheld the lance quivering +in the side of the image and the priest calmly riding out, without the +slightest manifestation of wrath on the part of the outraged +god--neither thunder, lightning, nor earthquake--they began to think +that Woden was no god, and that he whom Paulinus proclaimed was a God +indeed, and the issue was that the King and his Court were baptised, +and then the common people, 10,000 having undergone the rite in the +river Swale in one day, going into the river in batches, whilst +Paulinus blessed the water. A wooden church was erected in York, which +was replaced by one of stone, commenced by Eadwine and completed by +King Oswald--the precursor of the present majestic York Minster, and +Paulinus was constituted Bishop of the See, which comprehended the +whole of England northward of the Humber and the Mersey. In 634, Pope +Honorius sent him a pallium, which raised him to the dignity of an +Archbishop. + +At that time the kingdom of Mercia was ruled by a ferocious old +pagan--Penda--who made a vow to extirpate Christianity from the +island, and entered into an alliance with Cadwallon, a Welsh King, for +the invasion of Northumbria. Eadwine encountered them at Heathfield, +near Doncaster, and a sanguinary battle ensued, which proved most +disastrous to the hitherto victorious Northumbrians. Eadwine and his +son Osfrid were slain in the fight, and another son, Eanfrid, was +murdered after the battle. The victors then ravaged the country, +burning and plundering the houses, and slaughtering the people without +regard to sex or age. Cadwallon remained in Northumbria, assuming the +government, and ruling the people with great severity and cruelty, +until he was slain in battle by Oswald, whilst Penda marched into East +Anglia, which had become Christian, subdued it, and then took upon +himself the title of Bretwalda. Thus fell the great and glorious +Eadwine, the victor of many fights, the Bretwalda of England, the +first Christian King of the North, and the protomartyr of Northumbria. +His body was conveyed to Whitby for burial, and his head interred in +the porch of his church at York. He was afterwards canonised, and a +church in London and another at Breve, in Somersetshire, have been +dedicated to St. Eadwine. The Queen, with her two surviving children, +accompanied by Paulinus, fled to Kent. She founded a nunnery, and took +the veil within its walls; her children she sent to France, to be +educated under the care of her cousin, King Dagobert, and after her +death she was canonised. Paulinus became the third Bishop of +Rochester. + + + + +Siward, the Viceroy. + + +According to a Scandinavian legend, a young Danish lady went wandering +into a forest, where she suddenly, when turning out of one glade into +another, came face to face with a bear, who seized her and forcibly +violated her. The result was the birth of a child, with shaggy ears, +to whom was given the name of Barn. He married, and had a son, Siward, +who came on a piratical excursion to England, and became Viceroy Earl +of Northumbria, and this identity of Siward, son of Barn, with Siward +the Earl, has been generally accepted by modern chroniclers, which may +be attributed to the great obscurity which hangs over the history of +this period. The fact is, that this legend does not pertain to Earl +Siward at all, but to another Siward--Siward-Barn--who lived +half-a-century afterwards, and was son of the Danish Jarl--Barn. +Following the instincts of his race, he sailed from Denmark with a +fleet, and after ravaging the Orkneys and the coasts of Scotland and +Northumbria, passed up the Thames, and presented himself at the Court +of Edward the Confessor, whose favour he gained by entering his +service. He was rewarded with lands in Cumberland and Westmoreland, +and in Holderness, Yorkshire, one of his manors there being called +Barns-town, now Barmston, near Bridlington. After the conquest, he +joined in the northern insurrection against William I., and was one of +the companions of Hereward the Wake in the Isle of Ely, where he was +captured, sent a prisoner into Normandy, and there died. He never had +anything to do with the Earldom of Northumbria, which was held during +his time by Tosti, Morkere, and Waltheof, the son of Earl Siward. + +Having disposed of this myth, it becomes us to give, as far as can be +ascertained, the true ancestry of Siward. When the Saxon heptarchy, or +octarchy, became consolidated into one kingdom, the realm of +Northumbria, extending from the Humber to the Tweed, and sometimes to +the Forth, which was the last to submit, was peopled by a brave and +warlike people, sensitively tenacious of their independence, and of +so turbulent a character, that it became necessary to place over them +a Viceroy Earl of great vigour, determination, and military ability, +to give it the semblance of semi-independence, but at the same time to +be ready on the spot to nip incipient rebellion when in the bud. Such +a Governor was found in Oswulf, son of Ealdred, Lord of Bamborough, +who was nominated to the office by King Athelstane. He was succeeded +by Waltheof, the Elder, who was followed by his son Ughtred, from whom +the holders of not less than seven peerages claim descent. By Ælgifu, +daughter of King Ethelred II., he had issue--Eadulf, Gospatric, and +Ældred. Ældred succeeded as Earl of Bernicia, on the death of his +uncle, Eadulf I., Earl of Northumbria; and Siward, who was his son, +appears to have been appointed, at the same time, Deputy-Earl of +Deira. + +He was born towards the end of the tenth century, was a giant in +stature, of Herculean strength, and of great courage, which he +displayed on many a field of battle. His life, indeed, appears to have +been spent more in the battlefield than in the peaceful pursuits of +government, the administration of justice, or the superintendence of +his Yorkshire manors, of which Malton was the chief, granted to him +for his military services, and it presents a succession of romantic +episodes, in which the sword played the principal part. + +Ældred, his father, died in 1038, and was succeeded in Bernicia by his +brother, Eadulf II. Siward, however, claimed it as his hereditary +right; and so matters remained until 1041, when Eadulf incurred the +displeasure of King Hathacnut. This was the opportunity Siward had +been longing for, and he hastened up to the King's Court, where, by +his representations, he embittered the mind of the King still further +against his uncle, and in the sequel was either ordered or permitted +to put him to death. This was precisely what he wanted, and, without +the least scruple of conscience or regard to kinship when his own +aggrandisement was at issue, he proceeded to Bernicia and murdered his +uncle in cold blood, assuming at the same time the government, and +thus becoming Earl of Northumbria in its integrity. + +In the same year, 1041, the people of Worcester rose in insurrection +against an unpopular tax, and the three great Earls, Siward of +Northumbria, Leofric of Mercia, and Godwine of Kent, were directed to +march thither to suppress it. This was done chiefly at the instigation +of Ælfric, Archbishop of York, who had caused their Bishop, Lyfric, to +be deprived, and himself appointed in his room, to hold the see _in +commendam_ with York, but whom the clergy of Worcester refused to +recognise. The Earls had no difficulty in suppressing the +revolt--indeed the rebels scarcely made any stand against them; but, +with great barbarity, they slaughtered the people, plundered their +habitations, burnt the city, and compelled them to accept Ælfric as +their Bishop. + +The following year Hathacnut died, and was succeeded by Eadwarde the +Confessor, more fitted for the cowl than the crown, when the three +Earls, the mightiest subjects of the realm, divided the administration +of the kingdom amongst themselves; Siward at this time held likewise +the Earldoms of Huntingdon and Northampton, which were severed from +Northumbria at his death. + +In 1051, Count Eustace of Boulogne, on his return from a visit to King +Eadwarde, treated the people of Dover with great insolence, who fell +upon him and his followers, and gave them a deservedly severe +chastisement. Eustace demanded redress from the King, who commanded +Earl Godwine to punish the Dover people, who, finding that Eustace had +been the aggressor, asked that they might be heard in their defence, +to which the King would not listen; then Godwine assumed a higher +tone, and demanded the surrender of the Count to answer for his +insolence. This enraged the King, who summoned Siward and Leofric to +render assistance against the hostile designs of Godwine. They came to +Gloucester, where a compromise was effected; but at a subsequent +gemôt, held in London, Godwine and his family were banished. + +The most creditable military effort of the many in which his sword had +been drawn, and that which redounded the most to his glory, was the +last of his life. In 1054, he was sent by King Eadwarde in command of +an expedition into Scotland against the usurper, Macbeth, in favour of +the young Prince, Malcolm Canmore, son of the murdered King Duncan. He +was now the father of two sons by his first wife--Æthelfleda--Osbert, +now approaching manhood, and Waltheof, a boy, some years younger. The +former he took with him to Scotland, to initiate him in the then +deemed glorious art of war; and a brave young fellow he proved himself +to be, a worthy scion of the old stock. Siward attacked Scotland by +land and sea, met the usurper and defeated him in a pitched battle, +after which he caused Malcolm to be proclaimed King. It is sometimes +stated that Macbeth was slain in the battle, which was not the case, +as he escaped and held out for three years, maintaining a desultory +series of fights with Malcolm, but was eventually slain in 1057. His +son Osbert fell in the battle, fighting bravely, and when the news was +brought to him, he eagerly inquired if his wounds were in front, and +when told they were, said that he could not but rejoice, such a death +being worthy of one sprung from his loins. + +Shakspeare, not always true to history, in his tragedy of "Macbeth" +thus gives the death of "Young Siward," as he calls Osbert:--He meets +with Macbeth on the field, and, after some bandying of words, they +fight, and Macbeth falls, after which Osbert rushes into the thick of +the fight, and falls himself. When Siward is told that all his son's +wounds are in front, he exclaims-- + + "Why, then, God's soldier is he! + Had I as many sons as I have hairs, + I would not wish them to a fairer death: + And so his knell is tolled." + +Prince Malcolm observes-- + + "He's worth more sorrow, + And that I'll spend for him." + +To which Siward replies-- + + "He's worth no more. + They say he parted well, and paid his score, + And so God be with him." + +Henry of Huntingdon, speaking of Siward's death, says--"And so he +passed away, as he believed, to Valhalla, to rejoin the great warriors +of his race who had gone before," seeming to intimate, founded on the +misconception of his identity with the Viking Siward-Barn, that he +died in the old Scandinavian faith of Woden, which was not true, as he +lived and died a Christian, such as Christians were then. He is +supposed to have founded a church in York, dedicated to St. Olaf, the +martyred King of Norway, and connected with it a fraternity of monks, +the name of which, in the reign of William II., was changed into that +of St. Mary the Virgin, and eventually became the famous and wealthy +abbey of after-times, with a mitred abbot. The ruins may now be seen +in the grounds of the Museum. + +He ruled his province with great firmness and some severity, necessary +in his endeavours to curb the savage propensities of the people, and +to establish a system of order and good government, and was bountiful +to the Church, as some atonement, perhaps, for the crimes by which he +rose to his high position. + +Shortly after his return from his Scottish expedition, he was stricken +with dysentery, which rapidly grew worse, and he lay in his vice-regal +mansion at York without hope of recovery. When he felt his last +moments approaching he suddenly started up from his couch and +exclaimed, "Let me not die the death of a cow! If it be not my fate to +die gloriously on the field of battle, as my brave boy, Osbert, has +done, with all his wounds in front, at least let me die in the guise +of a warrior. Don me my harness, place the helmet on my head, and gird +my sword on my thigh. It were a shame and disgrace that I, who have +faced death in so many fields, should die ignominiously in bed. Bring +forth my battle-axe and shield, and place them by my side, that the +ghosts of my warlike ancestry, who are looking down upon me now, may +see me pass away from earth to join them in their everlasting home, +with the semblance of the great warrior that I have been." And thus, +seated on a chair, clothed in his armour, and supported in an upright +posture by his attendants, he gave up the ghost, and was buried in his +church of St. Olaf. + +His son, Waltheof, being too young for the government of so important +a province, it was given to Tosti, son of Earl Godwine, and brother of +Harold, the future King; whilst Waltheof succeeded to the Earldoms of +Huntingdon and Northampton, and eventually to that of Northumbria. + + + + +Phases in the Life of a Political Martyr. + + +In the year 1055, there was a funeral in the Church of St. Olaf, York. +The corpse was conveyed through the streets of the city with great +barbaric splendour and pomp. The procession, consisting of stalwart +and bronzed warriors, was strikingly illustrative of the dead hero. +Swords flashed in the sun; armour, pikes, and battle-axes glittered; +and captured pennons, with other trophies of war, were borne along in +triumph. Although all these warriors were mourners, the chief, and, +indeed, the only one of the blood who followed, was a stripling of +fifteen, young in years, but displaying muscular proportions, a +military bearing, and features betokening valour, determination of +purpose, and invincible resolution in the accomplishment of his will. +The warrior was laid in his tomb with all due ceremonial, the priests +closed their books, the soldiers who had followed him to many a +battlefield, gathered round the open grave to take a last look at his +coffin, and then dispersed, whilst the young mourner returned to the +vice-regal castle, which now seemed so solitary and desolate without +the sound of his father's voice. The defunct warrior was stout old +Siward, the Northumbrian Earl, who had scorned "to die the death of a +cow," and the mourner who followed his remains was his sole surviving +son, Waltheof; his elder son, Osbert, having been slain in battle. +Eadward the Confessor was then King, and he, deeming Waltheof too +young and inexperienced to rule so ungovernable a people as the +Northumbrians, appointed Tosti, a younger son of Earl Godwine, and +brother to Harold, afterwards King, to the Earldom. Tosti, however, +ruled the people with such intolerable cruelty and oppression that the +people of York broke into his mansion, plundered it, and murdered his +house-carles; they then assembled in a folkgemôte and formally deposed +him, electing Morkere of Mercia in his room. This was an illegal act, +but the King, when he heard the circumstances of the case, confirmed +it, as did also the Witan-Gemôte of Westminster. Morkere constituted +Osulf, Waltheof's uncle, his deputy in Bernicia, on whose death he +was succeeded by his brother, Gospatric. + +John of Peterborough says that Waltheof was given the Earldoms of +Huntingdon and Northampton at his father's death; but as these were +held by Tosti, the probability seems to be that he succeeded on the +deposition of that Earl. Simeon of Durham says that he governed +Bernicia as his father's deputy, but this seems improbable on account +of his age, and is not confirmed by other authorities. On the +accession of Harold, Tosti, in conjunction with Harold Hardrada, +invaded Northumbria, but were defeated by Harold at Stamford Bridge. +It was, however, the cause of the ruin of Harold, who, whilst +banquetting at York in celebration of his victory, had news brought +him that Duke William of Normandy had landed in Sussex, and he had to +lead his army by forced marches to the south, arriving in the front of +the fresh Norman troops footsore and wearied, and with the loss of +many who had fallen out of the ranks during the march; the result +being his defeat and death, which might have been otherwise but for +this fatal expedition to York. The brother Earls, Morkere of +Northumbria and Eadwine of Mercia, and Waltheof undertook to bring +bodies of soldiers to his aid, but the former two stood aloof, from +politic motives; but Waltheof sent his contingent, if he were not +present at the battle himself, which is uncertain. + +Duke William was now King of England. London, with the south and east, +had submitted at once, but it cost him some efforts to subjugate the +west, and still more the north. He did, however, eventually make +himself master of Yorkshire and the northern counties, built a castle +at York, and placed therein William Malet as military governor of the +city. The year after his accession, he found it necessary to visit his +Norman Dukedom, when, fearing to leave behind him men so powerful, and +whom he suspected of disaffection, he courteously invited Earls +Eadwine, Morkere, and Waltheof, to accompany him as guests, who +complied with his request, although they were perfectly aware that +they were going as hostages for the good behaviour of their people +during his absence. Soon after their return, the three Earls, under +Earl Gospatric, made a demonstration in the north in favour of Eadgar, +the Atheling, but were defeated, and fled to the court of Malcolm, in +Scotland. William sent a herald to demand the fugitives, but the King +declined giving them up. + +In the year 1069, a Danish fleet of 240 vessels might be seen sailing +up the Humber and Ouse. It was under the command of the Danish Princes +Harold and Cnut, and had been joined at sea by a Scottish fleet under +Gospatric and Waltheof. This formidable force landed near York, and +entered the city amid the acclamations of the citizens. Malet was shut +up in the Castle with a body of Norman troops, and had boastingly +written to the King that he wanted no help, for he could hold it till +domesday. Around the Castle walls were several houses, which Malet +ordered to be fired, that they might not afford shelter to the enemy, +but the fire spread further than he intended, consuming the greater +portion of the city, the Cathedral, and Archbishop Egbert's +magnificent library. It was whilst the flames were rising up with +terrific grandeur from the Cathedral towers, and the houses were all +ablaze or in ashes, that the confederates made their grand attack, +captured the citadel, and put the garrison to the sword. Waltheof +performed prodigies of valour. It is recorded of him in a Danish +saga--"The great Earl, with mighty arm and sinewy breast, stood by the +gate of York (Castle) as the Normans came forth, their heads falling +to the earth in succession beneath his battle-axe." Waltheof was +appointed Governor of York, the English and Scots garrisoning it, +whilst the Danes, in their ships, occupied the Trent and Ouse, to +check the advance of William and his army. + +It was not long before the King made his appearance before York and +demanded its surrender. + +Waltheof replied, "Take it if you can, for assuredly I will not +surrender it while life lasts." The King then bribed the Danes to +withdraw, by a large sum of money and permission to ravage the +northern coasts, and invested the city. A breach was made in the +walls, and William of Malmesbury says--"Waltheof, a man of great +muscular strength and courage, stood in the breach, and killed a great +number of Normans who attempted to enter." He states, also, that a +battle was fought outside the walls, and that Waltheof was the +victor. The siege lasted six months, and the city was reduced at last +by famine, after which the King committed the horrible crime of laying +waste the country from York to Durham so effectually that for nine +years neither spade nor plough was put in the ground, and the +miserable survivors who escaped his sword were compelled to eat the +most loathsome food to sustain life. + +Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria, and Waltheof fled to Scotland, but +afterwards tendered their submission to the King, the latter in +person, the other by proxy. Waltheof was a man of immense power and +influence as Lord of Hallamshire, Malton, and many another broad manor +in Yorkshire and other counties, and was, besides, a skilful warrior +and brave soldier, and the King, admiring his qualities, longed to win +him over as his liege man. He therefore pardoned him, restored him to +his Earldoms, and added thereto that of Northumbria, from which he had +deposed Gospatric. Moreover, he gave him in marriage his niece, +Judith, daughter of Eudes, Earl of Champagne, thinking thus to make +sure of his loyalty. + +Soon after he entered upon his new Earldom he committed a crime which +is a blot upon his name, but which was considered justifiable in that +age. A deadly feud existed between the descendants of Ughtred and +those of one Thorbrand of York. Thorbrand was the enemy of the father +of the second wife of Ughtred, who only obtained her hand by +undertaking to kill him, but was murdered himself by Thorbrand. Earl +Ealdred then, in retaliation, assassinated Thorbrand, and was in turn +killed by Carl, son of Thorbrand, and a series of murders followed, +which were completed by a wholesale massacre of the sons of Carl by +Waltheof, when they were feasting at the house of their elder brother +at Settrington, two only escaping. + +There was a great feast in the eastern counties to celebrate the +marriage of Ralph, Earl of Suffolk, with Emma, daughter of Roger, son +of William, Earl of Hereford, and Waltheof was one of the guests. This +marriage had been prohibited by the King, who was now in Normandy, and +advantage was taken of his absence to consummate it, which was, in the +eye of the law, a treasonable act. After the dinner, the conversation +turned upon the tyranny of King William, and, as the guests became +heated with wine, they framed a plot to depose him, and place one of +themselves as King in his room, the rest to be his proximate peers. +Waltheof is said to have taken the oath on compulsion, but the +following morning repented of having done so, and went to Archbishop +Lanfrane for absolution, who advised him to go to the King, explain +the matter, and implore his pardon. He had, however, foolishly +mentioned it to his wife Judith, who, wishing to get rid of "the Saxon +churl" and marry a Norman, sent an exaggerated account of the +conspiracy to her uncle, with the intimation that her husband was most +deeply implicated in it. Waltheof went to Normandy, revealed the plot +to the King, and asked his forgiveness for the part he had been +compelled to take in it, who assured him of pardon, and they returned +to England together. + +The King, however, who had now for some time looked upon Waltheof as +too powerful for a subject, thought this a favourable opportunity to +get rid of him, and when he arrived in England, committed him to +prison at Winchester. He then caused him to be arraigned at the +Pentecostal gemôte, on a charge of treasonable conspiracy, and he was +condemned to death. A few days after he was brought out into the +market-place at Winchester, and there beheaded; the first instance, +says Kennett, of decapitation in England. Ingulphus says that Judith +might have saved him, but she desired his death that she might marry +again, and afterwards experienced feelings of remorse for her cruelty. +She subsequently fell into disgrace with her uncle for refusing to +marry one who was lame. Her name appears in Domesday Book as Lady of +the Manors of Hallam, Sheffield, and Attercliffe. + +By his wife Judith he had issue, three daughters, +co-heiresses--Matilda, who married first Simon de St. Liz, and +secondly, David I., King of Scotland, thus conveying the Earldom of +Huntingdon to the Scottish Royal Family; Alice, who married Richard +Fitz Gilbert, whose granddaughter and heiress married Richard Fitz +Ooth, from whom was Robert Fitz Ooth, who claimed the Earldom of +Huntingdon on the failure of the Scottish male line, and who is +generally supposed to be identical with the outlaw Robin Hood; and +Judith, who married first Ralph de Toney, secondly Robert, son of +Richard de Tonbridge, from whom descended the Barons and Earls +Fitzwalter, the Earldom becoming extinct, and the Barony falling in +abeyance in 1753, the latter being called out in 1868, in the person +of Sir Brook William Brydges, fifth Baronet of, County Kent. + + + + +The Murderer's Bride. + + +It was on a beautiful evening in June, when the thirteenth century was +but a few years old, and when John wore the crown of England, that a +girl of some twenty summers was seated in a vaulted room of a ruinous +old Saxon castle, surrounded by her bower-maidens, chattering and +laughing, and busily employed on some embroidery work. The castle +stood on a slight eminence, some three or four miles from the +sea-coast of Yorkshire, and commanding a glorious view of the uplands +of Cleveland, the wide expanse of ocean, the only recently completed +towers of St. Hilda's Abbey, as they stood proudly on the beetling +cliff, and the clustering of fishermen's huts on the margin of the bay +below, then called the village of Presteby, formerly Streoneshalh, and +now Whitby. It had been built by the half-mythical Saxon noble, Wada, +as a defence against the marauding Picts, who came over the border, +and more particularly against the Danish Vikings, who were wont to +land at Flamborough, and harry the land. In the year 867, they had +destroyed the Lady Hilda's monastery, and it lay in ruins until after +the Conquest, when it was re-built and re-endowed by William de Percy, +ancestor of the potent Earls of Northumberland, and about half a +century before the period of our narrative, it had been again pillaged +and the country laid waste by a Norwegian fleet. But, amid all these +storms, the old castle built by Wada held its own, although it now +showed in its features the ravages of time and the marks of the +batterings it had undergone from the hands of a succession of foes, in +the shape of fallen towers, crumbling walls, and decayed battlements. +After the Conquest, the castle and barony were granted by the King to +Nigel Fossard, a soldier who had fought for him at Hastings, and from +whose family it passed, after two or three generations, to Robert de +Turnham, by marriage with Johanna, heiress of the Fossards. They were +now dead, and slept side by side within the sacred precincts of St. +Hilda, having left an only child--Isabel--as heiress, and now mistress +of the ruined old fortress, and the domain of pasture and moorland +lying round it; the same fair girl whom we find seated at her +embroidery frame. The apartment in which the youthful group were +assembled was the Lady Isabel's bower, very different, however, from a +modern boudoir, being of the usual Saxon type. The walls and vaulted +roof were of roughly-hewn stone, with a low, stunted column in the +centre, and rounded arches, slightly decorated with a zigzag +ornamentation, and on one side was an unglazed opening to admit the +light, more like a loophole than a window. On the walls, suspended +from tenter-hooks, were arras, picturing the miracles of St. Hilda, +which served to give some semblance of comfort and cheerfulness to the +room; and the other furniture consisted of a table, or board resting +on two trestles, and half a dozen cross-legged stools. + +Sounds of merriment and laughter echoed from the roof, as the maidens +plied their needles, the buoyancy of their youthful spirits, and the +outlook into what appears like a fairyland of the future, imparting a +sunshine which is the happy privilege of youth, but is denied to more +mature age. Yet, in the midst of all this joyous mirth, Isabel +occasionally sighed, as disquieting thoughts passed through her mind. +She was left in an unprotected solitude, and although the good Abbot +of St. Hilda's had been her father's friend, and had promised him on +his death-bed to watch over her and aid her by his counsel, he could +not supply the place of father and mother, of whom she had been +bereft, or of sister or brother, a companionship she had never +experienced. She had already begun to taste the cares and anxieties of +her position, and looked forward with some degree of apprehension, +having learnt that the King, as absolute lord of the soil of England, +had the right and power to dispose of the hands of heiresses of any +portion of that soil which was only held of him by baronial or +knightly tenure. + +"The sun goes down apace," said Isabel, rising and going to look forth +from the window, "fold up the altar-cloth, we shall have time to +complete the embroidery before the obit of St. Hilda." She gazed out +upon the sea, sparkling with the glitter of the setting sun, and +looked upon the abbey tower on the cliff, still radiant with +brightness--an out-post, as it seemed to her, of the realms of heaven, +and she felt a peaceful calm steal over her mind. Suddenly her eyes +gleamed with joy, and her heart began to throb with passionate +gladness. These emotions were awakened by the sight of a youth of +noble bearing, pacing with rapid steps the road leading to the castle. +This youth was Jasper de Percy, a scion of the afterwards illustrious +house of that name. He had long been affianced to Isabel, with the +consent and full approbation of their parents, and they loved each +other dearly and passionately. It was not long ere he was ushered into +her presence by the old seneschal of the castle, but with their soft +whisperings we have nothing to do, save that we know they consisted of +protestations of eternal love and anticipations of a happy future. +Whilst they were together the sun went down, and, as the bell of +compline rang out sweetly over the water, they knelt together and +uttered their evening prayer to the Holy Virgin, after which he +departed. + +"Pax vobiscum!" said the Abbot, as he entered the room soon after, +"how fares it with my daughter?" She replied that she was well in +health, but somewhat disquieted in soul, and told him what she had +heard about the King having the disposal of the hands of heiresses, +and asking him if it were so. He explained the law to her, and knowing +and approving of her love for young Percy, expressed a hope that His +Majesty would not interfere in her case, but, added he, "King John is +a bad man, unscrupulous in his actions, and an arch-heretic, even to +the defying of the Holy Father at Rome--the Vicegerent of God upon +earth, saying that he will allow no foreign priest to meddle in his +dominion." After some further conversation, Isabel knelt at his feet, +confessed her little faults, received absolution, and the Abbot +returned to St. Hilda's. So the days and weeks went on in their usual +routine, with nothing to disturb their serenity, until at length a +thunderbolt, as it were, fell suddenly in the midst of the little +community, utterly destroying all their fond hopes of happiness. + +The scene now changes to Normandy. King Henry II. of England had four +sons, of whom William, the eldest, d.v.p., and Richard, the second, +succeeded, who d.s.p. The third, Geoffrey, married Constance, daughter +and heiress of Conan le Petit, Duke of Bretagne and Earl of Richmond, +and had issue, Arthur, who was heir to the throne of England on the +death of his uncle Richard, but, being absent in Brittany, John, +fourth son of Henry, usurped the throne, and when Philip of France +espoused the cause of Arthur, he invaded France with an army, to +maintain the position he had assumed, and with the intention of +removing the obstacle to his legal right to the throne. He captured +his nephew, after patching up a peace with King Philip, and sent him +to Falaise, with instructions to Hubert de Burgh to put his eyes out. +Hubert, however, compassionated the boy, and saved him from that fate, +upon which King John removed Arthur from his custody, and had him +taken to Rouen, and placed in safe keeping. The midnight bell at St. +Ouen had rung out over the Norman city, and, saving that, all was +still in its tortuous streets, excepting the footsteps of three +persons going down to the river-side. They went along stealthily, one +of them, a boy, with seeming reluctance, and who appeared to be +expostulating with the two men who urged him along. "I tell thee, +boy," said he who was evidently the chief of the company, "that thou +shalt be Duke of Bretagne and Earl of Richmond, and we are but taking +thee to a place of safety wherein to abide until these untoward +matters that agitate the realm of France can be arranged." "But my +crown, the crown of England, my inheritance!" commenced the boy as +they arrived at the water's side, when the two men forced him into a +boat and pushed it off upon the Seine, and it glided down the river +beyond the confines of the city. The leader of the party was King +John, and the other his esquire, an ill-favoured bully, with an evil +cast of the eye, a Poictevin by birth, and called, in derision, Peter +de Malo-lacu, afterwards softened down to Maulac, and eventually to De +Mauley. He was one of the tools and evil counsellors of John, and was +ever ready to commit any crime provided he were well paid for it. +Their companion was the boy Prince, Arthur. The night was dreary and +murky, and the wind wailed a mournful cadence through the trees, well +befitting the contemplated deed of blood. The boat had passed some +distance down the river, and Arthur, fearing some foul design, was +imploring his uncle to be taken back to Rouen, when the Poictevin, in +reply to a signal from the King, suddenly plunged his dagger up to the +hilt in the boy's breast, and at the same moment seized him by the +legs, and pitched him over the side of the boat into the river, to +pass down to the sea with the ebbing tide. + +"'Twas well done," said John to his companion in guilt, "that obstacle +to our ambition is removed for ever; and as for thee, Peter, thou +shalt be great amongst the nobles of our realm. It will be hard if I +cannot find an heiress lacking a husband, and thou shalt be a baron of +England." + +Again are we among the merry hills and dales of Cleveland. The summer +has passed away, the leaves of autumn have fallen, the fierce blasts +of the wintry winds of North Yorkshire have toned down into the gentle +gales of spring, and a glad sunshine pervades land and sea. But there +is wailing and lamentation within the walls of Wada's old castle, and +saddened hearts beneath the shadow of St. Hilda's tower. The marriage +of Isabel and Jasper had been arranged, and nothing was wanting for +its consummation but the sanction of the King. A messenger had been +despatched to the Court of John to obtain his consent, but he replied +that it could not be, as he had other views in regard to the heiress, +and purposed, by giving her hand to a brave warrior of Poictou, to +raise her to a dignity far above anything ever attained by the +Turnhams or the Fossards; in short, that he intended giving her in +marriage to his friend and companion-in-arms, Peter de Maulac. Hence +those tears and lamentations, as there was no resisting the King's +will. + +A few months, and there stood before the altar of St. Hilda, decorated +with the embroidery from the deft fingers of Isabel and her +bower-maidens, an ill-assorted couple. On the one side a +forbidding-looking man, with a ferocious cast of countenance and an +eye of ill omen; on the other, a gentle, delicate girl, of symmetrical +figure and beautifully chiselled features, but pale as a corpse, and +with eyes swollen and bloodshot with weeping. Nevertheless, it +mattered not, the mandate of the King must be obeyed, and they became +man and wife. + +Peter de Mauley, as he now chose to style himself, thus became, by +right of his wife, feudal lord of Isabel's demesnes, situated at +Egton, Juby-Park-Houses, and Newbiggin, near Whitby; Mauley Cross, +near Pickering; Bainton, near Driffield; Ellerton, near Pocklington; +and Seaton, near Hornsea; but the King compelled him to pay for the +livery of these estates a fine of 7,000 marks. He built a new castle +near the old one, and called it, from the beauty of the situation, +Moult-grace, but which the people, in consequence of his oppression, +transformed, by the change of a single letter, into Moult-grave, since +then corrupted into Mulgrave. He was a firm adherent of John in his +troubles with the Pope and the Barons, and was rewarded for his +services with other considerable grants of lands, the Sheriffdoms of +Dorset and Somerset, and, under Henry III., with the Governorship of +Sherborne Castle. He died in 1221, and the ill-fated Isabel +pre-deceased him, whose body he buried in Meaux Abbey, near Beverley, +giving with it a grant of land. + +They had a son--Peter--who succeeded, who was followed by six other +Peters in unbroken succession, all of whom enjoyed the estates, +excepting the seventh, who died v.p. The fourth was created a baron by +writ of summons in 1295; but Peter the eighth, fourth in the barony, +dying without issue in 1415, the dignity fell in abeyance between his +sisters and co-heiresses--Constance, who married, first, William +Fairfax, secondly, Sir John Bigot, and who succeeded to Moult-grave, +and Elizabeth, who married George Salvin. The title was revived in +1838, as a barony by patent, in the person of the Hon. W. F. Spencer +Ponsonby, third son of the Earl of Bessborough, a descendant, through +females, of Elizabeth Salvin; but the old barony by writ still lies in +abeyance among the representatives of the above co-heiresses. + +The death of Prince Arthur is still shrouded in mystery, the English +chroniclers giving different versions of it, and Shakspeare +representing him as being killed by a fall from the walls of his +prison when attempting to escape; but the French historians, who are +more likely to be correct, coincide in attributing it to the hand of +Peter de Malo-lacu, in the presence of John, or even to that of the +King himself. + + + + +The Earldom of Wiltes. + + +The famous Yorkshire family of Le Scrope, or Scroop, is one of the +most illustrious in the peerage roll of England; not, however, for the +number and dignity of their titles, which only amounted to five of +lesser rank, two of which are extinct, one dormant, and two in +abeyance, but, for the many eminent and influential men sprung from +the race, who have distinguished themselves in the State, at the +King's Council table, in the Church, at the Bar, on the battlefield, +and in the walks of literature. During three centuries, from Edward +II. to Charles I., there have been of the Scropes--two Earls, twenty +Barons, one Baronet, one Archbishop, four Bishops, one Lord +Chancellor, four Lord Treasurers, five Knights of the Garter, several +Knights Banneret, many Wardens of the Scottish Marches, three +immortalised in the pages of Shakspeare, one, "Keen Lord Scrope," in +the ballad of "Kinmont Willie," and another in the ballad of "Flodden +Field." + +They were originally of Normandy, and in the reign of William I., +Osborne Fitz-Richard, their first English ancestor, held several +manors in the Western counties. The first mention of them in +connection with Yorkshire is in 1287, when they held eight carucates +of land at Bolton, where they built Bolton Castle. They rose rapidly +in importance, ramifying in various directions, mainly into two great +branches, those of Masham and Bolton, subsequently having mansions and +domains at Bolton Castle; Clifton Castle, Masham; Danby +Hall, Middleham; Upsall Castle, Thirsk; Croft-on-the-Tees, +Ellerton-upon-Swale, Spennithorne, and South Kilvington; and are now +represented by a junior branch, seated at Danby-super-Yore. + +Henry, seventh Baron Scrope, of Bolton, was one of the heroes of +Flodden, whose valour is sung in the ballad of Flodden Field. John, +eighth Baron, was implicated in the rebellion of the Pilgrimage of +Grace, but escaped the death of a traitor. Henry, ninth Baron, had +charge of Mary Queen of Scots, at Bolton. Henry, third Baron Scrope, +of Masham, was executed for treason, as was also Richard Scrope, +Archbishop of York. + +The time in which Sir William Scrope, K.G., Earl of Wiltes, and King +of the Isle of Man, lived, that of the reign of Richard II., was one +of the most eventful in the history of England. Richard, son of the +Black Prince, was born in 1367, and succeeded to the throne of his +grandfather, Edward III., at ten years of age, in 1377, the government +being vested in twelve councillors, his uncles being excluded +therefrom. He displayed signs of vigour and ability during the +insurrection under Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, when he met the rebels in +Smithfield, on which occasion the former was killed by Lord Mayor +Walworth; and in his invasion of Scotland, in 1385, when he penetrated +as far as Aberdeen, and burnt Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee; but +afterwards he threw himself into the arms of favourites, which excited +the jealousy of his uncles, when the Duke of Gloucester was chosen +head of the Council, and the parliament, called "wonderful," summoned +under his auspices, put two of his favourites to death, and +confiscated the property of the rest. When he reached the age of +twenty-two he threw off the trammels of guardianship, and for some +time ruled his kingdom with justice, but he possessed not the +necessary vigour to cope with the turbulent spirits by whom he was +surrounded, and still permitted himself to be governed by favourites, +of whom Sir William Scrope was one. + +Sir William might almost be said to be born a courtier. His father, +Richard, first Baron of Bolton; his uncle, Geoffrey, first Baron of +Masham; and his maternal uncle, Michael de la Pole, son of a Hull +merchant, and created Earl of Suffolk by Richard II., were all +foremost men about the Court in military, diplomatic, legislative, +judicial, and other capacities. His father was a statesman of rare +talent, and resigned his chancellorship in 1380, in consequence of the +anger of the young King at his protests against the lavish grants he +made to his favourites. Pole, Earl of Suffolk, and De Vere, Duke of +Ireland, with Brember, Mayor of London, and Tresilian, were the King's +favourites in his early days, but in 1388, Gloucester and the +confederated Barons attacked them, compelled the two former to take to +flight, and put to death the two latter. After their dispersion, Sir +William Scrope became one of the principal advisers and favourites of +the King, who loaded him with honours and wealth. He was constituted +Seneschal of Acquitaine in 1383; Governor of the town and castle of +Cherbourg in 1385; and Governor of Queensborough Castle in the same +year; was appointed Vice-Chamberlain of the Household in 1393, and +Lord Chamberlain in 1395. He was sent as Ambassador to France to +negotiate the marriage of the King, in 1395, and to treat for peace, +in 1397. He was nominated Justicier of Chester, North Wales, and +Flint, in 1397, and in the same year Surveyor of the Forests in +Cheshire. In 1397, he was created Earl of Wiltes; the following year +had charge of the castle of Guisnes; and in 1399, was appointed +guardian of the realm during the absence of the King in Ireland. He +was a faithful servant and attached friend to his master, and laid +down his life in his service. + +The causes of the deposition and death of Richard were his weak +character and his obnoxious mode of government, through favourites and +evil advisers, which were accelerated by the ambition and revenge of +his cousin Henry, Duke of Hereford, son of John of Gaunt, Duke of +Lancaster. The Duke of Hereford had a quarrel with Mowbray, Duke of +Norfolk, each accusing the other of treason, and the King consented +that the matter should be decided by combat at Coventry, but when the +lists were opened and the combatants mounted, lance in hand, ready to +commence the fight, the King commanded them to desist, and arbitrarily +condemned Norfolk to banishment from the realm for life, and Hereford +for ten years, the latter being granted the privilege of taking +possession, through his attorney, of any inheritances that might fall +to him during his absence. Whilst he was abroad his father, the Duke +of Lancaster, died, and the King, in violation of his promise, took +possession of his widely-spread lands in Yorkshire and elsewhere, +including Leeds, Kippax, Almondbury, and many another manor in the +county. Henry, now Duke of Lancaster, had speedy intelligence of this +from his attorney, and gathering a few followers together, took +shipping for England, and landed at Ravenspurn, in Holderness, at the +mouth of the Humber. His ostensible motive in coming to England, and +perhaps his real intention, was simply to obtain possession of his +inheritance, with, possibly, some vague ideas of vengeance for his +banishment. But, as he passed through Yorkshire, he was joined by the +Percies and other powerful families, who welcomed him back to +England, and the people flocked round his standard, so that when he +approached London he found himself at the head of a considerable army, +and then he threw off his disguise, and proclaimed that he had come to +deliver the kingdom from the evil advisers of the Crown. The King had +gone to Ireland to subdue an insurrection, and had left the Earl of +Wiltes as guardian of the realm, who, on hearing of the march of +Lancaster towards London, fled, with others, to Bristol, hoping to +join the King there on his return from Ireland. The Duke followed them +thither, laid siege to the castle, "where at length," says Walsingham, +"William le Scrope, John Busby, and Henry Grene, were taken prisoners, +and they were forthwith, on the morrow, beheaded, at the outcry of the +populace." The Duke had now fully resolved upon striking for the +Crown, although he was not the legitimate heir, even if Richard were +removed, and it was his usurpation which gave rise to the subsequent +War of the Roses. In furtherance of his project, he considered it +desirable to win over the citizens of London, and in order to +conciliate those who were opposed to the favourites, and terrify +those who were friendly to the King and his government, he sent +thither the heads of Scrope, Busby, and Grene, in a basket, with a +letter, in which he said--"I beg of you to let me know if you will be +on my side or not, and I care not which, for I have people enough to +fight all the world for one day. But take in good part the present I +have sent you," etc. This produced the effect he wished for, as the +Londoners at once espoused his cause. The King was soon after +captured, sent to Pontefract Castle, and there murdered, after a +formal deposition; and Henry, with the consent of Parliament, assumed +the crown. He called a Parliament together, who, in the first year of +his reign, passed an Act of Attainder and Confiscation against the +Earl of Wiltes and other of Richard's friends; and it was assumed that +the earldom thus became extinct, although legally it only became +dormant, and presents one of the most curiously complicated and +interesting cases that ever came before the Court of Heralds or the +House of Lords, paralleled only, perhaps, in interest by the famous +Scrope-Grosvenor heraldic dispute, between Sir Richard Scrope, the +Earl's father, and Sir Robert Grosvenor, as to the right to bear +"azure a bend or" on their shields of arms, in which 400 witnesses of +the highest rank appeared in evidence. + +The patent of the Earldom was thus made out:--"We, considering the +probity, the wise and provident circumspection, and the +illustriousness of manners and birth of our beloved and trusty William +le Scrope, Chevalier, and willing deservedly to exalt him by the +prerogative of honour, do create him in Parliament to be Earl of +Wiltes; and do invest him with the style, name, and honour of the +place aforesaid, by the girding of the sword, to have to him and his +heirs-male for ever. And in order that the Earl and his heirs +aforesaid, for the decency of so great a name and honour, may be the +better and the more honourably able to support the burdens incumbent +on the same, of our special grace we have given and granted, and by +this charter confirm, to the Earl and his heirs aforesaid, £20 to be +received every year out of the issues of the county of Wilton, by the +hands of the sheriff of the county for ever." The patent was made out +in this way, with remainder to his heirs-male, because, although +married, he had no issue by whom it might descend lineally, and it +would thus pass downward in the family through his collateral heirs, +his brothers or their children. In 1859, Simon Thomas Scrope, of +Danby, claimed the dormant Earldom, as heir-general of the grantee, on +the ground that the attainder was invalid, and the case occupied the +consideration of the House of Lords for ten years. In the first place, +the question arose whether by "heirs-general," collateral descendants +were meant, which was decided in the affirmative, and the claimant +then proved to the satisfaction of the House that he was the +heir-general. It was then contended that the attainder was invalid, as +taking up arms in defence of a reigning Sovereign could not by any +possibility be construed into treason; but, on the other hand, it was +argued that the attainder was legal, as it was an Act of the first +Parliament called by Henry. But it was shown that before Henry's +assumption of the crown, whilst the King was in captivity, he made +grants of the Earl's lands and goods in the name of the King, using +Richard's name and seal for the purpose, as he did also in issuing +writs for the summoning of a new Parliament, which were ante-dated so +as to appear to have been issued by the King, and this Parliament it +was which passed the Act of the Attainder. "This, of course," as +Elsynge says, "was entirely illegal, for as the Earl had been +illegally executed, without the pretence, or the possibility of a +pretence, of any legal charge or lawful trial, there could be nothing +to affect the legal rights which devolved upon his heirs, and a murder +could hardly create a forfeiture." Further, it was shown that all the +attainders of the Parliament of Henry were reversed by the first +Parliament of Edward IV., therefore, even if the attainder had been +perfectly legal, it became null and void by the subsequent reversal, +and consequently the title was now lying dormant, and belonged to the +heir-general of Sir William Scrope. This seems to be very simple, +clear, and logical, but the Lords of the nineteenth century thought +otherwise, and gave their decision that an Act of Parliament of the +fourteenth century should be held to be valid, simply because it was +an Act of Parliament, even although reversed by a subsequent Act, and +that, consequently, the claim could not be admitted. The legitimate +heir to the Earldom is, therefore, debarred from enjoying his title. +But if the principle which operated adversely to his claim were to be +set in motion retrospectively, many a proud coronet, even amongst +those who voted against the claim, would fall to the ground. + +It has been said by some authorities that Sir William was not the son +of Richard, first Baron Scrope of Bolton, but his nephew, and son of +Henry, first Baron Scrope of Masham. + +He purchased, _circa_ 1393, of William de Montacute, the sovereignty +of the Isle of Man, the lord of the island at that time possessing the +right of being crowned and styled king, although subject to the King +of England. + +At the time of the execution of the Earl, his brother Richard was +Archbishop of York, who is represented by Walsingham, as having been +"a pious and devout man, incomparably learned, of singular integrity, +and of a goodly and amiable personage," and was so grieved at the +murder of his brother, and so exasperated against the usurper +Bolingbroke, that he entered into conspiracy with the Earl of +Northumberland, who had been alienated from the King, and had lost his +son (Hotspur) at the battle of Shrewsbury, and with Mowbray, Earl of +Norfolk, son of the banished Earl, to dethrone King Henry. The +standard of revolt, emblazoned with the five wounds of Christ, was +raised at Shipton, near York, around which 20,000 Yorkshiremen ranged +themselves. The Archbishop imprudently made known his intentions too +openly, by fixing papers to church doors, charging the King with +usurpation, perjury, sacrilege, and murder; by sending circulars to +other counties calling upon the people to take up arms for his +dethronement; and preaching three sermons denouncing him as a _pseudo_ +King, and a traitor to his sovereign. The King, of course, soon heard +of these proceedings, and sent Prince John, afterwards Duke of +Bedford, and the Earl of Westmoreland, with 30,000 men, to put down +the insurrection. They found the conspirators so securely entrenched +in the forest of Galtres that they deemed it most prudent to resort to +a stratagem. By means of flattery and false promises they allured the +Archbishop from his shelter, and immediately arrested him for high +treason, taking him first to Pontefract and then to Bishopthorpe. The +King directed the famous Judge Gascoigne to try and sentence him, who +refused, saying that a Peer must be tried by his Peers. Judge +Fulthorpe, who was less scrupulous, was then appointed, and, with +scarcely the formality of a trial, condemned him to death. "Presently +after, he was set upon an ill-favoured jade, his face towards its +tail, and was carried with great scorn to a field hard by, where his +head was stricken off by a fellow that did his office very ill, not +being able to decapitate with less than five strokes." He was looked +upon as a martyr by the people, who flocked in crowds to pray at his +tomb and place of execution, which was forbidden by the King by +proclamation, and the Pope excommunicated all who were concerned in +his death. (See "The Loyal Martyr, 1722." Maydestone's "History of the +Martyrdom of Archbishop Scrope." "A Narrative of the Decollation of +Archbishop Scrope, by Thos. Gascoigne, D.D.," in MS. in the Bod. Lib.; +and "A Declaration of Archbishop Scrope against the Government of +Henry IV." in Ang. Sec., vol. 2.) + + + + +Black-faced Clifford. + + +Thomas, eighth Baron Clifford, is said by genealogists to have been +born in 1414, and that he was forty years of age when he fell at St. +Alban's; but he must have been nearer fifty than forty, as his son +John, ninth Baron, was born in 1430, when he would be but sixteen +years of age; but marriages were contracted early then. His daughter, +Elizabeth, was married at six years of age to Sir William Plumpton, +who, dying soon after, she was re-married to his brother, her father +stipulating that "they should not ligge together" until she had +arrived at the age of eighteen. He was a portly, soldierly-looking +figure, with a commanding presence, and a tone of voice calculated to +ensure obedience to his commands. He had spent the greater part of his +life, since the dawn of manhood, in the wars of France; was greatly +applauded for his capture of Pontoise by a clever stratagem, in 1438, +and two years afterwards won equal admiration for the skill and +bravery with which he defended it against the troops of King Charles +VII., and in 1445, he was entrusted with the high honour of escorting +to England, Margaret of Anjou, the bride of Henry VI. + +John, his son, was somewhat different, possessing neither the martial +figure, the open countenance, nor the genial manner of his father. His +frame was more slenderly proportioned, his face presented rather a +scowl than a smile, and his temperament inclined to a moroseness and +brooding, which rendered him cruel in war and disagreeable amongst his +private friends. + +It was a beautiful May morning in the year 1455; the sun was shining +brightly in the Vale of Craven. Breakfast was spread in the great hall +of the castle of the Cliffords. On the daïs at the upper end, sat, at +the cross table, Thomas, Lord Clifford, and his wife, the Lady Joan, a +daughter of Thomas, Lord Dacre, of Gillesland; his son John, with his +wife, Margaret, daughter of Henry Bromflete; Baron Vesey; and the +Prior of Bolton, who had come over on his mule to be present on this +occasion. Down the centre of the hall stretched the long table of +oaken planks resting on trestles, with benches on each side, on which +were seated the knights of the fees of Skipton, esquires, the priests +of the chapel, the secretary, the treasurer, the seneschal, the +constable, and other of the higher officials of the castle, with +others of meaner degree, all ranged higher or lower, above or below +the salt, according to their rank. The tables were loaded with +substantial fare--huge joints of beef, mutton, brawn, and venison; +saltfish, fresh herrings, and eels, with manchetts of bread in +trenchers, interspersed with foaming flagons of ale and pewter +tankards of sack. There was rudely cooked plenty, and keen appetites +to overlook the deficiency of delicacies. + +The conversation on the daïs turned upon the great topic of the +day--the manifest aspiration of Richard, Duke of York, to the Crown of +England, and the deposition of the imbecile and monkish-minded King +Henry VI. Henry of Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, fourth son of +Edward, had usurped the throne of his cousin, Richard II., and had +been succeeded by his son, Henry V., and his grandson, Henry VI., +which usurpation gave rise to the desolating War of the Roses, now +breaking out, and it could not be denied that Richard had a better +claim, as the representative, through Anne, his mother, of the Duke of +Clarence, than Henry had, as representative of the Duke of Lancaster. + +"The summons from the King arrived a week ago," said Lord Clifford in +reply to the Prior, "and you will perceive, Holy Father, that I have +lost no time in obeying it." + +"And a fine body of men you have gathered together," said the Prior, +"the flower of Craven, whom it would be difficult to match for rude +bravery and devotion to the will of their lord." + +"True," replied Clifford, "but we have opposed to us the men of the +Vale of Mowbray, under the Duke of Norfolk, and the stout men-at-arms +of Middleham, the followers of Warwick and Salisbury, all +Yorkshiremen, not less obstinately brave than those of Craven, to say +nothing of the Durham retainers of the Nevilles from Raby. But then we +shall have the powerful assistance of the Percys, with their troops +from Topcliffe and Leckonfield and Wressle, so that it must be a +fierce and bloody contest. I count but little upon the men of the +south and the west of England; it will be the valour of the north +which shall decide it." + +"Indeed, my lord," answered the Prior, "I foresee a long and bloody +war, when such powerful competitors are pitted against each other, and +I mourn over the thousands of desolated homesteads in Merry England, +as it is wont to be called; merry, alas! I fear not, for many a long +day to come." + +"Have you had any further tidings, sir," inquired the younger +Clifford, "of the movements of Richard of York?" + +"Nothing," replied his father, "but that he has raised his standard on +the borders of Wales, and is marching with his troops upon London, to +demand justice upon Somerset; and further, I have received information +that Salisbury, Warwick, and Mowbray, are hastening to join him. But +we must not waste more time; we must perform a long march before +sunset." + +A short service was held, and mass said in the chapel before the +leaders, by the Prior, and the head priest of the chapel extemporised +a religious service in the courtyard to the soldiers, who stood +bareheaded, and listened devoutly. In those days the lower classes, +however rough and barbarous they might be, implicitly believed what +was told them by the priests, without any dogmatic scruples whatever, +believing that the shriving of the priest or monk cleared off all old +scores of sin, and they might, without compunction, commence a fresh +score; the sum and substance of their religion being to serve their +feudal lord faithfully, accept the dogmas of the priest, and +contribute according to their means to the money-chests of the Church +and the monastery. + +There was but scant leave-taking; the women of that time were so +accustomed to parting with their husbands and sons for the French and +Scottish wars, that they looked upon it as a matter of course. Outside +the walls was a gathering of the wives, children, and sweethearts of +the rank and file, with whom there were some tender leave-takings from +those, so many of whom they would never more see, and who, despite +their rough exterior, possessed within them hearts beating with +affection and tenderness towards the cheerers of their cottage +firesides. + +The Royalists of Craven made but slow progress as they wended their +way southward. It was not until after some ten days' marching along +rough roads, entangled woods, the fording of rivers, and tramping +through morasses, that Lord Clifford and the men of Craven found +themselves on the borders of Hertfordshire. Here they met with a +messenger from the King, with information that Henry and Somerset, +with an army, small in number, but composed chiefly of nobles and +knights, men of experience and valour, had come forth from London to +meet the Yorkists, and would await Lord Clifford's arrival at Watford, +bidding him to speed with all haste to that rendezvous. Lord Clifford +and his son at this summons spurred on their chargers, leaving the +troops to follow. They found the King occupying a house in the small +town, and in conference with the Duke of Somerset, who had been +nominated by the Queen to the Generalship-in-chief of the forces; they +were admitted to the presence at once, and were cordially received by +Henry, Lord Clifford being high in his favour. The Yorkshire +contingent entered the town soon after, with their banners displayed +and trumpets sounding, and pitched their tents alongside those of the +King's army. A council of war was called in the evening, and Lord +Clifford had the gratification of meeting there his uncle Henry, +second Earl of Northumberland, now sixty years of age, King Henry V. +having reversed the attainder of his grandfather, for the Shrewsbury +and Bramham affairs, and restored him to the Percy estates and +dignities, since which he had won distinction by sharing in the glory +of Agincourt. At this council it was determined to march, on the +following morning, upon St. Alban's, as it was ascertained from scouts +that Richard of York, between whom and Somerset there was bitter +enmity, was marching in that direction with an army he had gathered +round him at Ludlow, which had been augmented on the road by the +contingents of his sympathisers, and was supposed to outnumber the +forces ranged under the Lancastrian banner. + +The following morning the tents around Watford were struck by +daylight; the troops breakfasted, and, with banners flying and +trumpets sounding, they commenced their march towards St. Alban's. Sir +Philip Wentworth carried the Royal standard; and with the King, as a +guard of honour, were Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham, and his son, Earl +Stafford; Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland; James Butler, Earl of +Wiltshire; Thomas, Lord Clifford; and other nobles of the first rank. + +As the army approached St. Alban's, they perceived the uplands in +front of them covered with armed men, moving rapidly along towards the +old Roman city, in battle array. On seeing this, the Lancastrians +halted, set up the Royal standard, with Lord Clifford and his Craven +men to guard the barriers. The Duke of Buckingham was sent to demand +of the Duke of York why he thus appeared before his Sovereign. Duke +Richard replied that he was loyal to the King, sought only for justice +upon Somerset, and would at once lay down his arms if he would +surrender him to be dealt with according to the laws of the kingdom. +The King, on receiving this message, displayed unwonted spirit, and +replied that "he would as soon give up his crown as deliver up either +Somerset or the meanest soldier in his camp to the mercy of the +Yorkists." This answer was final, and the Red and the White Rose met +for the first time in the struggle of battle. + +The Lancastrians had the advantage of position, and were so certain +of victory that Somerset issued orders that no quarter should be given +to the Yorkists, but the latter had firearms of a rude description, +which gave them a counter advantage. Clifford, however, kept them at +bay bravely, and prevented them from coming to close conflict. +Meanwhile, Warwick, with his northern warriors, entered the town from +the other side, and fell upon the King's troops with such vigour that, +as Hall says, "the King's army was profligate disposed, and all the +chieftains of the field almost slain and brought to confusion." The +barriers were at length burst, and York entered the town, and then in +the streets were heard the shouts of "A Warwick! a Warwick!" on the +other side "A York! a York!" and in the midst the war cries of "King +Henry! a Somerset! a Percy! a Clifford!" etc., all intermingled with +the clash of swords upon armour and shield; the whir of arrows flying +through the air; the groans of wounded and dying men, and the screams +of flying women; whilst the market-place was strewn with the bodies of +fallen men, and the streets flowed with blood. Shakspeare makes +Clifford fall at the hand of the Duke of York. Warwick enters +crying-- + + "Clifford of Cumberland, 'tis Warwick calls! + And if thou do'st not hide thee from the bear + Now when the angry trumpet sounds alarm + And dead men's cries do fill the empty air, + Clifford, I say, come forth and fight with me! + Proud northern lord, Clifford of Cumberland, + Warwick is hoarse with calling thee to arms." + +York, however, interposes, and claims the right of fighting with him. + + "_Clifford._--What seest thou in me, York? Why dost thou pause? + + _York._--With thy brave bearing I should be in love, + But that thou art so fast mine enemy. + + _Clifford._--Nor should thy prowess want praise and esteem, + But that 'tis shown ignobly and in treason. + + _York._--So let it help me now against thy sword, + As I in justice and true right express it! + + _Clifford._--My soul and body on the action both! + + _York._--A dreadful lay!--address thee instantly. + + (_They fight, and Clifford falls._) + + _Clifford._--La fin couronne les oeuvres. (_Dies._) + + _York._--Thus war hath given thee peace, for thou art still. + Peace with his soul, Heaven, if it be Thy will." + +The slaughter of Lord Clifford at the hands of the Duke of York is the +keynote to young Clifford's subsequent ruthless hatred of the House of +York. Coming up to the body of his father, Shakspeare puts these words +into his mouth-- + + "Wast thou ordain'd, dear father, + To lose thy youth in peace, and to achieve + The silvery livery of advised age, + And in thy reverence, and thy chair-days thus + To die in ruffian battle? Even at this sight + My heart is turn'd to stone; and while 'tis mine + It shall be stony. York not our old men spares: + No more will I their babes; tears virginal + Shall be to me even as the dew to fire; + And beauty, that the tyrant oft reclaims, + Shall, to my flaming wrath, be oil and flax. + Henceforth I will not have to do with pity + Meet I an infant of the house of York, + Into as many gobbets will I cut it + As wild Medea young Absyrtus did. + In cruelty will I seek out my fame. + Come thou new ruin of old Clifford's house. + (_Taking up the body._) + As old Æneas did Anchises bear, + So bear I thee upon my manly shoulders. + But then Æneas bore a living load, + Nothing so heavy as these woes of mine." + +Although the Lancastrians fought bravely, nothing could withstand the +superior number of the Yorkists, combined, as it was, with the +military skill and impetuous valour of the Earl of Warwick, and in a +short space of time there lay dead the Duke of Somerset and the Earls +of Northumberland and Stafford; and the Duke of Buckingham and the +Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond grievously wounded. Thus deprived of +their chief leaders, the King being a mere cipher, the Lancastrians +threw down their weapons and fled, Wentworth flinging down the Royal +standard and spurring his horse in the direction of Suffolk. The poor +King was captured; but York treated him with great courtesy and +kindness, conducted him to St. Alban's Abbey, where they prayed +together at the shrine of the martyr, and then went together, victor +and vanquished, to London. + +The Yorkists were now in the ascendant, but acted with great +moderation. There were no executions and no attainders; so Clifford +succeeded to the title and kept the estates. The King was again +attacked by his old malady, and again was Richard of York appointed +Protector; but Queen Margaret now began to exhibit her qualities, and +to intrigue in politics. She was truly an able and brave woman, but +vindictive and rash. She succeeded in ousting York from the +Protectorship, and took measures for crushing him effectually; and +again the flames of war broke out. + +Lord Clifford did not, under these circumstances, sit at home brooding +over his misfortunes and the bitterness of his hatred to the house of +York. He was always on the alert, at London or elsewhere, attending on +Councils of State or engaged in the field. He fought at Bloreheath, +in 1459, and at Northampton, in 1460, on both of which occasions his +party suffered a defeat; but Margaret, nothing daunted, raised an army +of 18,000 men, and proceeded at their head into Yorkshire, in face of +the frosts and snows of the December of 1460. The Duke of York, with a +small army of 5,000 men, went from London and threw himself into +Sandal Castle, by Wakefield, there to await the arrival of his son +Edward, Earl of March, who was mustering forces in the Welsh Marches. +The Queen came with her army upon Wakefield Green, with the Duke of +Somerset, son of the slain Duke, in chief command, and Clifford and +Wiltshire, son of the Earl who fell at St. Alban's, in command of +ambuscades, one on each side. Then, aware of her numerical +superiority, she appeared before Sandal, and summoned the Duke to come +forth and fight her. "What, are you afraid of encountering an army led +by a woman? Cowardly poltroon! can you be fit to wear the crown of +England, who shut yourself up in a castle against a woman?" York +called a council of war, and was earnestly dissuaded against running +the hazard of a battle before the arrival of his son; but, taunted by +the jeers of the Queen, he felt that his honour was concerned in +fighting at once, despite the numerical odds, and forth he went with +his small army, not one-third that of the Queen. + +The Duke sallied forth and met Somerset, with a comparatively small +force, on Wakefield Green, whom he attacked with great vigour, +anticipating, with his better-disciplined men, an easy victory; but +the ambuscades under Clifford and Wiltshire came out upon his flanks, +whilst a contingent of Northern Borderers attacked his rear, and thus, +completely surrounded, his small force succumbed, the White Rose +drooped, and the Red, for the first time, was triumphant. This battle +brought to an end the ambitious aspirations of Richard of York. He was +one of the first to fall, and with him Sir Thomas Neville, Lord +Salisbury's son, and Lord Harrington, the husband of Katherine +Neville, his daughter. Lord Salisbury himself was wounded, but not +sufficiently to prevent his galloping off from the scene. Clifford +however, followed in hot pursuit, captured, and sent him to Pontefract +Castle, where he was at once beheaded. + +Previously, however, to his pursuit of the father, Clifford was guilty +of that dastardly act upon his son, the Earl of Rutland, which has +stamped his name with infamy, and has given significance to his +sobriquet of "Black-faced Clifford." The Duke of York had with him, in +Sandal Castle, his family, including the youthful Earl of Rutland. +Boy-like, he must needs go and see the battle, and nothing could +dissuade him. "I will go," said he, "and see my father kill the cruel +Queen; and when I am a man I will go and fight, and kill his enemies +too." "A battle is not a place, Lord Edmund," replied his tutor and +chaplain, Sir Robert Aspall, "for boys. A stray arrow might kill you." +"Think not, sir priest," replied the brave boy, "that a son of Richard +of York is afraid of an arrow! Stay under shelter of these walls, like +craven priest, if you will; I shall go and see the deeds of men who +are men!" Seeing that nothing could turn the boy from his purpose, his +tutor resolved to go with him to keep him out of harm's way, nothing +loth himself to witness the conflict of arms. When the battle was +over, and the vanquished flying, Sir Robert led his charge, away +towards Sandal. They had not proceeded far, when they encountered a +steel-clad warrior on horseback, with blood dropping from his sword. +Perceiving from his apparel that he was a youth of distinction, the +warrior dismounted, and, holding his horse by the reins, inquired who +he was. "Then," as Hall says, "the young gentleman, dismayed, had not +a word to speak, but kneeled on his knees, imploring mercy and +desiring grace, both with holding up his hands and making dolorous +countenance, for his speech was gone for fear. 'Save him,' said his +chaplain, 'for he is a Prince's son, and peradventure may do you good +hereafter.' With that word Lord Clifford marked him, and said, 'By +God's blood! thy father slew mine, and so will I do to thee and all +thy kin,' and with that word, struck the Earl to the heart with his +dagger, and bade the chaplain bear the Earl's mother and brother word +what he had done, and said, adding, 'By this act, Lord Clifford was +accompted a tyrant and no gentleman.'" + +Not satisfied with this cowardly act of vindictiveness, Lord Clifford +resolved to carry his vengeful hatred on, by insulting the dead. He +returned to the field, now strewn with corpses, sought for, and found +that of the Duke of York, and cutting off his head, stuck it upon a +lance and carried it, as the most acceptable trophy, to the tent of +the Queen, who received it with ill-timed merriment and jest. +She made a paper crown and placed it on the head, with an +inscription--"This is he who would have been King of England," and +gave directions for it to be conveyed, along with that of Salisbury, +to York, and placed over one of the gates, adding, "Leave room for the +head of my Lord of Warwick, for it shall soon bear them company!" + +Queen Margaret, flushed with her victory, marched towards London, but +met with the Earl of Warwick, in February, 1461, at St. Alban's, and +there defeated him, after which the poor captive King was released and +brought to his Queen in Lord Clifford's tent. But Edward, the quondam +Earl of March, now Duke of York, had come up and joined Warwick, who, +together, entered London and were welcomed by the citizens, who +favoured the house of York. Margaret, fearing to meet their united +forces, returned northward, her strongholds and most devoted friends +being in the northern counties, especially on the Scottish borders, +whither she was followed by Duke Edward. She had come to York, and lay +there with 60,000 men, when she heard that York and Warwick had +reached Pontefract with an army of 40,000 men. Anxious to prevent the +passage of the Aire by the enemy, she moved to Towton, some eight +miles off York, and there was fought the memorable and decisive battle +which placed the crown on the head of Edward IV. The Lancastrians had +seized Ferrybridge under Lord Fitzwalter, and Clifford, as courageous +as he was cruel, undertook to dislodge him, which he accomplished. But +Lord Falconbridge crossed the Aire three miles higher, at Castleford, +and attacked Clifford in the flank with a superior force. Clifford +fled towards the Queen's camp, and when he arrived at Dittingdale, two +miles off Towton, feeling thirsty after his exertions, he removed his +gorget and stooped to drink at a streamlet, when an arrow struck him +in the throat, and the murderer of Rutland and insulter of the dead +Richard of York fell to rise no more. + + + + +The Shepherd Lord. + + +For ever memorable in the annals of England will be Palm Sunday in the +year 1461, and equally so the little hamlet of Towton, by Tadcaster. +There and then was fought, in a blinding snowstorm, what Camden calls +"the English Pharsalia," the greatest battle hitherto fought on +English soil, where Englishman met Englishman, and kinsman kinsman, in +deadly conflict, and in which quarter was neither asked nor given. The +conflict lasted ten hours, and the pursuit of the fugitives was +continued until the middle of Monday. 60,000 Lancastrians were met by +40,000 Yorkists, and 36,000 corpses and dying men lay that Sunday +night on the snow of the fields, roads, and hillsides, whilst the +river and streamlets ran with torrents of blood, and the snow became +encrimsoned as it fell. The fight inclined in favour of the Red Rose, +under the command of the Duke of Somerset, although York and Warwick +performed prodigies of valour with their smaller forces, and the day +must have gone against the White Rose, when, towards evening, the +banner of the Mowbrays was seen approaching, and the Duke of Norfolk +came up with a body of fresh troops, who made a vigorous attack on the +Lancastrians, which at once turned the scale, and changed what seemed +to be a defeat into a decisive victory, which was virtually the +deposition of Henry VI., and the elevation of Edward IV. to the +throne--a transference of the crown from the House of Lancaster to +that of York. + +The shades of evening were falling over the forest lands around +Skipton, some week or ten days after the battle. The surrounding hills +were covered with snow, and a fierce wind raged round the towers of +the castle, whilst the boughs of the trees crashed against each other, +and ever and anon a huge branch, reft from the parent stem, was flung +with fury to the earth. + +Within the castle, in a room overlooking the courtyard, sat the Lady +Clifford, with her young children, two or three female attendants, and +the chaplain of the household. It was very unlike a modern +drawing-room, and, in these Sybarite days, would be looked upon as a +very comfortless apartment; yet was it a fair specimen of the +drawing-room of the period. Instead of Axminster or Aubusson carpets, +the floors were strewn with rushes; instead of oil paintings from the +hands of eminent masters, the walls were hung with tapestries of +Arras, more to cover the rough nakedness of the stonework and exclude +draughts than for æsthetic purposes; the furniture of the room +consisted of a table, two or three chairs, and a few stools of rough +carpentry, not in mahogany or rosewood, but of the native oak, hewn +out of the woodlands of the demesne. On the hearthstone blazed a fire +of wood, sputtering as the sleet fell into it down the wide open +chimney. There was no grate, fender, or fire-irons, but beside the +hearth lay a heap of fresh wood, to be thrown on the fire as required; +and when the embers required stirring, a stick from the heap was used +for that purpose. + +Lady Clifford sat in silence, brooding in thought over her absent +husband, with an occasional heavy-drawn sigh; the children were +gambolling about the room in innocent unconsciousness of the perils +to which their father was exposed; the chaplain joined in their romps, +and amused them by telling them tales of Fairyland and the good deeds +of holy saints; and the handmaidens were sitting apart, plying their +distaffs and spinning-wheels, and indulging in the usual gossip of an +isolated castle and the surrounding village, but maintained it in an +undertone, so as not to disturb the meditations of their lady. + +"What a fearful night it is," said Lady Clifford, as a terrific gust +of wind came roaring round the towers of the castle, seeming almost to +shake them to their foundations, stoutly as they were built. "It is +terrible even here, sitting as we are under the protection of these +strong walls; what must it be to those who are exposed to its fury, +camped, perchance, on some wild moor, and surrounded by enemies?" + +At this moment a trumpet summons for admittance to the castle was +heard; and presently the seneschal entered the room, stating that a +knight was without the gate with tidings of great importance. + +"Who is he?" asked Lady Clifford. "Do you know him?" + +"Yes, my lady, he is Sir John de Barnoldswick, who accompanied my +lord, and I fear me he brings intelligence of evil import." + +"Admit him instantly, and bring him hither." + +The rattling of the chains of the drawbridge was heard, and the sound +of opening the ponderous castle gates, followed by the tramping of a +horse in the courtyard, and the heavy footsteps of a steel-clad +warrior on the stone stairs, and a tall, martial-looking figure, but +with melancholy gait and drooping head, entered the room and made a +profound obeisance to the lady of the castle, but without speaking a +word of salutation. + +"Whence comest thou, Sir Knight, and what are thy tidings?" inquired +Lady Clifford, in tremulous accents. + +"I come from the field of battle, lady, and my tidings are evil." + +"Let us hear them; I am a soldier's wife, and ought not to shrink from +calamitous intelligence," she replied, although her nervous trembling +belied her utterance. + +"Know, then, lady, that a great and disastrous battle has been fought +near Tadcaster, and the Lancastrian cause lost. I fought till the +last under the Clifford banner; saw many a brave fellow of the Vale of +Craven fall around me, and barely escaped to bring the news hither." + +"And what of the King and the brave Queen Margaret?" + +"Alas! I know not; they and the Prince of Wales were in York when the +battle was fought. All I know is that Somerset and the King's troops +were utterly defeated, and fled northward, with Warwick and the Duke +of York in hot pursuit." + +"And what of my lord? Fled he too? He would never turn his back to the +foes of his King." + +"He did not, lady; had he been present, the result might have been +different. He was not in the engagement." + +"What mean you by 'not in the engagement'? Surely he, of all men, +would not stand aloof on such an occasion?" + +"Alas! lady, I fear to tell you why." + +"Speak, man! is he dead? or why was he absent?" + +"It is too true, lady, that he can no longer fight in defence of his +King." + +"Then he is dead!" cried Lady Clifford, in an agony of despair. + +"He fell, my lady, on the eve of the battle, after a glorious act of +valour, by a random shot. Heaven rest his soul!" + +"Heaven help my poor children!" cried Lady Clifford, and fell to the +floor in a swoon, the mother's instinctive love for her offspring +prevailing over her grief for her own loss. And truly, she had reason +to fear for them. Her husband, "Black-faced Clifford," as he was +called, had an inveterate hatred for the House of York; he had +murdered, in cold blood, the young Duke of Rutland, brother of Edward +of York; had cut off the head of Richard, Duke of York; and had caused +the Earl of Salisbury, father of Warwick, to be executed at +Pontefract; and it was tolerably certain that York, the future King, +and Warwick, his General, would seek to take vengeance on the children +of him who had committed those atrocities. + +The Dukes of York and Warwick marched triumphantly to York, and were +submissively received by the authorities, and there they celebrated +the festival of Easter with great splendour. Hastings, Stafford, and +others had been made Knights-Bannerets on the field; Devon and Wilts +were decapitated by martial law, and their heads placed on the bar +gate of York, whence those of Richard of York and the Earl of +Salisbury, the fathers of York and Warwick, had been removed; and, +after settling affairs in the north, the victors marched to London, +and were welcomed by the citizens with loud demonstrations of joy, the +Londoners being staunch Yorkists. + +Lady Clifford prepared to meet her untoward fate, and took measures +for the safety of her children. Her old friend, the venerable Prior of +Bolton, who had made himself acquainted with all that had taken place +since the battle of Towton, so far as could be learnt in that remote +spot, mounted his mule and rode over to the Castle. He was received +courteously and with dutiful reverence by Lady Clifford, and, +moreover, with joy, as she wished to consult him, above all others, as +to her future line of conduct. + +"I am at a loss, holy father, to think what I can do. I suppose there +is no hope of retrieval on the part of Queen Margaret?" + +"I am afraid not. The Queen is endeavouring to raise another army in +the north, but I fear with little chance of success." + +"What, then, will be the effect upon the adherents of the House of +Lancaster? I suppose executions, attainders, and confiscations?" + +"Precisely so; and Lord Clifford, one of the most bitter foes of the +House of York, will certainly be included in the first list, his title +extinguished, and his estates confiscated." + +"And my poor children will thus lose all their inheritance; but it is +not that I dread this so much as the vengeance of the Duke--King now, +I presume--and of the Earl of Warwick. I fear me that even if their +lives are not sacrificed, they will be cast into dungeons, to languish +out their lives." + +"Your apprehensions, my daughter, are, unfortunately, but too +well-founded, and we must consult on some measures for their safety. +You need not fear molestation until Edward has seated himself securely +on the throne, and will be safer within the walls of this castle than +elsewhere. But it will be wise to make provision for removal to some +secure retreat as soon as the Acts of Attainder have passed, and the +King begins to take vengeance on his foes, for then Skipton will pass +into other hands." + +"I bethink me of such a place," said Lady Clifford. "Your council is +wise. I can go to the mansion of my father, Lord Vesci, on his +Londesborough estates, near Market Weighton, where it will be possible +to reside as far removed from the world as if out of the world. There +I could bring up my children, without notice, until the cloud had +passed over, or until a change in the wheel of fortune shall restore +the House of Lancaster to the throne." + +After some further discussion, the Prior saw that this was the best +plan that could be adopted; and it was arranged that measures should +be taken for departure at any moment, when there should be indications +of the towers of Skipton becoming untenable, and, after a parting +benediction, the reverend Prior mounted his mule, and returned home. + +King Edward lost no time in taking steps to paralyse effectually any +further efforts on the part of the adherents of the rival House. He +called together a Parliament, and one of the first measures laid +before it was an Act of Attainder against all the nobles and men of +rank who had appeared in arms against his legitimate claim to the +crown, which, now that he had been successful, was deemed treason. The +demesnes of John, Lord Clifford, extended for seventy miles, with an +interval of ten, from Skipton into the heart of Westmoreland, with +four castles--those of Brougham, Appleby, Brough, and Pendragon, +besides that of Skipton. The Westmoreland estates, with the tenure +Baronies of Vipont and Westmoreland, had been inherited by Robert de +Clifford, third baron, from his great-aunt, Isabella, daughter and +co-heiress of the last male heir of the family of De Vipont. By the +Act of Attainder all these fair lands and castles were reft away from +the family, the Barony of de Clifford was declared to be extinct for +ever, and all the estates, forests, moors, castles, tenements, mills, +and goods escheated to the Crown. In the fourth of the reign, the +castle, manor, and lordship of Skipton, and the manor of Morton were +granted in tail male to Sir Edward Stanley, but in the fifteenth year +were transferred to the King's brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, +to hold till death. + +It is proverbial that bad news flies rapidly, and it was not long ere +news arrived at Skipton and Bolton of the Act of Attainder. The Prior +had come over to the castle to advise with Lady Clifford. "You must +take your departure at once," said he. "The agents of the usurper will +be here anon and take possession in the name of the King, and it is +not at all improbable that they will have instructions to remove your +children from your care, and immure them in some place of captivity, +if nothing worse befalls them, as the offspring of one of the most +determined enemies of the House of York." + +"I have sent a confidential servant," she replied, "to Lord Vesci, my +father, who sends word back that preparation shall be made for my +reception at Londesborough." + +"Nothing remains, then," said the Prior, "but to secure your jewels +and other portable articles of value, with such of the family papers +as you may deem it wise to preserve, and to set off on your journey, +with an escort sufficient for your protection, but not so large as to +attract undue notice." + +Lady Clifford had left the castle in charge of the seneschal, to +deliver it into the King's hands, and rode forth on a palfrey, +disguised as a farmer's wife. She was accompanied by three or four +horsemen in similar disguise, with whom the children rode, and was +followed at some distance by some half-dozen servitors clad as +peasants, but bearing concealed weapons for the purpose of defence, if +needful, as it was probable that they might meet with disbanded +soldiers, who might not be over scrupulous in waylaying and robbing +chance travellers. The party, as far as possible, went along by-ways, +so as to escape observation, but these were sometimes so rough as to +compel them to take the more beaten high roads, and, passing by Otley, +Tadcaster, and York, arrived at Londesborough without any mishap or +adventure of consequence. + +Londesborough is supposed to have been the Delgovitia of the Romans, +and was seated at the foot of the road from Eboracum, one branch going +to the ferry over the Humber at Brough, and the other across +Holderness to the seaport at Ravenspurn. It is presumed, also, that +the Saxon king, Eadwine, had a palace here, and that within its walls +he held his conference with Paulinus, which resulted in the demolition +of the temple of Woden at Goodmandingham, two miles distant. The De +Vescis had built a mansion here, and laid out a park with a noble +avenue of trees, a mile in length, in which Lady Clifford had played +when a child, Londesborough having been her birthplace. The estates +passed at the death of Henry de Bromflete, in 1466, to his daughter, +Margaret, and through her to the De Cliffords, in whose possession +they remained until the death, without issue male, of Henry V., and +last Earl of Cumberland, when they passed, by the marriage of his +daughter and heiress, to the Earl of Burlington, of the Boyle family. +The old mansion was taken down in 1819, and the park divided into +farms. + +It was with a feeling of melancholy satisfaction that Lady Clifford +found herself in a species of security in her ancestral home, and she +longed to ramble at will about the park and village, as she had been +wont to do in bygone days, but it was not prudent to indulge in such +pleasures, her position necessitating the utmost seclusion of herself +and children from the outer world. About a month afterwards she sent a +messenger secretly to Skipton, to ascertain what had occurred there +since she left, and on his return learnt that the King's Commissioners +had visited the Castle and taken possession of it and the estates in +the name of the Crown; moreover, that they had made particular +inquiries after Lady Clifford and "the brats of the Butcher of +Wakefield," but were put off by being told by the domestics in charge +that they had left Skipton a month ago, and gone they knew not where, +but believed to some country across the sea. The Yorkists, however, +seem to have suspected that this was not the truth, and shortly +afterwards strangers of sinister aspect were observed to be lurking +about Londesborough. This excited great terror in the breast of Lady +Clifford, who saw clearly that her children were in great danger, and +she took prompt measures for their safety. She had three +children--Henry, the eldest, about seven years of age; Richard, the +younger son; and a daughter--Elizabeth, affianced to one of the +Plumptons of Plumpton. She soon decided on her plans. The maid who had +nursed her when a child, had married a shepherd on the estate, and +Henry was placed under her charge, to be brought up as her child, to +live as his foster-parents lived, and follow the occupation of tending +sheep on the hillsides, in which measure, he, being an intelligent +child, cheerfully acquiesced, assumed the shepherd's garb, and +attended to the duties of his new station without the slightest +murmur, his sole regret being the enforced absence from his mother. +Richard was sent in charge of a careful servant to Ravenspurn, and +thence carried across the sea to Flanders, whilst Elizabeth, who, it +was supposed, would not be molested, remained as the sole comfort and +solace of her mother. These measures were not taken a moment too soon, +for "a little after they were thus disposed of, the adverse party +examined their mother about them, who told them that she had ordered +them to be carried beyond sea to be bred up there; but whether they +were alive or not she could not tell, which answer satisfied them for +the present," and, after making strict search without effect, they +departed. + +In 1466, Lord de Vesci died, and Lady Clifford, as his heiress, +succeeded to his estates, when a rumour reached Londesborough from the +Court that the King suspected that the children were in concealment +there, upon which Lady Clifford sent the shepherd, with his wife and +young Henry, to a farm in a remote and wild part of Cumberland, where +there were few inhabitants, and no roads upon which passengers would +travel, excepting from one sheep track to another. In this lonely +solitude, tending his sheep on the bleak hills, Henry grew up from +boyhood to youth, and from youth to manhood--a mere shepherd and +little more. His fare was that of an ordinary peasant--oaten or rye +bread, occasionally swine flesh, and water from the running brook. His +bed consisted of sheepskins on a heap of straw, and his shelter from +the inclemency of the weather a straw-thatched cottage. He associated +with the few scattered people of the district as one of themselves, +and joined the young men in the rude sports of the period. He grew up +without any education whatever, and knew neither how to read nor +write; yet he had a soul attuned to higher things, and when abroad at +night with his sheep would observe the constellations in the heavens, +and weave theories in his own mind relative to the origin, motions, +and uses of the glittering specks which studded the firmament over his +head, a study which he afterwards pursued with more intelligence, in +company with the Canons of Bolton at Barden Tower. Thus he lived until +his thirty-second year, thinking only to live and die a Cumberland +shepherd, and possibly to marry, and be the progenitor of a race of +peasants, who should have no reminiscences of the glories of Skipton, +or the martial deeds of their illustrious ancestors. + +The political world of England, however, had not stood still in the +interval, mighty events had been taking place. Edward, the King, had +been gathered to his fathers, after the judicial murder of his +brother, the Duke of Clarence. His sons, Edward V. and the Duke of +York, were murdered by their uncle, Richard of Gloucester, who usurped +the throne. Henry, Earl of Richmond, with Lancastrian blood in his +veins, invaded England, and the battle of Bosworth was fought in the +year 1485, when the usurper Richard was slain, and Richmond ascended +the throne as King Henry VII. + +The Yorkist dynasty having now come to an end, there remained no more +fear for the Cliffords. The shepherd was brought from the fells of +Cumberland to Londesborough. Soon after the Attainder was reversed, +the confiscated estates restored, and the Clifford banner again +floated in the breeze from the towers of Skipton. But the Shepherd +Lord felt not at home amid the splendours of his castle, and he fitted +up one of the keeper's lodges in Barden Forest for his residence, +where he lived in great simplicity, spending his days in hunting and +his nights in watching the stars, and studying astronomy with the +Canons of Bolton, with such rude instruments as were then to be +procured. + +In 1513, when about sixty years of age, he received a summons to +attend the expedition into Scotland, with a contingent of men-at-arms, +and held a command at the battle of Flodden, where he displayed the +hereditary military skill and valour of the Cliffords. + + "From Penigent to Pendle Hill, + From Linton to Long Addingham, + And all that Craven coasts did till, + They with the lusty Clifford came. + All Staincliffe Hundred went with him, + With striplings strong from Wharfedale, + And all that Hauton Hills did climb, + With Longstroth eke and Litton dale, + Whose milk-fed fellows, fleshly bred, + Well brown'd, with sounding bows upbend, + All such as Horton fells had fed, + On Clifford's banners did attend." + + --_Ballad of Flodden Field._ + +He survived the battle ten years, died in 1523, at about the +seventieth year of his age, and was buried with his ancestors in the +church of Bolton. + +Margaret, Lady Clifford, married for her second husband, Launcelot +Threlkeld, and bore him three daughters. She survived her first +husband thirty years, and the restitution seven years, dying in 1491, +at Londesborough. She was buried in the church there, near the altar, +under a slab, with an inlaid brass plate bearing the following +inscription:--"Orate pro anima Margarete, D'ne Clifford et Vescy, olim +spouse nobilissimi viri joh'is D'm Clifford et Westmoreland, filie et +hereditis Henrici Bromflet, quondam D'ni Vescy, etc. ... Matris +Henrici Domini Clifford, Westmoreland et Vescy, quae obiit 15 die mens +Aprilis, Anno Domini 1491, cujus corpus sub hoc marmore est humatum." + + + + +The Felons of Ilkley. + + +The town of Ilkley, on the Wharfe, now so well known to tourists for +the beauty of its situation and the grandeur of the natural scenery +surrounding it, and to invalids for the invigorating and restorative +qualities of its waters, is a place of very ancient date. It was built +and fortified by the proprætor, Virius Lupus, in the time of the +Emperor Severus, the fortress being situated on a precipitous bank of +the Wharfe, and a cohort stationed there. Remains of the intrenchments +are still to be seen, and altars, sepulchral stones, and other +memorials of the Roman Olicaria have frequently been disinterred. +Under the Saxons, too, it was a place of some importance, with a +church and priest. In the churchyard there are some remarkable relics +of this age, consisting of three stone crosses, with curiously +convoluted knots and scroll work. Afterwards it sank into a mere +village, but with a grammar school, founded in 1601 by the +parishioners, and so remained until recent times, when the fame of its +salubrious springs went forth over the land and attracted crowds of +fashionable invalids and hypochondriacs. + +It was in the latter half of the seventeenth century, when the reign +of the Puritans had come to an end, and the "Merry Monarch" had been +restored to the throne of the Stuarts, bringing with him the +profligate, licentious, and profane manners of the Court of +Versailles, that one fine summer's afternoon a party of roysterers, +who had been at a cock-fight, burst into the kitchen of the mud-built +and thatched alehouse of Ilkley, calling upon Mistress Laycock, the +alewife, for sundry flagons of ale wherewith to moisten their throats, +parched and dry with halloaing and shouting out bets at the cocking +match. The twenty years' rule of the Puritans, with the suppression of +sports, theatres, and other amusements, and the substitution of long +sermons and long prayers, had produced the natural reaction, and now +the people of Ilkley, as in other places, returned with renewed zest +to their bull-baiting, dog fights, cudgel matches, and their more +innocent amusements of dancing round the maypole, holding yule-feasts +and village fairs, and mumming in grotesque masquerade on Plough +Monday. + +The roysterers who thus boisterously invaded Dame Laycock's kitchen +were Tom Heber, a young scapegrace, son of Reginald Heber, a +barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple, and an offshoot of the ancient +family of Heebeare, who had been settled in Craven for some centuries. +He had been brought up in the old gabled and cross-timbered house of +his father in Ilkley, had been well educated, and was a clever and +accomplished young fellow; moreover, his father had taken him once or +twice to London, and he had been a witness of the revels and +immoralities of Whitehall, which struck his fancy as being the +perfection of human bliss. His companions this afternoon were Will +Hudson, the village cobbler, who infinitely preferred swaggering at a +bull-baiting to hammering at the lapstone; Walter Pollard, a shoeing +smith, whose feats at tossing off the contents of a blackjack were the +admiration of his comrades; Jack Smithers, a journeyman flesher, whose +dog was the pride of the village for his pluck in tackling any animal +of his size or more than his size; and two or three other +rapscallions of the village, who were ever foremost in a brawl, and +more frequently seen in the purlieus of the alehouse than in pursuit +of their proper vocations. + +These worthies had now seated themselves on the long-settle which +faced a fire of wood on the hearth-stone, over which swung a large +cauldron, and called out vociferously for the ale. "Now then, Mother +Laycock," shouted Heber, "when is this ale coming?" "The old score's +not paid yet, Master Thomas," replied she, from another room, "and I +told you that I would not draw another pint until that was paid." "Oh! +you won't, won't you; then your crockery shall suffer for your +obstinacy; so here goes," and down he dashed an earthenware jug on the +floor, upon which she rushed in, and opening a cupboard door, showed a +long score chalked against him. "Oh! hang the score," said he, "you +know I shall pay you some day; my father cannot be so hard as to keep +me entirely without money." "But, Master Thomas, I cannot afford to +give such long trust." "Now, Mistress Laycock, you know I am a good +customer, and always pay in the long run; is this ale forthcoming?" +and down he threw another piece of crockery, adding, "It shall all go +if you do not bring the ale." The old dame, terrified at the breakage +of her pots, then gave in and produced the ale, adding it to the score +on the cupboard door. + +The ale jug passed merrily round, and the conversation turned first +upon the points of the cock-fight they had been witnessing, and then +upon the merits of the competitors in a wrestling match which was +coming off the following Sunday. They then began to complain of their +scant fortunes, not attributing it at all to their lack of industry in +business. "I'll tell you what it is," said Heber, "it's a parlous +shame that my father keeps me so short of money." "It is! it is!" +echoed his companions. "He has brought me up as a gentleman, and given +me a good education, but does not allow me the means to support that +position, and I say again that it is cursed shame; but never mind, +boys, the time is coming when I shall have plenty of gold to scatter +about amongst you, my jolly companions." "Brayvo! brayvo! three cheers +for Squire Heber." "Meanwhile," continued he, "it is the best +philosophy to make the best of what we have, to enjoy life as much as +we can, to dance, and drink, and sing, and fling dull care to the +winds. So drink, boys! drink! and I will sing you one of Cowley's new +songs which I picked up in London." And he trolled forth-- + + "Fill the bowl with rosy wine; + Around our temples roses twine; + And let us cheerfully awhile, + Like the vine and roses smile, + Crown'd with roses we contemn + Gyges' wealthy diadem. + + To-day is ours; what do we fear? + To-day is ours; we have it here. + Let's treat it kindly, that it may + Wish, at least, with us to stay. + Let's banish business; banish sorrow; + To the gods belongs to morrow." + +Of course, the song was rapturously applauded by the listeners, who +caught the general sentiment, but were unable to understand the +allusions or appreciate the refinement of the language. Suddenly Heber +exclaimed--"Lads! a bright thought has flashed across my mind. We want +money, and money we must have. Old Alic Squire is well to do, and +always has a considerable sum of money by him, and it would be a +charity to relieve him of the care and anxiety of keeping it in that +lonely house of his. The thing could be easily done. We have but to +disguise ourselves, break into his house, take what we require, and +leave him to attribute the appropriation, I won't call it theft, to +professional burglars." The confederates highly approved of the +scheme, and gave a ready assent, after which they arranged a plan of +operation, and agreed to carry it into execution three nights hence. + +On the appointed evening they assembled at the house of Will, the +cobbler, where they donned sundry disguises, armed themselves with +cudgels, an axe, a crowbar, and a wooden wedge, and sallied forth into +the moonlight. Squire's farmhouse lay at a little distance from the +village, shrouded in trees. It was occupied by himself, a widower, and +his married daughter, Elizabeth Beecroft; whilst in the barn, on that +night, slept one Jane Beanland. The moon was nearly at full, but +masses of clouds drifted across its face, obscuring its beams, so that +it only shone out at intervals. As they approached the house at +midnight a profound silence prevailed; not a dog barked, and it was +only broken occasionally by the distant hooting of an owl. A minute or +two were only required to force open the door by the application of +the wedge and three or four blows of the axe, and Heber, Hudson, and +Pollard entered the house, the others remaining outside. The old man +had been awakened by the noise of forcing the door open, and he came +from his bedroom half-dressed, demanding what they wanted by thus +breaking into his house. "Money," was the reply, "and if you do not +give it up we shall take it." "I have got no money for you," he +answered, and, seizing upon a poker, he stood upon his defence, but +was overpowered by a blow on the head, and the robbers then prized +open his desk, but found in it not more than fifty shillings, and +broke open a cupboard, taking from it a piece of beef, after which +they went away, much disappointed at the smallness of their booty. +Notwithstanding their disguise, they had been identified, Squire, in +his deposition, stating that he recognised Tom Heber by his stature +and the softness of his hand, which he felt when struggling with him; +Elizabeth, his daughter, whose room they had entered and "nearly +smothered her in the bed clothes," also recognised "Mr. Thos. Heber," +as one of the party; and Jane Beanland deposed that, as she lay in the +barn, she heard the voices of Mr. Thos. Heber, of Holling, and William +Hudson, of Ilkley, when they were breaking open the door. Moreover, +Elizabeth Longfellow gave evidence that going into the alehouse of +Josias Laycock, where Walter Pollard was drinking, she overheard him +say, "I am now making Bess Squire's half-crowns fly." They had left +behind them also an iron gavelock, a staff, and a wedge, which were +identified as having been in their possession a day or two before the +crime was committed. + +These facts having come to light, warrants were issued for the +apprehension of the offenders, and they were brought before Walter +Hawkesworth, of Hawkesworth, the nearest magistrate. This gentlemen +was a friend of Serjeant Heber, and, knowing Tom well, he expressed +his regret at seeing him placed in that situation, who, however, +laughingly replied that it was only done for a lark, but the +magistrate, after hearing the depositions, with a grave countenance, +said "It might be a lark, but at the same time it was a felony, and a +serious outrage of the law, and he had no alternative but to commit +them to York for trial at the assizes." + +They were consequently arraigned at the assizes on a charge of +burglary, but escaped the usual severe punishment, partly on the +ground that the crime was committed as a frolic, which was the line +of defence, partly through family influence, and partly through the +powerful agency of money. + +It is a remarkable fact that there were then resident in Ilkley two +families--the Hebers, of whom was the criminal, and the Longfellows, a +member of whom was a witness on the trial against him, and that from +them are descended two of the most charming poets of modern +times--Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta, author of "Palestine," and +Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whose writings are as much admired in +England as in his native America. + + + + +The Ingilby Boar's Head. + + +The crest of the Ingilbys of Ripley is "A boar's head couped and erect +arg., tusked or," which was obtained by an early knight of the family, +in a romantic fashion, and as the reward for a valiant achievement. + +In the reign of Edward the Confessor the manor of Ripley was held by +Merlesweyn, a powerful Danish lord, and owner of many another manor +and estate in the same district. He joined in the Gospatric +insurrection against William the Conqueror, in favour of Edgar the +Atheling, for which rebellion his lands were confiscated, and granted +to Ralph de Paganel, a Norman noble who had fought at Hastings, and +who besides became Lord of Leeds, Headingley, and extensive estates on +the Ouse, the Aire, and the Nidd; holding the Merlesweyn estates _in +capite_ from the King; Leeds, etc., by the service of a knight's fee +and a half, under the Lacies of Pontefract; whilst lands at Adel, +Arthington, etc., devolved on him in right of his wife, Matilda, +daughter of Richard de Surdeval. He was the founder of the Priory of +the Holy Trinity, York, upon which, in 1080, he bestowed the churches +of Leeds and Adel. + +From the Paganels, Ripley passed to the Trusbut family, how does not +appear, and from them, by the marriage of the heiress, to the family +of de Ros of Ingmanthorpe, a branch of the de Ros's of Hamlake and +Holderness, who became the superior lords, under whom the manor was +held for half a knight's fee, early in the twelfth century, by a +family whose previous name is not recorded, but who adopted that of de +Ripley from their possessions. From this family descended the famous +Canon of Bridlington, Sir George de Ripley, in the fifteenth century, +the alchymist and "discoverer" of the philosopher's stone, as he +professed, in 1470, and who contributed annually vast sums of money to +the Knights of Rhodes for maintaining their warfare against the +Mussulmans. + +The Ingilbys are of Scandinavian origin, seated for a long period at +Engelby, in Lincolnshire, whence they derived their surname, who, at +the time of Domesday Book held three manors in Lincolnshire, two in +the North Riding of Yorkshire, under the Bishop of Durham and William +of Poictou, and one in Derbyshire. In 1350, or thereabouts, Sir Thomas +de Ingilby, Justice of the Common Pleas, married Catherine of Luerne, +daughter and heiress of Bernard (?) de Ripley, and came into +possession of the Ripley estates, where he settled, and, seven years +afterwards, obtained a charter for an annual fair and weekly market at +Ripley. + +The Ingilbys, still extant, have held a distinguished place among the +families of Yorkshire, and many members of the family have been +entrusted with high offices in Church and State, and become eminent in +the field. + +John Ingilby (_temp._ Richard II.), was the second founder of and +benefactor to the Carthusian Monastery of Mount Grace, in Cleveland. +John, born at Ripley in 1434, "did wondrously flourish in the reign of +Henry VI." Sir William, his son, was knighted by "Lord Gloucester on +Milton Field, in Holland, in 1482," for valour. A John de Ingilby was +Prior of Sheen and Bishop of Llandaff, 1496-1500. Sir William, born +1515, was High Sheriff of Yorkshire and Treasurer of Berwick, _temp._ +Elizabeth. David, his second son, married Anne Nevile, daughter of +Charles, sixth Earl of Westmoreland, by which marriage his +representatives, with those of Nicholas Pudsey, are co-heirs of the +abeyant Barony of Nevile of Raby. Francis, third son of Sir William, +was a Roman Catholic priest, and was executed at York, in 1586, for +performing the functions of his office in the realm. John, fifth son +of Sir William, was presented in the list of recusants in 1604. +William, eldest son of Sampson of Spofforth, fourth son of Sir +William, was created baronet in 1642, and fought on the King's side at +Marston Moor. His castle at Ripley was garrisoned for the King, and +Cromwell, after the battle of Marston Moor, passing through Ripley, +demanded lodgings for the night, which was at first refused by Lady +Ingilby, but he was, after a parley, admitted, on the promise that his +followers should not be guilty of any impropriety. She received him +with a couple of pistols stuck in her apron string, and on leaving in +the morning, he inquired the meaning of the two weapons. "I'll tell +you," she replied, "why I had two; it was that the second might be +ready in case the first missed fire, for if you had behaved otherwise +than peaceably I should have pistolled you without the least remorse." +Sir William rebuilt Ripley Castle. In one of the towers is the +following inscription:--"In the yiere of owre Ld. M.D.L.V. was this +towre buyldyd by Sir Willyam Ingilby, Knight; Philip and Mary reigning +that time." In the great staircase window is a series of escutcheons +on stained glass, containing the arms of Ingilby and of the families +with whom they had inter-married. Sir William, the second baronet, +purchased the manor of Armley from the Mauliverers. Sir John, the +fourth baronet died 1772, when the baronetcy expired. The baronetcy +was revived in 1781, in the person of John Ingilby, an illegitimate +son of the fourth baronet of the previous creation. Sir William +Amcotts, his fourth son, succeeded to the baronetcy of his maternal +grandfather, Sir Wharton Amcotts, by special remainder, and to that of +his father in 1815, but died S.P., in 1854, when the baronetcy +expired. + +In 1866 the baronetcy was again restored, in the person of the Rev. +Henry John, nephew of the above Sir John, in his succession by will to +the Ripley estates, whose son, Sir Henry Day is the present holder, +with (according to the new Domesday Book, of 1876) an acreage in the +West Riding of 10,000, producing a rental of £11,149 per annum. + +In Ripley Castle there is, or was, a full-length portrait of a knight +of the Ingilby family, attired in the hunting costume of the +Plantagenet times, with the head of a wild boar at his feet. This is +the presentment of Sir William Ingilby, a doughty warrior and a hunter +of renown, who lived in the troublous reign of Edward II. Although the +representative of the family still lived in Lincolnshire, not having +yet acquired the Ripley estates, this Sir William resided on one of +the Yorkshire estates not far distant from Ripley, and would be on +terms of intimacy with the family of de Ripley, whose heiress was won +by Sir Thomas Ingilby, the Justice of the Common Pleas, and who +possibly might have been the son of Sir William. Sir William had +gained some renown in the Scottish wars of King Edward I. against +William Wallace, and had been an ardent and loyal supporter of the +weak and unfortunate second Edward on his accession to the throne, +from the fact of his being the son of the great and glorious King, the +first of that name. + +He remained loyal until the King gave himself up into the hands of his +favourite, Piers Gaveston, who humoured his naturally depraved +inclinations, and led him into acts of malgovernment, which estranged +the hearts of the people. He loaded him with benefits, bestowing on +him great estates and much treasure. Amongst other grants he gave him +the Lordship of Knaresborough Castle and forest, with divers +liberties, franchises, and privileges, which led him to assume a high +and dictatorial tone to the nobles of the realm, who expostulated with +the King, and compelled him to banish the insolent foreigner. But the +King, not able to learn wisdom in the school of experience, recalled +him and bestowed fresh benefits upon him, which so exasperated the +Barons that they rose in arms, with Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, at +their head, captured the favourite in Scarborough Castle, and beheaded +him. The King then took the Spensers into his favour, who became more +intolerably oppressive than their predecessor, upon which the Barons +again rose in arms, but were defeated in a battle at Boroughbridge, +and nearly a hundred barons, knights, and other prisoners put to +death, the Earl of Lancaster being beheaded at Pontefract. In the +sequel, however, the Spensers met the same fate as Gaveston, the elder +being executed at Bristol, and the younger at Hereford. + +Notwithstanding his personal loyalty, Sir William became so disgusted +at the imbecile conduct of the King, and the arrogance of his +favourites, that he took up arms with the Barons for the purpose of +removing them from the Royal councils. A bloody revenge was taken by +the King on the leaders and more prominent members of the conspiracy, +but those of lesser degree were permitted to escape capital +punishment, being punished by fines, confiscations, etc., and lay +under a cloud of disgrace until the barbarous murder of the King in +Berkley Castle, and the accession of Edward III., removed the stigma. + +In this latter category was included Sir William Ingilby, who would +most probably have remained alienated from the good graces of the King +had not a fortunate circumstance occurred, which restored him to +favour, and which had an influence in enhancing the dignity of the +family. + +Sir William's residence was in the valley of the Nidd, "one of the +most romantic, picturesque, and wealthy vales in England." Spreading +around for a distance of several miles lay the magnificent Forest of +Knaresborough, the home of wild cattle, wolves, wild boars, the +roebuck, and other ferocious animals of the chase. To the east stood, +on its craggy and almost inaccessible rock, overhanging the Nidd and +the then small village of Knaresborough, the formidable fortress of +Serlo de Burgh, whilst on the verge of the forest stood the splendid +monastic establishments of Fountains, Bolton, Ripon, and other lesser +houses. The forest has the reputation of having been one of the haunts +of Robin Hood, one portion bearing traditionally the name of "Robin +Hood's Park," whence he issued to pay his visits to the Abbey of +Fountains, as recorded in ballad lore. In the western portion of the +forest lay the Royal chase of Haverah Park (Hey-wra, the park of the +wra or roe), consisting of 2,000 acres, densely wooded, and inhabited +by beasts of chase, which were kept together and preserved by an oak +paling, which encircled the park. The road thither from Knaresborough +ran through the forest south of the Nidd, and across an upland, since +famous for its chalybeate springs, and where there were then a few +scattered cottages, forming a small hamlet, which came to be +designated Heynragate--the road to Heynra Park--which has since been +corrupted into Harrogate, and has become one of the most fashionable +inland watering places in the kingdom. + +The Castle and forest of Knaresborough were granted to Serlo de Burgh, +who built the castle, after whom they were alternately in the hands of +the Crown, or of some Royal favourite on whom they had been bestowed. +Edward II. made a grant of them to Piers Gaveston, on whose death they +reverted to the Crown. It was during this period that the King came to +Knaresborough Castle to relax himself from the cares and anxieties of +Royalty, by three or four days' hunting in Haverah Park. He was not +attended by a large retinue, being only accompanied by three or four +friends, and a few body servants; huntsmen, beaters, and other +attendants of the chase being permanently retained there, as well as +hounds and all the requisite hunting gear and weapons; this was +because of his unpopularity with the people, on account of his +governing the realm upon the advice of unworthy favourites. Hence he +came down with some degree of secrecy, in a species of incognito, and +it was not known generally to the residents of the valley who the +hunter was, the supposition being that he was some friend of the +King's, who had been given permission to hunt in Haverah chase. + +The day following his arrival at Knaresborough, the King rode through +the forest to Haverah, accompanied by his friends, and a following of +attendants bearing bows and arrows, boar spears, beating staves, and +other implements of hunting, who were on foot. On entering the +enclosures the attendants sent their dogs amongst the underwood and +commenced beating the bushes, with loud cries to start the game. As +these were very plentiful, a number of small animals, badgers, foxes, +polecats, etc., were roused from their lairs in quick succession, and +afforded considerable sport. Two or three stags were also started, one +of which was killed by the King, by an arrow shot; and a wolf made his +appearance, who displayed great pugnacity, and caused great excitement +amongst the hunters. Towards noon the King and his friends sat down to +a refection under the shadow of a patriarchal oak, which, from its +size and evident age, rendered it possible that it might have +witnessed the Druidical mysteries of the Brigantes. Again the beaters +and dogs commenced their operations, and were rewarded by the +appearance of a huge wild boar, armed with a formidable pair of tusks, +who rushed into the glade where the hunters were assembled. The dogs +rushed upon him, barking with eagerness, and the King and his friends, +taking boar spears from the attendants, rode at a gallop towards the +animal, who gazed upon them for a few moments, as if to measure the +strength of his opponents, and then turned and dashed amongst the +underwood, followed by the hounds and the hunters. + +Two or three of the dogs, venturing too near the boar, were instantly +ripped up, and the hunters followed as best they might through the +tangled brushwood. The King, who was better mounted than his friends, +soon left them behind, and, brandishing his spear, followed in the +track made by the boar, not without sundry scratches from the +projecting branches of the forest trees; but the boar still kept +ahead, occasionally turning to look at the hounds who were yelping at +his heels, and then dashing onward again; whilst the King, mounted on +a powerful and fleet horse, gradually gained on the beast, despite +the obstacles that beset his path. + +Although the forest of Knaresborough was a Royal appanage, the +foresters, as the inhabitants of the district were called, possessed +certain privileges of hunting therein, with certain limits; from +Haverah Park alone were they excluded, that domain being reserved +exclusively for the King and those to whom he gave permission to hunt +in the enclosure. Sir William Ingleby being a "forester," therefore +had the right of following game in the forest outside the palings of +Haverah. On the same day that the King went to hunt in Haverah Park, +Sir William went out, boar spear in hand, in search of sport. He was +not accompanied by either attendant or dog, trusting alone to his own +natural prowess, in case he should meet with game. In his wanderings +he had come near the palings of the park, and sat down to partake of a +luncheon he had brought with him in his pocket. He was just finishing +his meal when he heard the cry of hunting dogs, and immediately +afterwards a crashing sound. Looking up he saw the palings give way, +and a huge boar rushing through the gap, followed by half a dozen dogs +and a man on horseback. He had just time to observe that the hunter +was clad in a buff jerkin, with high-reaching boots, and was +brandishing a boar spear and encouraging the hounds, when the boar, +finding himself so hotly pursued, turned at bay, drove his tusks into +a couple of the dogs, and then sprang upon the hunter, overturning the +horse, and laying the hunter prostrate on the sward. He was just on +the point of dashing his tusks into the body of the fallen enemy, when +Sir William rushed up, and with well directed aim struck his spear +into the heart of the boar, which fell lifeless at his feet, and then, +taking his knife from his girdle, with a huntsman's skill severed the +head from the body, the whole occupying but a few minutes. + +"And who are you, my brave fellow?" inquired the fallen hunter, whom +Sir William had assisted in rising and disentangling from his horse. + +"I am a denizen of the forest," replied Sir William. "As to my name, +it matters not; but right glad am I to have been the means of rescuing +you from the fangs of that monster." + +"You have saved me from death, whoever you may be," said the hunter, +"and your guerdon shall be equivalent to the service you have +rendered me." + +"May I be allowed to ask who you may be," continued Sir William, "who +are hunting in the King's chase?" + +"I am connected with the court of the King, who has come hither for +the divertisement of hunting." + +"The King, whom Heaven preserve, then is present in the chase?" +inquired Sir William. + +"He is," replied the hunter, "the remainder of the party will be here +anon." + +"How shall I know the King, for I shall wish to pay due respect to +him?" + +"Oh, he may be easily recognised, for he will remain covered, while +all the rest momentarily remove their hats." + +At this moment the rest of the hunting group came up, all of whom +uncovered their heads. + +"Now, do you recognise the king?" inquired the hunter. + +"I do," he replied, dropping on his knee, "and crave pardon for the +boldness of my language." + +The King, for he it was, then told his followers how Sir William had +saved his life, and that although he had declined giving his name, he +would find that out, and would reward him suitably for so important a +service. + +"Please your Majesty," said one of the beaters, "I know who the +gentleman is; he is Sir William Ingleby of Nidderdale." + +"Sir William Ingleby?" said the King. "If I remember aright, you were +one of those who, along with our kinsman, Lancaster, appeared in arms +against our Royal authority." + +"Not my Liege," replied Ingleby, "against your Royal authority, but +against your evil advisers." + +"Well," continued the King, with a slight scowl, "let bygones be +bygones; you have done me a service which obliterates all that. You +are from this moment restored to favour; in memory of what you have +done this day, I decree that, for the future and all time, you and +your family shall bear, as the crest of your arms, a boar's head. Let +me see you shortly at my Court, and then I will see what further I can +do out of gratitude for the service you have rendered me." + +Sir William made a profound obeisance to the King, and from that time +the fortunes of the Inglebys, from that circumstance, coupled with +the fortunate marriage with the heiress of Ripley, continued to rise. + +The Rev. Thomas Parkinson, in his "Lays and Leaves of the Forest" +(1882), writes--"It is impossible to fix any date at which the various +wild animals ceased to inhabit the forest. The wild cattle are not +mentioned after the thirteenth century. Wolves were probably extinct +in the fourteenth; indeed there are traditions of their existence +three centuries later. Deer there were in 1654 A.D., for William +Fleetwood, Sergeant of the Duchy of Lancaster, was plaintiff in a suit +against Ellis Markham for destruction of some deer, game, and trees in +Haverah or Heywra Park, at that date. The last wild boar is said to +have been slain in the Boar-hole in Haverah Park, in the reign of +Charles II. By the middle of the reign of Elizabeth, however, say 1580 +A.D., probably all, except very rare specimens indeed, the larger wild +animals were gone.... Nominally, the district remained a Royal forest +up to the time of its enclosure, under Act of Parliament, in 1771 +A.D., but long before that date it had practically ceased to be a +refuge for wild beasts, or to be used for the chase. As we have seen, +its larger animals were extinct, and, besides losing its chief fauna, +it has been denuded, in a great measure, of its green woods and forest +monarchs. This is said to have been brought about chiefly by the +existence of smelting furnaces for lead and iron in the +neighbourhood." + + + + +The Eland Tragedy. + + +In the reign of King Edward III., four gentlemen, the heads of four +reputable county families, resided in their respective halls, within a +short distance of each other, in the neighbourhood of Huddersfield. +They were Sir John Eland, of Eland Hall; Sir Robert Beaumont, of +Crosland Hall; Sir Hugh Quarmby, of Quarmby; and John Lockwood, of +Lockwood. The family of Sir John Eland had been seated here for +several generations, descended from Leisingus de Eland, from whom +Lasingcroft derives its name. They were a knightly race, had +inter-married with some of the best county families, and lived in a +style of great splendour. Their lands were held as a fief under the +Earls of Warren, and Sir John, who now represented the family, held +the stewardship of the Earl's manors in Yorkshire, including that of +Wakefield. He was also the shire-reeve, and, as such, the +representative of the King, in the administration of justice and law +within the county. Little further is known of him, and he would have +scarcely been remembered, but for a deadly feud which arose between +him and his above-mentioned neighbours, and a series of atrocious +murders arising thereout. Even this might have been forgotten, as at +that time deadly fights between families or communities frequently +occurred, and excited but little notice, blood-for-blood vengeance +being looked upon as a matter of course, and in the same light that +duels were a century or two ago. The Livery Companies then frequently +met in Cheapside to settle their quarrels with bows and clubs; and the +famous fight of Chevy Chase was nothing more than the outcome of a +dispute between two border Earls about hunting without permission +across the border. So, with other frays of similar character, it might +have passed into oblivion, but for a ballad which was written at the +time, a modernised version of which appeared _temp._ Henry VIII., and +which has come down to the present time--a copy of which was printed +in Halifax in 1789, and another published in Whittaker's "Loidis et +Elmete." The more modern version was entitled "Revenge upon Revenge: a +narrative of the tragical practices of Sir John Eland, High Sheriff +of Yorkshire, on Sir Robert Beaumont, in the reign of King Edward +III." It gives the whole of the proceedings, with such circumstantial +detail that, although some authorities have endeavoured to throw +discredit upon the narrative, and expressed their belief that it is a +fiction, it bears internal evidence of its truth. Sir John was a man +of overbearing temper, impatient of opposition to his behests, and +implacable in his hatred. The ballad opens with a long diatribe on +pride and worldly ambition, and says-- + + "With such like faults was found infect + One, Sir John Eland, Knight; + His doings made it much suspect + Therein he took delight." + +Whilst Sir Robert Beaumont, the main object of his hatred, is thus +mentioned-- + + "Sometime there dwelt in Crosland Hall + A kind and courteous Knight; + It was well known that he withal + Sir Robert Beaumont hight. + Some say that Eland Sheriff was + By Beaumont disobey'd, + Which might him make for that trespass + With him the worst afraid." + +The origin of the feud appears to have been in this wise--Earl de +Warren had seduced Alice de Lacy, wife of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, +upon which a quarrel arose between the two Earls, and their retainers +met and fought, when a nephew of Sir John was slain by one Exley. +Exley made over to Sir John a plot of land as compensation for the +mischance, which he accepted, but still sought to be avenged by the +death of the homicide. Exley fled to the house of his relative, Sir +Robert Beaumont, for shelter, and Sir John demanded his surrender, +which was refused by Sir Robert, and in this he was countenanced by +his friends Quarmby and Lockwood, on the ground that Sir John, having +accepted the plot of land, had condoned the offence, which gave great +affront to Sir John, who went off muttering threats of vengeance. + +Sir John was doubtlessly perfectly right, in his capacity of Sheriff, +to demand the delivery up of an offender against the laws of the +realm, but he was equally in the wrong in having accepted a bribe to +compromise the offence; but his irritation arose from the fact of Sir +Robert having set his authority at defiance--an insult which his proud +spirit could not brook. He brooded over the matter at home for some +days, and at length came to the resolution of erasing the stain upon +his dignity by the death of Sir Robert, which he determined to +accomplish with his own hands. He considered, further, that as Quarmby +and Lockwood had backed Sir Robert in his defiance of him as Sheriff, +they would be likely to avenge his death, so, to make assurance doubly +sure, he felt it to be necessary to deal out the same fate to them. +Accordingly, a few days after-- + + "He raised the country round about, + His friends and tenants all, + And for his purpose picked out + Stout, sturdy men, and tall. + To Quarmby Hall they came by night, + And there the lord they slew, + At that time Hugh of Quarmby hight, + Before the country knew. + To Lockwood then, the selfsame night, + They came, and there they slew + Lockwood of Lockwood, that wiley wight. + That stirred the strife anew." + +"A gentleman of that wisdom and prudence that he was not only +reckoned, but esteemed, as the oracle, as well as the darling, of his +country, and whose memory will remain fragrant in future ages." + +Having completed these preliminary murders, Sir John proceeded with +his men to execute his _coup de grace_. Crosland Hall was surrounded +by a deep moat-- + + "The hall was watered well about, + No wight might enter in, + Till that the bridge was well made out + They durst not enter in." + +As the bridge was raised, they lay in ambush till early in the +morning, when it was lowered to allow a maid-servant to pass forth, +upon which they rushed across and entered the house in a noisy, +boisterous manner. Sir Robert came from his chamber, half-dressed, to +ascertain the cause of the disturbance, when he was attacked by the +invaders of his premises. He seized a sword and stood on his defence-- + + "And thus it was, most certainly, + That slain before he was + He fought again them manfully, + Undressed though he was. + His lady cried and shrieked withal + When as from her they led + Her dearest knight into the hall, + And there cut off his head." + +A MS. says that Exley and a brother of Sir Robert were killed at the +same time. + +Sir John then ordered wine and victuals to be laid out for their +breakfast, and invited the two sons of Sir Robert to sit down and join +him in the repast; the younger, through fear, assented, but Adam, the +elder, refused, with a scowling brow, to eat with the murderer of his +father, upon seeing which, Sir John said, "How heinously that lad doth +take his father's death; and looks with a frowning countenance as if +he would take revenge; but I will keep such a watchful, circumspect +eye over him that he shall never be able to do us any harm." Having +thus accomplished his purpose, and finished his meal beside the corpse +of his victim lying on the floor, he departed with his band of +assassins, nor does it appear that he was ever called to account for +the outrage. After the burial of her husband, Lady Beaumont, fearing +for the safety of her children, fled with them to the house of her +kinsman, Townley, in Lancashire, and took along with her the sons of +Quarmby and Lockwood, and a youth named Lacy, of Crumblebottom, where +they were instructed together in feats of chivalry, fencing, tilting, +shooting with the long bow, riding, and other knightly qualities, as +preparations for taking their revenge. + +The curtain had fallen upon the first act of the drama; fifteen years +had now elapsed, and the second act commences. The four youths had +now grown up nearly to manhood, and Lockwood, the eldest, suggested +that the time was now come when "we should bravely seek to revenge the +spilling of our fathers' blood, for if Eland should have that foul act +for well done, it will encourage him in his wickedness, and further to +proceed in destroying the whole posterity of our renowned ancestors; +therefore do I esteem it our wisdom, and an undertaking well becoming +the successors of such worthy patriots, utterly to extirpate from the +face of the earth the cursed Cain and his posterity." The others +assented, and took into their counsel two men--Dawson and +Haigh--retainers of one of the families--who had come from Yorkshire, +and who informed them that Sir John would shortly go to Brighouse, +where the Sheriffdom was to be held, and that they might easily waylay +him and accomplish their purpose. Accordingly they set off, +accompanied by an armed band of men, and secreted themselves in +Crumblebottom Wood, on the wayside from Eland to Brighouse. + +Sir John, suspecting nothing, went on his way to Brighouse, and coming +upon some armed men on the roadside whom he knew not, courteously +"vail'd his bonnet," when Adam Beaumont stepped forward and said-- + + "Thy courtesy 'vails thee not, Sir Knight, + Thou slew my father dear, + Sometime Sir Robert Beaumont hight; + And slain thou shalt be here." + +The others addressed him in like terms. "Whose fathers' blood," said +they all, "we are now come to revenge upon thee and thine." They then +attacked him, his followers drawing their weapons and rallying round +him in his defence, and a general fight commenced between the two +companies, several on both sides being wounded. At length the four +young men, who kept together, succeeded in separating Sir John from +his followers, and inflicting upon him numerous wounds, left him lying +bleeding and dying upon the turf. Knowing that such a crime as the +murder of the King's Sheriff could not pass unnoticed, as soon as they +felt assured that they had accomplished their revenge they hastened +back into Lancashire, but feeling that they would not be safe at +Townley Hall, they went onward into Furness, then a wild unfrequented +corner of the county, with few inhabitants excepting the monks of the +abbey and a few peasants who were dependent upon it, and hid +themselves in the recesses of the woods, among the caves and fells, +depending upon their bows for the supply of their daily food. And thus +ends the second act of the drama. + +In the meanwhile, Sir John's son, a second Sir John, succeeded to +Eland, who was married and had a son, then a young boy, who might also +have succeeded but for the machinations of the allies in Furness. +During the winter they had been laying their plots, and came to the +determination of utterly extirpating the male line of the Elands, and +arranged to attack Sir John on his way to or from church on Palm +Sunday. Accordingly, in the spring, they came secretly to +Crumblebottom Hall, where they lay _perdu_ to watch events, and, on +the eve of Palm Sunday, concealed themselves in Eland Mill. Their +proceedings, however, were not so secret but that rumours of impending +evil reached the ears of Sir John, and on Sunday morning he told his +wife that he should not go out that day, but she rallied him on his +fears, and urged that he must go to church on that specially holy day +as an example to others, upon which he reluctantly assented, but took +the precaution of putting on a coat of mail beneath his waistcoat. + +The confederates and their followers saw the sun rise on the morning +of Palm Sunday as they lay in the mill, and began to prepare for their +meditated deed, when the door was suddenly opened, and the miller's +wife entered for some corn which her husband had sent her for. They +immediately seized her, bound her hand and foot, and told her that if +she cried out they would knock her on the head. Not returning in due +course, her husband grew wroth at her dalliance. + + "The miller swore she should repent, + She tarried there so long; + A good cudgel in hand he went, + To chastise her with wrong." + +But the miller, instead of amusing himself by thrashing his wife, met +with the same fate that she had undergone, and was thrown, securely +bound, on a heap of flour-sacks beside her. + +Sir John, his wife, and little son, left Eland Hall for church, taking +a short cut over the stones of the mill-dam which was nearly empty in +consequence of a drought. As he was stepping over Beaumont shot an +arrow at him which glanced off his coat of mail, as did Lockwood with +a like effect. The villagers, who were going to church, seeing this, +came running up, when Lockwood shot another arrow, which pierced Sir +John's brain, whilst another from Quarmby, mortally wounded the boy. + +They had now accomplished their vengeance; the male line of the Elands +was extinct; but it behoved them to look to their own safety, as the +villagers, armed with clubs and hatchets, were assembling in great +force. They rushed out of the mill, fought their way along Whittlelane +End to Old Earthgate, and hence to Anely Wood, hotly pursued by their +foes. Willet, Smith, Remington, and Bunney, yeomanry officers, also +summoned their men, who armed themselves with "pitchforks, long +staves, knotted clubs, and rusty bills," and joined the hunt. As their +foes neared them, they faced round and presented a bold, resolute +front, as long as their arrows lasted, when they again took to flight; +Lockwood carrying off Quarmby, who had fallen wounded. They gained the +shelter of the wood, where they left Quarmby, dead, and each sought to +shift for himself. Beaumont took refuge in Crosland Hall, and stood on +his defence with the bridge drawn up; he afterwards escaped to +France, fought against the Turks in Hungary, where he won great fame +and honour, and eventually became a Knight of Rhodes. Lockwood sought +shelter in Camel Hall, but was captured when incautiously visiting a +village maiden with whom he had an amour, and was put to death there +and then, and so ended the race of the Lockwoods. What became of Lacy +is not known. Sir John Eland, the younger, left a daughter and +heiress, who married Sir John Savile, of Tankersley, and conveyed the +Eland and other estates to that family. + + + + +The Plumpton Marriage. + + +The Plumpton family, of Plumpton, near Knaresborough, were established +there from the period of the Domesday Book, when Edred de Plumpton +held two carucates of land of William de Percy, the mesne lord. They +had estates afterwards at other places--Idle, near Leeds, held of the +Lacies; Steeton, near Tadcaster; Nesfield, near Otley, where they had +a manor-house, and elsewhere. They were a family of considerable +importance in Yorkshire, and were great benefactors to the Nunnery of +Esholt, in Craven. They frequently make a conspicuous appearance in +the various historical events of the centuries of their existence. +Peter, son of Nigel, suffered confiscation of his lands for +confederating with the Barons against King John; but, on submitting +and doing fealty to Henry III., they were restored. Sir Robert, +founder of a chapel in the church in Knaresborough, was beheaded at +York, for participation in Scrope's rebellion against King Henry IV., +in 1408. Sir William, who objected to the levying of tolls, at Otley +and Ripley, by Archbishop Kemp, lay in wait for the tax-gatherers at +Thornton Bridge, with a company of foresters. The officials, +apprehending the meaning of the armed men by the bridge, turned aside +to pass over the river by Brafferton Ford, but were followed by Sir +William and his men, shouting, "Slay the Archbishop's carles, and +would to God we had the Archbishop himself here." In the fray which +ensued, several of the Archbishop's men were slain and wounded, and +others taken prisoners. Robert, the last male representative of the +family, died unmarried and intestate at Paris, in 1749, when the +estates passed to his aunt, Anne, who, in 1760, sold them to Daniel +Lascelles, for £28,000. + +A volume entitled "The Plumpton Correspondence," consisting of family +letters, chiefly of a domestic character, written in the reigns of +Edward IV., Richard III., Henry VII., and Henry VIII., was published +in 1869 by the Camden Society; edited by Thomas Stapleton, from Sir +Edward Plumpton's "Book of Letters." + +In the reign of Henry II., Gilbert de Plumpton, a youthful scion of +the family, was living at Plumpton. As the Plumptons were then +comparatively small land-owners, and as they had high aspirations, +aiming at the knightly or baronial degree, it behoved them to improve +their landed estates by prudent marriages with heiresses, and thus +qualify themselves for a higher position in the county. Young Gilbert, +then approaching manhood, therefore cast his eyes about him with that +purpose. His range of vision was rather restricted, as people in those +days, owing to the badness of the roads and other causes, rarely +travelled far away from home, and were almost compelled to select +their wives and husbands from amongst their neighbours, seldom going +beyond the bounds of their native counties to enter into matrimonial +alliances. Besides this, eligible heiresses were but few in number, +and being under the guardianship of the King, or of some one appointed +by him, whose consent was necessary for marriage, it being a serious +offence to marry an heiress without such pre-consent, it became a +difficult matter, even when an heiress was found and her affections +secured, to consummate their reciprocal love by a conjugal union; +especially as Kings were then wont to use their power over their fair +wards in a very arbitrary and tyrannical fashion, by bestowing their +hands and inheritances on their favourites, or in reward for some +service, without the least consideration for the pleasure or will of +the person most concerned--the lady herself. + +About this time Roger de Guilevast, or, as he is sometimes called, +Richard Wardwast, a wealthy land-owner, in the neighbourhood of +Plumpton, died, and left his only daughter, Eleanor, heiress to his +extensive possessions. This young lady, Gilbert had encountered when +out with his hounds one day, some twelve months previously. He had +been searching for game in the woodlands of the picturesque scenery +which surrounds Plumpton, and had come to the lake, when he was +startled by the sight of an exquisitely beautiful young girl wandering +along the shore, and seemingly enjoying the beautiful prospect of +land, water, and foliaged trees. He accosted her, and she readily +entered into conversation with him, when he was as much struck by her +wit and sensible remarks as he had previously been by her beauty. She +informed him who she was, and who her father, and he imparted to her +the same information respecting himself, and they discovered that, +although they had never chanced to meet previously, they were well +acquainted with each other's families. Gilbert therefore knew that if +her father died without other issue his estates would descend to her +as his heiress. Here he thought was the chance he had been hoping for; +but as he was of a cautious, calculating disposition, he considered +that her father, not yet aged, might still have a son, to whom the +lands would pass, and leave her with nothing more than a slender +marriage portion; and although he saw that she was beautiful and +accomplished, and was just the wife whom he would choose if personal +charms were the chief consideration, he could not, in justice to his +family and his own aspirations, marry a dowerless maiden, and he +resolved not to commit himself too far until he saw more as to the +chance of her succession to the estates. Still he determined not to +lose sight of her altogether, and that it would be well in the +meantime to inspire her heart with the sentiment of love towards him, +if it were possible to do so. + +"Do you often walk in this direction?" he asked. + +"Oh yes," she replied, "in the beautiful summer sunshine, when the +trees are clad in their bright vestments of green, and the flowers are +opening their petals and giving forth perfume from every bank; when +the birds are singing joyfully overhead, and the hum of the bees and +other insects add a pleasing undertone to their louder carolling--I +love to wander alone with Nature for my companion. And you! Do you +care to commune with Nature? or only feel a pleasure in going forth in +the forest lands and pastures, to destroy the innocent and beautiful +creatures who enjoy their existence as much as you do yourself?" And +so saying, she pointed interrogatively at his dogs, which were barking +and sniffing about among the bushes. + +"Oh!" answered he, "believe not that my sole delight is in the chase. +Nature has sent certain animals into the world to supply us with food, +and it is right to deprive them of life before placing them on the +table; nor do I think it wrong to destroy noxious animals, such as +wolves and foxes, and it is only on such that I wage war; nothing do I +kill out of wanton sport. I experience pleasure in the sight of the +rising and the setting sun, I can look with delight on the glories of +a landscape, such as that which is spread around us, and witness with +a thrill of sublime awe the warring of the elements in a tempest." + +Thus they conversed for some time, mutually interested in each other's +conversation, and before parting arranged to meet at set times near +the huge rock which rises out of the water and stretches for a length +of fifty feet, and which still attracts thousands of tourists to +wonder at and admire it. + +Many times did they meet there, and their love ripened at each +interview, Gilbert almost forgetting the demands of his family for +heiresses, and almost resolving to seek her hand, even in case of a +brother coming to claim the inheritance; but some six months +afterwards, Eleanor's father "went the way of all flesh," and she +became really an heiress, when Gilbert commenced making love to her in +real earnest, his own private inclinations coinciding now with what +was due to his consideration of the interests of his family. + +At this time Ranulph de Glanville was resident in Yorkshire, as Lord +of Coverdale, having acquired the estates there by his marriage with +Bertha, daughter of Theobald de Valvins, Lord of Parham. He was the +greatest legal luminary of his age, and eminent, besides, as a +statesman and warrior; was Judge-itinerant in Yorkshire and thirteen +other counties, and in 1186 was promoted to the dignity of +Chief-Justice of England; he was also Sheriff of Yorkshire and some +other counties, and was employed extensively in State affairs. When +King Henry II. was in France, King William of Scotland invaded +Northumberland, in 1174, and Glanville, as Sheriff of Yorkshire, +raised an army of Yorkshiremen, marched against him, defeated him in a +battle, and took him prisoner, lodging him in Richmond Castle. News of +the victory reached the King after his memorable penance at the tomb +of Thomas a Becket, and, instead of attributing it to the skill of +Glanville and the bravery of his followers, ascribed it to St. Thomas, +as a reward for his penitential humiliation at his shrine. In his +latter days he founded an abbey and a priory in his native county of +Suffolk; in 1189 he accompanied King Richard in his crusade to +Palestine, and is said to have been slain at the siege of Acre. + +As Sheriff of the county of York, he was the representative of the +King, and, of course, in the matter of the guardianship of heiresses +and the disposal of their hands and inheritances. When intelligence +reached him of the death of Roger de Guilevast without issue male, it +occurred to him that it would be a good opportunity for rewarding one, +Reiner, a favourite dependant of his, whom he wished to advance in +life. Reiner is mentioned in the Plump. Cartul., 1002, as Sheriff of +Yorkshire, but as Glanville himself was then Sheriff, he would +probably be Deputy-Sheriff. He therefore proposed to bestow the +heiress and her estates upon Reiner, and gave instructions to that +effect. + +The lovers, for plighted lovers they had become when Eleanor received +an intimation that she was to give her hand to Reiner, resolved upon a +bold step, no less than that of defying the King and his Sheriff by a +clandestine marriage. Gilbert was on terms of great intimacy with the +Spofforths of Spofforth, a township adjoining that of Plumpton, an +ancient Saxon family, one of whom, Thomas, early in the fifteenth +century, became Abbot of St. Mary's, York, and, in 1422, was elected +Bishop of Rochester, but, before installation, was constituted Bishop +of Hereford by Papal provision. One of the family was a priest and the +close friend of Gilbert, and he undertook to risk the performance of +the ceremony, which was carried out in private, and Gilbert took his +bride home, and for a week or more enjoyed the usual connubial +felicity of the honeymoon period. + +A loud knocking at the gates of the Plumpton Manor House one morning +startled the inmates and aroused the fears of the newly married +couple, who were apprehensive of the vengeance of the Sheriff. At +first they thought of flight; but where to go? Nowhere in the realm +would they be safe against the power of the King, so they were +compelled perforce to abide the issue. When the gates were opened, a +body of men in the livery of the Sheriff presented themselves, the +leader of whom said, "In the name of the King, and by the authority of +his Sheriff, Ranulph de Glanville, I demand to be delivered up to me +the bodies of Gilbert de Plumpton and of Eleanor de Guilevast, a ward +of the Crown, who has been treacherously carried off from her home by +the said Gilbert, in violation of the laws of the realm, and in +traitorous contempt of the King's authority." + +At this juncture Gilbert presented himself with his wife leaning on +his arm, and demanded what they meant by such intrusion and insolent +language, adding that he was no traitor and no contemner of the laws +of the kingdom, but one of the King's most faithful subjects. + +"We come not," was the reply, "to bandy words with you, or decide the +question at issue; our instructions are to convey you to York, where +the Sheriff will determine what further shall be done in the matter, +and who will listen to any objections you may be pleased to urge in +respect of your apprehension as a violator of the law." + +Seeing that there was no use in resisting, Gilbert said, "Then I will +accompany you to York," and gave directions for his horse to be +saddled. "But," he continued, "I trust it is not necessary to submit +this lady, my wife, to the indignity; I suppose she may remain here +until I have vindicated my innocence, and can return to her." + +"That cannot be," replied the leader, "my instructions are to bring +you and the lady, and loth as I am to appear discourteous to a lady, I +must insist on her accompanying us." + +"I am ready to go," said Eleanor; "rather would I go to face any +perils, in your company, than be left behind with all the anxieties +and uncertainties as to what is befalling you." + +Another horse was then brought from the stables for her accommodation, +and the party rode together to York. They were placed in the custody +of the Sheriff's officers, but not in prison, and a few days after +were brought before the Sheriff. He interrogated Gilbert with great +severity, who acknowledged the marriage, and the lady with more +courtesy, who replied with modesty, pleading that she was not aware +that marrying the man to whom she had given her heart could be a +matter of offence to the King, adding that, so far as she knew, even a +milkmaid or a peasant girl was at liberty to marry whom she chose. The +Sheriff explained that she was very different from a peasant girl, who +was a mere serf, and that it mattered not whom she married, but that +she was an inheritor of a portion of the land of England, the whole of +which belonged to the King, and that such being the case, it was +necessary for the welfare of the realm that he should have in his hand +the disposal of such heiresses in marriage, so that their estates +should not fall into the hands of unworthy persons. "I can +understand," he continued, "that you, a simple maiden, should be +ignorant of this essential feature of the constitution of the realm, +and being so, are entitled rather to compassion than blame for having +been inveigled into this unlawful marriage, which, in the eye of the +law, is no marriage at all, but concubinage. As for you, sir," +addressing himself to Gilbert, "you are supposed to be cognisant of +the laws of the land, and have been guilty of a gross crime and +misdemeanour, which may lead to serious consequences. It will be +necessary for me to lay the matter before the King's grace, and bring +you before his tribunal of justice, so that he may deal with you as he +deems fitting, and rest assured, it will go well with you if you +escape with your life. As for your wife, as you call her, it is +probable you will never more see her; but she will be well cared for, +if that be any consolation to you, and shall be provided with a +suitable and worthy husband." On hearing this announcement, Eleanor +uttered a piercing shriek, and fell fainting to the floor. She was +carried away into an adjoining apartment, whilst her husband, +betraying signs of deep agitation, attempted to speak, but was +prevented doing so by direction of the Judge. + +What followed may be told in the words of the Plumpton MS.:--In the +year 1184, while the King (Henry II.) was sojourning at Worcester with +his army, with intent to make war with Rhys-ap-Griffin, a certain +youth was brought there in fetters, sprung of noble lineage, and whose +name was Gilbert de Plumpton, whom Ranulph de Glanville, the King's +justiciary, had in odium, and sought to put to death, laying to his +charge that he had ravished a certain maiden in the King's gift, the +daughter of Roger de Guilevast, and kept her to him as his wife, and +that, in the night-time, he broke through six doors in the abode of +the girl's father, and took a hunting-horn and a headstall, etc., +along with the said maiden. He added, moreover, that all these things +he carried off by theft and robbery, and upon the issue he offered to +abide the law. But Ranulph de Glanville, wishing to make away with +him, because he designed to give the same maiden (whom the said +Gilbert had already known after their espousals) to Reiner, Sheriff of +Yorkshire, with her father's inheritance, further exhorted those who +were to try Gilbert to adjudge him to death; and so it was done, for +they sentenced him to be hanged, and whilst he was being led to the +gibbet, intelligence was brought of the proceedings in his case to +Baldwin, Bishop of the same city of Worcester. The which Bishop, +though in great grief for the condemnation of the youth, was, however, +exhorted by his attendants to rescue him from death. They said that he +could legally do this, because it was a Sunday the same day, and upon +it the Feast of Blessed Mary Magdalen. The Bishop (who was a meek and +good man) acquiesced in their arguments, and having mounted on +horseback, quickly rode after the executioners, who were leading the +youth to the gibbet, and had now arrived at the place. Already was the +youth, with his hands bound behind his back, and with a green band +covering his eyes, and an iron chain round his neck--the executioners +being on the point of hoisting the youth up as the Bishop arrived with +a multitude of people. + +Having alighted from his horse, and running up, he stationed himself +by the side of the prisoner, thus exclaiming and saying, "I forbid +you, on the part of God and the blessed Mary Magdalen, and under +sentence of excommunication, to hang this man on this day; because +today is the day of our Lord and the feast of the blessed Mary +Magdalen. Wherefore it is not lawful for you to contaminate the day." + +The executioners replied, "Who are you, and what madness prompts you +that you have the audacity to impede the execution of the King's +justice?" But the Bishop, with no less firmness of heart than of +speech, rejoins, "Not madness, but the clemency of heavenly pity, +urges me; nor do I desire to impede the King's justice, but to warn +against an unwary act, lest by the contamination of a solemn day, you +and the King incur the wrath of the Eternal God." + +After some altercation, divine authority at length prevailed; and at +the entreaty of the Bishop, he who was bound was unloosed; +nevertheless he was delivered over to the keeper of the King's castle +in safe custody, and in the morning to be led again to execution. But +the Lord Almighty, who never deserts those who hope in Him, granted +longer span of life to the said Gilbert. For when all these matters +were reported to King Henry, he sent his messengers in the greatest +haste to the castle with orders that the youth should not be hanged. + +This story is deemed apochryphal by some authorities as being utterly +inconsistent with the mild, beneficent, and just character of the +Justiciary. Foss, who refers to it as a dereliction from the path of +judicial integrity, says-- + +"Presuming the story to be true, the Chief Justiciary's merit must +have been great indeed to induce the King to pardon so monstrous a +perversion of justice," adding, "some doubt, however, cannot but be +attached to the relation, not merely from its extravagant ferocity and +the impunity of its perpetrators, but from the assertion of the work +which bears Glanville's name, who says--'None of the Judges have so +hardened a front, or so rash a presumption, as to dare to deviate, +however slightly, from the path of justice, or utter a sentence in any +measure contrary to the truth.' It is scarcely possible to suppose +that a King so just as Henry II. would have overlooked the guilt of +the Judge, or have visited the innocence of the accused with +imprisonment." + +On the other side, Roger de Hoveden relates the story with some +circumstantiality, under the date of 1184, who was not only a +contemporary, but was a native of Howden, not many miles distant from +Plumpton. He adds further, that "The Knight (Gilbert) being rescued +from death, was kept in prison by Ranulph de Glanville until the +King's death (1189)." In the Annals of the Exchequer also, we find +given the expenses of conveying Gilbert de Plumpton from York to +Worcester, on this occasion. + +What became of Gilbert and Eleanor afterwards is not recorded, or +mentioned in the tradition, but we may hope that after his release on +the accession of Richard I., they were reunited, and that their +oppressor, having died the following year, they were enabled to pass +the remainder of their lives in tranquility and happiness. + + + + +The Topcliffe Insurrection. + + "I wayle, I wepe, I sobbe, I sighe full sore, + The dedely fate, the dolefulle destenny + Of him that is gone, alas! without restore, + Of the blode royall descendinge nobelly; + Whos lordshepe doutles was slayne lamentably, + Thorow tresen ageyn hym compassyd and wrought, + Trew to his Prince, in worde, in dede, and thought." + + --SKELTON. + + +The prevailing blemish in the character of King Henry VII. was +avarice, which led him, through his rapacious ministers, Empson and +Dudley, to oppress the people with extortionate taxation. To save his +exchequer he avoided foreign wars, and once only did he cross the sea +with that object, in the cause of Anne of Bretagne, whose fief was +claimed by the French King; but on arriving at Boulogne, King Charles, +appealing to his master-passion, bought him off by means of a large +bribe. For the purpose of this war, Parliament, in February, 1489, +granted a tax of one-tenth of a penny, for a subsidy of £75,000. This +oppressive tax was very unpopular, and especially so in Yorkshire and +the north, the people about Thirsk, particularly, being loud in their +murmurs. They were goaded on by the rough and excited harangues of one +John à Chambre, whom Lord Bacon describes as "a base fellow called +John Chambre, a very brute feu, who bore most sway among the vulgar." +He had for his fellow leader Sir John Egremont, who, although not +quite so boisterous and unpolished as Chambre, was equally resolute +and vigorous in his opposition to fiscal extortion; and these two +leaders gathered around them a body of rustics and mechanics, who +armed themselves with such weapons as they could procure, such as +scythes, bill-hooks, and bludgeons. Vowing they would not lay down +their arms until the tax was repealed, they went from village to +village, and town to town, inveighing against the King's evil +counsellors, explaining their designs, and enlisting recruits to their +banner. + +An account of these turbulent proceedings reached the ears of the +King, who sent an order down to the Earl of Northumberland, the +Lord-Lieutenant of Yorkshire, to explain the necessity of the tax, to +uphold the honour and dignity of the nation. The Earl wrote back to +the King a letter of remonstrance, showing that the tax was +intolerably oppressive, a burden that they were scarcely able to bear, +and praying him to reconsider it, and make some abatement in the +demand. To this he received a reply that not a single penny should be +abated, and he was enjoined to see that it was exacted to the +uttermost farthing. + +Henry Percy, fourth Earl of Northumberland, was one of the most potent +nobles of the north, and had castles at Topcliffe, on the Swale, near +Thirsk; at Leckonfield, near Beverley; and at Wressil, near +Howden--all maintained with a splendour almost regal, with barons, +knights, and esquires as members of his household and retinue. The +Castle of Topcliffe, the earliest and chief seat of the Percies, stood +with its massive keep, battlemented towers, gateway, walls, and +dungeon, upon an elevated mound called Maiden Bower, on the river +Swale, near the confluence of the Cod-beck. From its nearness to +Thirsk, the focus of the insurrection, the Earl came thither from +Leckonfield to execute the command of the King, and he called a +folk-môte at Thirsk for that purpose. With his vassals and tenants he +was popular, being a kind and considerate master and landlord, and by +the people of Yorkshire he was held in high esteem, so that he was +under no apprehension, although the people were in arms; and he took +no measures for his safety in case of tumult, feeling assured that +there was no danger, and that he would be able, by his explanations +and expostulations, to appease the angry feelings of the multitude. + +On the morning of the day appointed for the meeting, there was a great +assemblage of people in Thirsk, and excited crowds coming along all +the roads leading thither from Ripon, Boroughbridge, Easingwold, and +the neighbouring villages. The people were armed chiefly with +bludgeons, and displayed two banners, one inscribed "No taxes; down +with Empson and Dudley," the other, "Oh for the days of good King +Dickon." Richard III., when residing at Middleham, as Duke of +Gloucester, was exceedingly popular with the poor, mingling with them +in their amusements, and consorting with them as familiarly as if they +were his equals, probably with a politic eye to the future. When he +was carrying out his scheme of usurpation, he sent for a contingent of +men-at-arms from his Middleham estates, who assembled for review in +Finsbury Fields, when one of his Yorkshire tenants stepped out of the +ranks, and, clapping him on the shoulder, said, "Ah's main blythe +thoo's goin' to be King, Dickon." + +Egremont and Chambre were in the midst on horseback, riding hither and +thither, exhorting the people with inflammatory speeches to be firm in +their determination not to pay the tax, telling them that all England +was with them, and not to listen to the Earl, who was one of the +King's advisers in levying the tax; further, that if need be they +would lead them to London and compel the King to remit the tax, or +drag him from his throne. + +At this time the Earl rode into the town, surrounded by a body of +retainers, all men of rank, habited in brilliant costume, the livery +of the Percies. He was assailed with mingled cheers from his tenants, +and hisses and shouts of opprobrium from the insurgent mob. He +attempted to address them, but the uproar became greater; again he +made the attempt, when there arose a deafening discord of sounds from +drums, kettles, and pans, accompanied by the yelling and howling of +the mob, when, finding he could not gain their ear, he and his +followers turned their horses' heads and trotted back to Topcliffe. As +they passed away, the leaders shouted, "Bravely done, my merry men; +this is our first victory; let us on to Topcliffe, and beard him in +his castle, and then for London, to face the tyrant King in the +Tower." The Earl and his followers gained the castle, and were seated +in consultation on what were best to be done in the emergency, when +loud shouts assailed their ears from outside, and, looking forth, they +perceived that they had been followed by the mob, infuriated by the +harangues of their leaders. Although implored not to do so, but to +shut the gates and stand a siege, the Earl went out and faced the +insurgents. + +"What want you, good people?" he inquired. + +"A remission of the tax," replied Egremont. + +"I have no power or authority to do so," said the Earl. + +"Who but you advised the King that not a penny should be abated?" +shouted Chambre, and the mob yelled, and cried, "Down with him; he +wants to rob our children of their bread." + +The Earl was a proud man, and scorned to give a denial to the +insinuation, which served to inflame the passions of the rioters to a +still higher degree. + +"He's silent, and that proves his guilt," shouted Chambre. "Down with +him; such bloodsuckers should not be allowed to exist." + +And then there was a brandishing of clubs and a rush forward of the +mob, and in a few moments the Earl was stricken down, and beaten +savagely as he lay. The mob then entered the castle tumultuously, and +killed several of his domestics; but the barons and knights, fled to +seek safety, or, as Skelton has it-- + + "Trustinge in noblemen, that wer wyth hym there; + Bot all they fled from hym from falshode or fere, + He was envyronde aboute on every syde, + Withe his enemys that were stark mad and wode; + Yet whils he stode he gave them woundes wyde, + Alas! for southe! what thoughe his mynde were goode, + His courage manly; yet there he shed his bloode. + All left alone, alas! he fowt in vayne, + For cruelly among them ther he was slayne." + +Hence the insurgents went triumphantly, calling upon the people to +unite with them in putting down kingly tyranny and financial +oppression, but eventually they were met by the Earl of Surrey, who +was sent against them, at Ackworth, near Pontefract, and dispersed. +Chambre and others of the leaders were captured and hanged at York; +but Egremont, thanks to the fleetness of his horse, escaped to +Flanders, and was protected by the Yorkist Margaret, Duchess of +Burgundy. What was his ultimate fate is not known. + +The Earl was honoured with a most magnificent funeral in the Minster +or Collegiate Church of St. John, Beverley, in a chapel built +expressly for the reception of his remains, and beneath a tomb with +rich Gothic canopy, adorned with sculptured figures, and emblazoned +with the multitude of quarterings of the family. The body, after +having been embalmed, was conveyed to his Castle of Wressil, and hence +to Leckonfield, whence it was taken to Beverley, accompanied by a long +and splendid procession, all robed and accoutred at the expense of the +family. There were twelve lords with "gownes at 10s. the yerd;" +twenty-four lords and knights "with gownes and hods;" sixty squires +and gentlemen "with gownes and typets;" two hundred yeomen "in +gownes;" "one hundred gromes and gentlemen's servants in gownes." +There were also the bearers of the great standard, twelve bearers of +sarcenet banners "betyn with my Lord's armys," sixty bearers of +"Scutchions of Buckram betyn with my Lord's armys," and two officers +of arms from the Herald's Office, London, to superintend the armorial +arrangements, who were paid £20 for "their helpe and payne." Besides +these there were five hundred priests, one thousand clerks, and +representatives from the neighbouring monasteries, all habited in +mourning, and bearing crucifixes, other church ornaments, and vessels +and emblems of mortality. Mingling with these were four hundred +torch-bearers, and bringing up the rear, 13,340 poor persons, who +received, according to the will, a funeral dole of twopence each. +Altogether the cost amounted to £1,037 6s. 8d., equal to, at least, +£10,000 of the present value of money. + +The body was met at the great west door of the Minster by the Provost, +Vicars, Canons, choristers, and other officials of the Minster, who +conducted the procession. A mournful anthem was chanted up the nave +into the chancel, where a long and splendid service of masses and +choral singing was performed, and the body lowered into its +resting-place, amid the sobs and lamentations of those who had known +and loved the Earl for his virtues. Of his tomb, with its +"multiplicity of noble carved work and canopied arches," as described +by Leland, there remain only the altar table, with its sides covered +with armorial bearings, but without the figures which ranged round it +in niches, and on the wall above the word "Esperance," the motto of +the family, and "1494," the date of the funeral. + + + + +The Burning of Cottingham Castle. + + +Cottingham is a well-built, picturesque village, midway between Hull +and Beverley, on the ancient road, but a quarter of a mile distant +from the modern highway. It is a place of great antiquity, dating from +the ancient British period, and deriving its name from Ket, a Celtic +female deity, with the Saxon suffixes of ing and ham. In the days of +Edward the Confessor, it belonged to one Gamel, who is supposed to +have held a Thursday market there; and at the time of the Domesday +Book, the manor, four miles in length, with five fisheries of 8,000 +eels, was held by Hugh, son of Baldrick. + +It was granted by William the Conqueror to Robert de Stuteville, +surnamed Front de Boeuf, from whom it descended to Robert de +Stuteville, or d'Estoteville, who was Sheriff of Yorkshire, +twenty-first Henry II., and from him to William de Stuteville, _temp._ +John, who, for some offence, was excommunicated by the Archbishop of +York. He appealed to the King, who came to Cottingham to investigate +the matter, and in the sequel compelled the prelate to give him +absolution. Moreover, he granted to de Stuteville a charter empowering +him to castellate his manor-house, and hold a weekly market and annual +fair. + +Nicholas de Stuteville died seventeenth Henry III., leaving two +daughters, Joan and Margaret, as his co-heiresses, the former of whom +married Hugh de Wake, descended from Leofric, viceroy Earl of Mercia, +and his wife the famous Godiva, and from Hereward le Wac (the Wake), +Lord of Brunne, the last, and one of the most formidable, opponents of +the Norman Duke William, in his conquest of England. John, his +grandson, was summoned as a baron twenty-third Edward I., whose +daughter, Margaret, married Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent, third +son of King Edward I., and had issue, Joan, "the fair maid of Kent," +who inherited the Barony of Wake, which she transmitted to her issue +by her first husband, Thomas de Holand, and which fell in abeyance in +1497, as it still continues. She married, secondly, Edward, the Black +Prince, and by him was mother of King Richard II. + +King Edward I. was celebrating Christmas with the Wakes at Cottingham, +when, being out hunting, he came to Wyke-super-Hull, and, struck with +its capabilities as a port, granted the charter which laid the +foundation of its future greatness, and changed its name to +Kingstown-upon-Hull; and at the same time gave his host a charter of +free warren over his manor, and authority to erect a gallows for the +execution of criminals. Thomas, his son, in the following reign, +obtained a charter of confirmation, with the privilege of holding a +weekly market and two annual fairs, and authority to convert his +residence into a castle of defence, and to garrison it with armed men. +This Thomas founded, adjacent to the castle, a monastery of Austin +Friars, on a site with a defective title, in consequence of which it +was removed to Haltemprice, on another part of the estate. + +The feudal barony was held _in capite_ by the service of one barony, +and consisted of 4,000 acres, with £200 yearly rental from free +tenants. + +It was a beautiful August day in the year 1540. The reapers were in +the fields about Cottingham, sickle in hand, cutting down the golden +corn, and lumbering wains with solid wooden wheels, and drawn by oxen, +were carrying away the sheaves to garner in the homesteads; the fruit +of a thousand trees in the orchards surrounding the village hung, rich +and luscious, pendant from the boughs, and ripening to perfection +under the bright sunshine. The village consisted of a scattering of +cross-timbered houses with wattled and mud-walled frames, latticed +windows, and thatched roofs. From the midst thereof rose in proud and +lofty dignity the majestic walls, turrets, and bastions of the +Stutevilles, the Wakes, and now of the Holands, surrounded by a moat, +which was crossed by a drawbridge, and the entrance defended by a +barbican and a portcullis. Upon its battlements might be seen three or +four men-at-arms, lounging lazily about, and amusing themselves by +watching the passage of vessels and boats up and down the Humber. The +pleasant clack of the baronial mill, and the occasional uplifted +voices of the denizens of the farm-yards and pastures, alone broke the +silence of the slumberous summer afternoon. In a hamlet within ken of +the out-lookers on the parapets of the castle might be seen the now +deserted house of the Augustinian Friars, at Haltemprice; for here no +longer the Canons dropped their beads, muttered their prayers, or +chanted their anthems; the ruthless hand of Henry had driven them +forth upon the wide world to become supplicants for charity, alongside +those who had erstwhile found succour at their gate. The priory and +site had in the present year been granted to Thomas Culpepper, but he +had not yet taken possession, and it lay desolate and silent, as did, +at the same time, many another noble abbey and priory, scattered over +the face of England. + +Lord Wake, as he was called by courtesy, although he was only a tenure +Baron, had been out in the direction of the now thriving town of +Kingston-upon-Hull, and about the middle of the afternoon he came +riding over the drawbridge, and passed through the arched gateway into +the courtyard of his castle. Upon his fist he carried a favourite +hawk, and he was accompanied by his falconer, and three or four +liveried retainers. He leaped agilely from his horse, which was taken +charge of by a groom, and, handing his hawk to the falconer, he passed +through a portal to the domestic apartments, where he was met by his +wife, a singularly beautiful woman, not much past the bloom of +girlhood, and as modest, chaste, and pious as she was charming in +feature, person, and demeanour. "What sport have you had this morning, +husband mine?" inquired she, after an affectionate embrace. +"Excellent," he replied; "my falcon has done wonders, he brought down +a heron, who, from his size, must have been the patriarch of the shaw; +but, dearest life! sport of that kind, brave as it may be, is as +naught to the happiness I experience in thy dear society." Other +expressions of endearment of a similar kind passed as they sat down to +dinner, composed chiefly of venison and boar's flesh. Lord Wake was a +great hunter in the surrounding woods of his domain, and as he sat at +dinner he was surrounded by half a dozen petted boar and stag hounds, +who gambolled at will about the apartment, or sat on their haunches, +looking up at their master in anxious expectation of stray bones, +which were thrown to them with no niggard hand. + +The meal passed over almost in silence, which was only broken +occasionally by remarks and discussion on domestic topics; but when it +was finished, and Lady Wake had taken up her embroidery-frame, her +husband told her that his sport had brought him to the gates of +Kingstown, where he learnt that the King was in the town, who had +arrived there unexpectedly. He was on his progress to York to meet his +nephew, James V. of Scotland, and had come by a circuitous route "for +fear of the enraged people," who, exasperated at the dissolution of +the religious houses, and the King's assumption of supremacy over the +Church, had two or three years previously raised a formidable +insurrection, which they denominated the "Pilgrimage of Grace." The +Mayor (Henry Thurcross), Lord Wake said, had sent the Sheriff to meet +his Highness at the "boarded bridge" of Newland, on the confines of +the county of Hull; had himself, with the aldermen, received him with +great obeisance and due formalities at Beverley-gate, and had +conducted him to the Manor Hall, the usual residence of Royalty when +in the town, where he now was enjoying the splendid hospitality of the +Corporation. + +"The caitiff," exclaimed Lady Wake, "what does he want down here? His +presence betokens no good, and woe betide those with whom he +sojourns." + +"Bluff King Hal," as he was frequently termed, was no favourite with +the better class of ladies; and especially with such as were of a +devout turn of mind, and were regular and punctual in the performance +of their religious duties, as enjoined by their father-confessors. His +propensity for chopping off the heads of his wives, or of divorcing +them when a new beauty enthralled his amorous susceptibilities, caused +him to be held in detestation by all right-minded women; and his +sacrilegious deposition of the Holy Father's authority in England, +combined with his so-called brutal dispersion of the religious +fraternities and sisterhoods of the realm, and unwarrantable plunder +of the holy places of the land, caused him to be looked upon by the +devout as an incarnation of Satan. Such were the views of Lady Wake, +who felt keenly the loss of Haltemprice, which had been to her a +sanctuary of heaven, and to which she had been a most generous +benefactor. + +Whilst Lord and Lady Wake were conversing on this subject, the sound +of a trumpet was heard outside, followed by the opening of the great +gate at the summons, "In the King's name," and the clatter of a +horse's hoofs over the drawbridge and into the courtyard. Lord Wake +hastened out and found an herald seated on horseback, who, when he +announced himself as the lord of the castle, gave three blasts of his +trumpet, and then delivered his message:--"His Highness the King +Henry, the eighth of the name, by the grace of God, defender of the +faith, and supreme head of the Church of England, to the Lord of the +Barony of Cottingham, usually styled Lord Wake, greeting--It is His +Highness's pleasure that on the morrow he will come, God willing, to +Baynard Castle, and partake of the hospitality of the noble Baron and +Lady Wake. God save the King." In the course of conversation with +the magnates of Hull, at the Manor Hall, he had made inquiry +respecting persons of note residing in the neighbourhood, and Lord +Wake was mentioned as keeping up a magnificent establishment within +three or four miles of the gates of Hull, and as being blessed with a +wife of surpassing beauty. The King's licentious propensities were at +once aroused at hearing this. "Fore God," quoth he, "I will betake me +thither, and with mine own eyes see whether this Yorkshire beauty is +the paragon you represent her to be;" and he summoned his herald into +his presence and despatched him with the above message to Cottingham. + +Lord Wake was thrown into consternation at receiving the King's +greeting and message, and, before giving an answer, went indoors to +consult his wife. + +"Holy Mary!" said she, "what a disaster! We must avoid it in some way +or other. Never will I meet the woman-slayer and desecrator of God's +temples within these walls." + +"True," he replied, "we must find some means of averting it if +possible, but meanwhile it will be necessary to send a civil and loyal +reply," and returning to the courtyard, he bade the herald inform the +King that he felt highly flattered at His Highness's condescension in +proposing a visit to his humble house, and that on the following day +preparations should be made for greeting him in the best way his +humble means afforded. When the herald had departed, Lord Wake +pondered deeply on the dilemma in which he found himself placed by the +King's proffered visit. He felt that it was impossible, except by +taking some desperate step, to evade it, but something must be done, +as he felt assured that the honour of himself and that of his wife +were at stake, well knowing, as he did, the unbridled passion of the +King, and that if it were thwarted the most perilous consequences +might ensue. The confiscation of his estates might be looked for in +such case; but better, thought he, lose my land, than my wife her +honour. This train of thought led him to think of his castle, where he +had lived so happily with the beloved of his heart, when suddenly the +idea struck him--What if I burn down my castle! The King could not +come for entertainment amidst its ruined walls and smoking embers, and +though I should sacrifice my home, I should preserve what is far +dearer to me--my wife, pure and undefiled as when I led her to the +altar. The more he thought of the project, the more fully he became +assured of its practicability as an effectual bar of defence against +the King's intentions. He submitted the idea to Lady Wake, who, +without the slightest hesitation, concurred in the proposal. + +The seneschal of the castle was then called in--a faithful old +retainer, who had been in the family for two or three generations of +lords, and who might be intrusted with the keeping of any secret of +his master. He was informed of the nature of the peril hanging over +the family, and of the method projected by Lord Wake to avert the +evil. He had been born and bred up in the castle; knew every nook and +corner of it; loved it with a devoted affection, almost as if it had +been a thinking, sentient being; and could not without an excess of +grief see it destroyed; yet he recognised at once the necessity of the +case, and not being able to devise an alternative, so as to save the +old towers and walls, undertook, as proposed by his master, to fire +the castle that night. + +Lord and Lady Wake then proceeded to pack up all the more portable +articles of value, jewels, money, family papers, and heirlooms, which +were conveyed secretly to the unoccupied Priory of Haltemprice, and +thither they went themselves, issuing from a postern, and crossing the +moat by means of a raft stationed there for the purpose. When the +retainers, men-at-arms, and domestics, all save the sentinals on duty, +had retired to rest, the seneschal, heaped together a quantity of +combustible materials in proximity to a mass of old and dry woodwork +panelling on the walls, which he set fire to. The flames soon caught +hold of the woodwork, which, blazing up, got a complete hold of the +building. He then rang the alarm-bell and roused up the sleepers, +telling them that he had been awakened by the smell of burning. Of +course all was done that could be done, under his direction, for the +subjugation of the fire, but the appliances were so utterly +inefficient, consisting merely of a line of men passing a chain of +buckets from hand to hand after being filled from the moat, that the +fire soon overcame all their efforts to extinguish it, and the roof +soon after falling in, it blazed up into the midnight sky, +illuminating the country for miles round. The flames were distinctly +visible from Hull and Beverley, and numbers of persons from both towns +hurried to the scene of disaster, but could afford no assistance, the +fire having by that time gained such an ascendency that they could but +stand and gaze, awe-stricken, on the scene of devastation. +Intelligence was conveyed to the King the following morning of the +"accidental" fire at Baynard Castle, and to show his sympathy he +offered to contribute £2,000 towards its restoration, which was +respectfully declined by Lord Wake, and the King, after sundry +measures for the improvement of the port of Kingstown, crossed the +Humber and returned to London. + +The tradition adds, further, that this Lord Wake, dying without issue +male, the manor was divided between his three daughters, who were +respectively married to the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of +Westmoreland, and Baron Powis, and that those portions thus acquired +the names they still bear of Cottingham Richmond, Cottingham +Westmoreland, and Cottingham Powis. + +Tradition, however, is prone to error, and in this narrative there are +several discrepancies and anachronisms. There was then no Baron Wake, +the barony having fallen into abeyance more than a century previously; +but the holder of the manor, being a feudal Baron, might bear the +title by courtesy. Secondly, Leland saw the ruins of the burnt castle +in 1538, two or three years before the visit of King Henry to Hull, +and he mentions the division of the manor into four parts as having +taken place previously, the fourth part being held by the King. + + + + +The Alum Workers. + + +Nestling in a lovely valley in the most romantic part of Cleveland +lies the little town of Guisborough, with the mouldering ruins of its +once famous Priory. At the time of the Conquest it consisted of three +manors, which were given to the Earl of Moreton, and soon after, +united into one manor, passed to Robert de Brus, Lord of Skelton, to +hold _in capite_, by military service. In the year 1129 he founded the +Priory of Canons of the Augustine order, and endowed it with a manor +of twenty caracutes and two oxgangs, with the tenements, mill, and all +other appurtenances. It flourished apace, grew rich, and nurtured some +learned and eminent men within its cloisters, until it fell beneath +the ruthless axe of Henry VIII. + +The Chaloners of Guisborough are of Welsh descent, tracing their +ancestry to Trayhayrne, son of Maloc Krwm, one of the fifteen peers +of Wales. His grandson, Madoc, otherwise Chaloner, was ancestor of +Thomas Chaloner, of Beaumaris, one of whose sons was Roger Chaloner, a +citizen and silk mercer of London, whose son, Sir Thomas, Knight (born +1521), was eminent as a statesman, diplomatist, and poet; was employed +on several embassies; was knighted at the battle of Pinkie for +bravery; and was author of several esteemed works--"The Praise of +Folly," "De Republica Anglorum," and many others. He purchased the +manor of Guisborough of Sir Thomas Legh, to whom it had been granted +at the Dissolution, for the sum of £998 13s. 4d. + + "These towering rocks, green hills, and spacious plains, + Circled with wood, are Chaloner's domains. + A generous race, from Cambro-Griffin traced, + Fam'd for fair maids and matrons wise and chaste." + +His portrait was painted by Holbein and by Antonio More, the former +engraved by Holler, the latter exhibited at Leeds in 1868. + +Sir Thomas, Knight, his son (born 1559, died 1615), succeeded to the +Guisborough estates, and was the discoverer of the alum mines. He was +twice married, and had issue several children, of whom the +eldest--William--was created baronet in 1620, by the title of Sir +William Chaloner, Bart., of Guisborough, in the county of York; Rev. +Edward, D.D., an eminent polemical writer; and Thomas and James, +Parliamentarian officers and regicides. At college he gained some +reputation by his Latin and English verses, but was not equal to his +father as a poet. He was, however, a good naturalist, at the time when +the science was little understood and less studied. In 1580-84, he +made _le grand tour_, and spent some time in Italy, where he +associated with all the most eminent literary and scientific men of +the day. + +Being a keen observer of natural objects and phenomena, he had noticed +that on a certain part of his Guisborough estate the soil never froze, +that it was speckled with divers colours, chiefly yellow and blue, +which sparkled in the sunshine, and that the trees and shrubs which +grew thereon spread their roots laterally, and penetrated the earth +very superficially, and that their leaves were of a peculiar tint of +green. When in Rome he paid a visit to the Pope's alum works at +Puzzeoli, where he noticed with his quick, observant eye that the +earth and trees presented the same remarkable features as those on +his Guisborough estate, and he immediately came to the conclusion +that his land was impregnated with alum. He hastened back to England +to test his hypothesis, which he soon verified by experiment, and saw +that a mine of wealth lay beneath his feet. But how to work and +prepare it he knew not, and there was no one in England who did, and +scarcely any one in Europe, outside of Italy, which then had a +monopoly of alum, and he set his wits to work to devise some means for +separating it from the earth, and preparing it as a manufactured +commodity for the market. + +Alum is a mineral salt found in clay and other earths, and is a +valuable commodity used in various manufactures, and for other +purposes. It was first extracted from the earth in which it was +embedded, and prepared for use in the East, chiefly at Edessa, in +Syria; afterwards near Constantinople; and, on the fall of the Eastern +Empire, the alum workers transferred the industry to Italy where it +was established in various places, and was confined to the Peninsula +for more than a century, after which it spread into Germany, France, +and Flanders. The Popes had works at Rome and Civita Vecchia, and +carefully guarded their secret, not allowing the workmen to leave the +country on any pretence whatever, under pain of excommunication, as +the profits of the sale brought a handsome revenue to their coffers. + +Sir Thomas Chaloner cogitated the matter in his mind, and the more he +thought, the more he saw that the only mode of bringing his alum mines +into operation was by kidnapping some of the Pope's workmen, a +difficult and perilous task, but which he resolved to attempt, and +with that view went again to Italy. Of course the best place for +accomplishing his object was at Civita Vecchia, a seaport in the Papal +States. Thither, therefore, he went, and lived in retirement, eluding +observation as far as possible, but mingling, whenever he could, with +the alum workers, ingratiating himself with them by means of wine, +friendly and familiar converse, and the judicious distribution of +money. By these means he became acquainted with their characters, and +with their hopes and aspirations. Three of the more intelligent he +singled out to work upon, but each one separately. He would take them +into a wine-house and ply them well with the tongue-loosener, and then +turn the conversation upon their occupation and future prospects. Of +the three, one seemed to have some influence over the other two, who, +to a certain extent, took their opinions from him, and re-echoed his +sentiments; and Sir Thomas shrewdly perceived that if he could win +over this one, the others would follow, like sheep after the +bell-wether. They were seated in a wine shop one day, talking over the +alum workers' great grievance. "And so," said Sir Thomas, "you would +really like to escape from this life of slavery?" "I should, indeed," +was the reply; "work here is neither better nor worse than that of a +galley-slave." "Why not escape, then, and fling off the chains that +gall you?" "Alas, sir," he replied, "we are too closely guarded and +watched to render escape at all hopeful. Besides, money would be +required, and of this we have but sufficient to get our daily bread." +"But if anyone were to put the means of escape in your hands, would +you be sufficiently daring to make the attempt?" "Most certainly." +"And you would not fear the Pope's excommunication, which would +assuredly follow?" "Look here, signor, although I am a poor ignorant +alum worker, I know something of what has been doing in England and +Germany, and have heard of Wickcliffe, Luther, and Calvin, and I +should care no more for excommunication at the hands of the Pope than +I should for a snap of his fingers." + +Chaloner saw he had got hold of the right man, and he gradually +revealed to him his discovery of alum earth in England, and proposed +that he should accompany him thither to work it, where he would be +absolutely free, and promising him a much higher remuneration than he +was receiving in Italy; to which the man readily assented, and +undertook to gain over the other two men, who he felt assured would +accompany him. At a subsequent meeting of the four confederates the +question was discussed as to the best mode of smuggling them out of +Italy, and, after several projects had been suggested and dismissed as +impracticable, it was decided that they should be conveyed on board a +vessel in casks, as merchandise, and liberated when out at sea. + +Sir Thomas at once set to work to find means for carrying out his +project, the first being to find a vessel captained by one equally +resolute with himself, and to whom he could venture to entrust his +secret. Fortunately for his purpose, there chanced to be lying in the +harbour a ship from the port of Hull, commanded by an honest +fellow-Yorkshireman, a man who, as he said himself, "feared neither +the Pope nor the Devil." With this captain he sought an interview, +explained who he was, and by careful steps laid his scheme before him. +The rough, weather-beaten old captain grasped him by the hand, and, +giving it a vigorous shake, swore to stand by him "through thick and +thin." He was waiting for a return cargo, had got his vessel half +filled, and he agreed, whether full or not, to set sail on that day +week. Sir Thomas then went into the market and purchased a quantity of +grain, to be delivered on board in six days, packed in casks. He then +caused three casks to be constructed secretly, with false ends to be +filled with grain, leaving the central part open and pierced with +holes, in great number, but so small as to be scarcely perceptible. On +the sixth day, when the alum works were closed, the three men came to +him, and were placed in the three casks, which, having passed the +ordeal of the Customs Office without suspicion, were shipped, and at +daybreak the following morning the vessel was loosed from her +moorings, spread her canvas, and bade adieu to Civita Vecchia. It was +soon discovered at the alum works that the three were missing, and +strict search was made for them, without result. At length it occurred +to the authorities that they had escaped in the English vessel which +had sailed that morning, and three ships were sent in pursuit of her, +but she had several hours' start, and had a fair wind, and the +pursuers never caught sight of her. The men were released from their +uncomfortable berths when at a safe distance, and revelled in their +feeling of liberty as they sped over the blue waves of the +Mediterranean, across the Bay of Biscay, and up the Channel, arriving +safely at Hull, whence they proceeded with Sir Thomas to Cleveland. + +Sir Thomas established his works beyond Bellemondegate, where now +mountains of refuse shale are piled up. For some time the works +yielded but small profit, and it was not until Chaloner got more +workmen from Rochelle that they became a success, after which they +yielded a handsome revenue, and had the effect of breaking down the +Italian monopoly, and reducing the price of alum in England to +one-half its former cost. + +When Chaloner had got the mines and works into thorough working order, +King Charles I., at the instigation of some of his rapacious +courtiers, made a claim to them as Crown property, and he was +compelled to surrender them. They were then let to Sir Paul Pindar, at +a rent of £12,500 per annum, to be paid into the Royal Exchequer, +besides £1,600 per annum to the Earl of Mulgrave and £600 per annum to +Sir William Pennyman, but they were restored to the Chaloners by the +Long Parliament. Eight hundred men were employed on the works, and the +alum sold at £26 per ton, which left a large residue of profit. Other +mines were discovered in Cleveland, on the estates of the families of +Phipps, Pennyman, Fairfax, D'Arcy, and Cholmley, when competition +brought down the price, and consequently reduced the profits; and, as +some of these were situated nearer the sea-coast, with greater +facilities for shipment, the Guisborough mines became less and less +profitable, and were eventually abandoned. + +This conduct on the part of King Charles caused the Chaloners to +become zealous Parliamentarians in the Civil War. Sir Thomas's sons, +James and Thomas, drew their swords against the King, and both sat as +members of the High Court of Justice for his trial. The former was +tried as a regicide after the Restoration, was condemned to death, and +drawn on a hurdle to Tyburn for execution, but received a reprieve +when the halter was round his neck; was remitted to the Tower, and +died of poison, it was reported, by his own hand, "an invention," says +Markham, in his Life of Fairfax, "of the carrion vultures of the +Restoration." + +The latter, at the Restoration, was included in the list of those +excluded from pardon, but saved his life by flight. Winstanley says of +him, "He had travelled far in the world, and returned home poysoned +with that Jesuitical doctrine of King-killing, which he put in +practice, being the great speech-maker against the King, ... and a +great stickler for their new Utopian Commonwealth, but upon His +Majestie's return fled, his actions being so bad as would not endure +the touchstone." + + + + +The Maiden of Marblehead. + + +One fine summer's morning, in the year of grace 1742, the little inn +of the little town of Marblehead was in a state of great bustle, in +anticipation of the visit of some Government officials from Boston to +dine there. The landlady, rather vixenish in temper and tongue, was +busily occupied in attending to the culinary department, and at +intervals scolding a young girl of sixteen, who was scrubbing the +floor, and was the maid-of-all-work in the establishment, working from +early in the morning till late at night for a small pittance of wages. + +Marblehead was a small fishing town or village about sixteen miles +from Boston, in New England, consisting of a cluster of log-built and +straw-thatched houses, amongst which stood conspicuously forth the +little hostelry, in consequence of its sign of King George the +Second's head swinging and creaking from a crossbeam over the +highway. The inhabitants were almost entirely of Guernsey descent, a +brave people, but not so loyal as the sign of their inn would seem to +indicate, as after the war of the Revolution there were in the town +600 widows of patriots who had fallen; and, in the war of 1812, 500 +Marblehead men were prisoners of war in England. The washing of the +floor was not completed when the sound of horses' feet was heard +coming along the road, and in a few minutes three gentlemen alighted +at the door, gave their horses in charge of an extemporised ostler, +and entered the house. The landlady made a profound curtsy to her +guests, and at the same time rated her hand-maiden for not having the +room ready for the gentlemen. "Don't scold her," said he who appeared +to be the chief of the group; "I dare say the little lassie has done +her best, and perhaps we have arrived earlier than we were expected." +The girl, who was dressed in homely attire, and without shoes or +stockings, turned her head with a silent glance of thanks to the +speaker--a glance which he pronounced to himself to be angelic. + +The gentleman who thus came upon the scene was a Mr. Charles Henry +Frankland, thirty-six years of age, and slightly bronzed in feature +from his early residence in Bengal, where he was born. He was the +eldest son of the Governor of Bengal, Henry Frankland, who had been +brother and heir-presumptive of Sir Thomas Frankland, third baronet of +Thirkleby, in Yorkshire, but he had died in 1736, leaving this son +heir-presumptive to the baronetcy in his place. In 1741 he had been +appointed Collector of the Customs at the port of Boston, and on this +summer's morning, with two subordinates was paying a professional +visit to Marblehead, which lay within the Boston collection. The more +he saw of the girl, as she waited at table during dinner, the more was +he struck with the beauty of her features and the faultless symmetry +of her figure. As was said of her, "Her ringlets were black and glossy +as the raven; her dark eyes beamed with light and loveliness, and her +voice was musical and bird-like." He entered into conversation with +her, and found that her name was Agnes Surriage, and that her parents, +of a humble position in life, dwelt at a neighbouring village. He was +charmed with the modest and intelligent replies she made to his +questions, but found that she was altogether uneducated, and had +learnt nothing excepting how to perform household work, to sew and +knit, and "to go to meeting on Sundays." On leaving, he gave her money +to buy herself shoes and stockings; but on his next visit he found her +again bare-legged, and asking her why she had not supplied herself +with shoes and stockings, she replied that she had done so, but kept +them to go to "meeting" in. + +Becoming more and more fascinated with her beauty, he at length asked +her parents to allow him to take her to Boston and have her educated, +to which they consented, after some hesitation. He caused her to be +instructed in reading, writing, drawing, music, dancing, and all the +accomplishments of a fine lady; but although she excelled eventually +in sketching, playing, and dancing, and wrote a beautiful hand, she +could never master the difficulties of orthography, her spelling to +the last being always of an original and curiously eccentric +character. + +When her education was completed, and she had grown to womanhood, he +took her to his home as his mistress, and she bore him a son, who was +christened Richard Cromwell. She was, however, looked upon askance by +the Quaker circles of Boston, not on account of her lowly birth, but +because of her disreputable connection with her "protector." Sir +Thomas Frankland, third baronet, died without male issue, in 1747, and +Charles Henry, his nephew, succeeded as fourth baronet. Seven years +after, he returned to England, with Agnes and his son, to dispute the +will of the late baronet as to the disposition of the family estates +at Thirkleby, near Easingwold. Sir Thomas made three wills; the first +in 1741, wherein he left a slender provision for his widow, leaving +the estates to his heir-male. In the second, made in 1744, he left +Thirkleby to his widow for life, to pass at her death to the then +holder of the baronetcy; and by the third will, dated 1746, he left +her the estates, producing £2,500 per annum, and the whole of his +personalty absolutely, and to dispose of as she chose. It was +contended that the last will was made when he was in an unsound state +of mind and under undue influence, and a lawsuit ensued, resulting in +the setting aside of the third and the confirmation of the second +will. The lawsuit gained, Sir Charles and Agnes went for a tour on the +Continent, and in the month of November, 1755, were sojourning in the +city of Lisbon. On the 1st of that month, the sun rose, shining with +almost unusual brightness, and the streets were filled with people +going hither and thither on matters of religion, business, and +pleasure, little dreaming of, and with nothing to indicate, the +catastrophe which was to befall their city. The Franklands had +breakfasted at their hotel, and Sir Charles, donning a Court suit, +started off in a carriage with a lady to witness the celebration of +High Mass in the Cathedral, leaving Agnes at the hotel. They had not +proceeded far, and were passing in front of a lofty building, when, +without warning, the terrible earthquake occurred, which in eight +minutes laid the city in ruins, and swallowed up 50,000 of its +inhabitants. The lofty building came crashing down, and buried the +carriage and its occupants. What became of the lady is not known, but +the horses were killed, and Sir Charles lay bruised and wounded +beneath the ruins for an hour. In full expectation of death, he +reflected on his past life, and, concluding that he was undergoing a +judgment of God for his misdeeds, and especially for having lived in a +state of concubinage, made a vow that if he should be rescued, he +would show his repentance by marrying the partner of his guilt. Agnes +had escaped unhurt, and when the first shock had passed, fearful that +some mischance had befallen him, rushed out in the direction of the +cathedral, regardless of the still falling houses, in search of him. +As she was clambering over a heap of ruins, she heard moans issuing +from beneath, and a voice which she recognised as that of her beloved +one. She immediately got together a party of diggers, and, by promises +of high rewards, succeeded in extricating him, and after his wounds +had been dressed, conveyed him to Belem, where, in process of time, he +recovered, and where their marriage was celebrated. + +Sir Charles returned to Boston; but in 1757 he was appointed +Consul-General to Portugal, and again came to Lisbon. In 1763 he +resumed his duties at Boston, retaining his consulship, although +absent, until 1767, when he returned to England, and died the +following year, being succeeded in the baronetcy by his brother +Thomas. + +Lady Frankland returned to New England with her son, and they resided +upon an estate at Hopkinson which she had inherited through her +parents, but at the outbreak of the Revolutionary war in 1775, she, +being a Royalist, came to England, and, in 1782, married Mr. John +Drew, a banker at Chichester, and died in 1783. + +Richard Cromwell, her son, entered the naval service of England, but +retired on his ship being ordered to America, as he felt unwilling to +fight against his native land. In 1796 he was living in Chichester +with a family growing up around him. + +In 1865 there was published at Albany, "Sir Charles Henry Frankland, +Bart.; or, Boston in the Colonial Times; by Elias Nason, M.A.," who, +in the preface, says--"Who was Sir C. H. Frankland? is a question +which a brief story entitled 'A legend of New England,' and published +by William Lincoln, in 1843, and still more recently the ballad of +'Agnes,' by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes here, led the public to +entertain: Was he a real person or a myth? Was there ever such a +collector of the port of Boston? Was he indeed buried under the ruins +of Lisbon at the time of the great earthquake? Was he rescued +therefrom by the efforts of a poor girl, named Agnes Surriage, and did +he afterwards make her his wife?" These questions the author answers +in the subsequent pages of the pamphlet, of which the above is an +epitome. + + + + +Rise of the House of Phipps. + + +About the middle of the seventeenth century, during the Civil War and +the Restoration, there dwelt in Bristol one James Phipps, a gunsmith +by trade. He was blessed with a numerous progeny; of him it might +truly be said that "his quiver was full of them," for he had +eventually twenty-six children, of whom twenty-one were boys. Having +only his gunmaking trade to depend upon for a living, he found it +difficult to provide means for feeding, clothing, and educating them, +and often lay awake long at nights, pondering in his mind what he +should do to meet the necessities of the case. At that time, and for +two or three reigns previously, we had been at work laying the +foundations of the present great American Republic, by establishing +plantations of colonists, aristocratic and Episcopalian, in the south, +and Puritanical in the north, most of whom had been driven thither by +the persecutions they had undergone in the mother country. Bristol +was then the great port of imports and exports of the Western +Continent, and James Phipps naturally heard of the unbounded +capabilities of the new continent, as also he heard, by tradition, of +the vast wealth which the buccaneers of Elizabeth's reign--the old +Vikings of Devonshire--brought from the West Indies, Peru, Mexico, +etc., into the ports of Bristol, Barnstaple, Bideford, etc., and it +occurred to him that here was scope enough for him and all his sons, +and he emigrated with them to New England, where William, his youngest +son, was born, and he seems to have died soon after, as this son is +stated to have been brought up by his mother until he was eighteen +years of age. + +This William Phipps was the founder of that family who are now lords +of Mulgrave Castle, and whose dignity has culminated in a Marquisate. +He had received no education, but taught himself to read and write +when apprentice to a ship carpenter. At the expiration of his +apprenticeship he married the daughter of Captain Robert Spencer, and +relict of a rich merchant of the name of Hull, who brought him a small +fortune, with which he commenced business, but his speculations were +not successful. But he did not despair, although fortune did seem to +frown. He was a man of unbounded enterprise and energy, and he said to +his wife, who was lamenting the loss of her money, "Be not cast down, +my dear; I will live to be the commander of better men than I myself +am now. Providence has great things in store for me, and the time +shall come when I will build a fair brick house in the green lane of +North Boston, of which you shall be the mistress." When casting about +for employment, he chanced to hear of a Spanish galleon, laden with +specie and plate, which had been wrecked half a century previously +somewhere in the Bahamas, and he resolved to go in search of it, and +to endeavour the recovery of the cargo by means of the diving-bell. + +Aristotle, 300 years B.C., makes some obscure references to a machine +of this kind, but what it was or how employed is not known. The first +reliable account we have of such a machine is given by Taisnier, who +describes a "cacobus aquaticus" (marine kettle) which was exhibited by +two Greeks before the Emperor Charles V., at Toledo, in 1538; but it +seems to have been of no practical use, as it had no apparatus for +supplying the divers with fresh air. A similar sort of bell, but +constructed on better principles, had been made use of on the coast of +Mull, between the years 1650 and 1660 to operate upon some sunken +vessels of the Spanish Armada, but without much success. It was this +which directed the attention of Phipps to the diving-bell, who +perceived that by various modifications and improvements of the +apparatus it might be made a most valuable instrument for submarine +operations, and after a long and patient study, and numberless +experiments, he succeeded in constructing a bell very much the same as +that now used, and capable of being worked much more efficiently and +with greater safety than any previously employed. In consequence of +his having thus, by his skill and scientific modifications, produced a +really working machine, he is generally styled "the inventor of the +diving-bell." He sailed for the Bahamas, but was not able to find the +spot where the vessel lay. He received information of another, +however, the position of which was more accurately defined, and which +held a much greater treasure. + +He then sailed for London, his resources having failed, where he +arrived in 1683, and laid the project before King Charles, who +furnished him with a 19-gun frigate, in which he returned to the +Bahamas. Before he found the locality of the object of his search, he +again became crippled for funds, and went again to London for further +assistance, but King James, who had succeeded to the crown in the +interval, deeming his views visionary, declined having anything to do +in the matter. The Duke of Albemarle, however, was more sanguine and +got up a subscription for a fresh outfit, on condition that he and the +subscribers should share in the proceeds, and Captain Phipps sailed +with two vessels. This time he was more successful; after some search +he found the precise spot where the galleon lay, and, by means of his +diving-bell, brought up from the wreck thirty-two tons of silver, +besides gold plate and jewels, of the estimated value of £200,000. +With this splendid prize he came again to England, but on a division +of the spoil, he got no more than £20,000, the Duke absorbing £90,000, +whilst the remainder was distributed amongst the other subscribers and +the crews of the vessels. The King, in appreciation of his ingenuity +and enterprise, knighted him, and constituted him Sheriff of New +England. He made a second visit to the wreck, and made a gleaning of +what had been left, and on his return to New England he built the +"fair brick house in the green lane of North Boston," where he dwelt +some time with his wife, now Lady Phipps, who no longer twitted him +about the loss of her fortune. He afterwards served in the army, and +was appointed, by William III., Governor of Massachusetts; but two +years after, refusing to sanction certain corrupt practices, he was +charged by his enemies with maladministration of his government. He +went to London to clear himself of the false charges, but died there +soon after his arrival, in 1694, and was buried in the Church of St. +Mary Woolnoth, London, where his widow erected a sumptuous monument to +his memory, with a sculptured representation of his achievements in +the Bahamas. + +Not having any issue by his wife, he adopted Constantine, her nephew, +and at his death bequeathed to him the bulk of his fortune. He is said +generally, in the genealogies of the family, to have been Phipps's own +son; but in "The Life of his Excellency Sir William Phipps, Kt., late +Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of the Province of +Massachusetts Bay, New England, 1697," which was published during the +lifetime of his widow, it is said distinctly, "not having any child of +his own, he adopted a nephew of his wife to be his heir." Sir +Constantine Phipps, his nephew, who assumed the name of Phipps on +inheriting his uncle's property, became Lord High Chancellor of +Ireland, was knighted, and died in 1728. William, his son, married the +Lady Katherine, daughter of James, fourth Earl of Anglesey, by the +Lady Katherine Darnley, a natural daughter of King James II., who +re-married John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, Duke and Marquis of +Normandy, and Earl of Mulgrave. Constantine, his son, who died 1780, +was created Baron Mulgrave of New Ross, in the Peerage of Ireland, in +1768. Constantine, his son, second Baron, was the famous navigator, +who made a voyage of discovery into the Arctic regions, and was, in +the Pitt Administration, Joint Paymaster of the Forces, a Lord of +Trade, and a Commissioner of the India Board. He was created, in 1790, +Baron Mulgrave, of Mulgrave Castle, in the Peerage of England, but, +dying issueless in 1792, that title expired. His portrait may be seen +in Greenwich Hospital. + +Henry, his brother, succeeded as third Baron Mulgrave of New Ross, and +in his person the Barony of Mulgrave, of Mulgrave Castle, was +re-created in 1794. He was further created Viscount Normanby and Earl +of Mulgrave, in 1812, and G.C.B. He was Governor of Scarborough Castle +and Foreign Secretary, 1805-6, and died in 1831. Constantine Henry, +his son, succeeded to all his father's titles, and was advanced in the +Peerage to the Marquisate of Normanby, in 1838. His Lordship, who died +in 1863, was an eminent statesman and diplomatist, was constituted +P.C., 1832; G.C.H., 1832; G.C.B., 1847; and K.G., 1851, and held the +following offices:--Governor-General of Jamaica, 1832-34; Lord Privy +Seal, July to November, 1834; Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 1835-39; +Secretary of State for the Colonies, September to December, 1839; Home +Secretary, 1839-41; was Minister at Paris, 1846-52; Envoy +Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Florence, 1854-58; and +represented Scarborough in Parliament, 1818-20, Higham Ferrers, +1822-26, and Malton, 1826-30. He was a man of accomplished literary +taste, having published "A Year of Revolution," from a journal kept in +Paris, in the year 1848, 2 vols., 1857. Also several novels--"Yes and +No," "Matilda," "The Contrast," "Clorinde," and "The Prophet of St. +Paul's," and several political pamphlets of great ability, with some +other minor works. George Augustus Constantine, his son, the second +Marquis was a K.C.MG. and P.C.; was M.P. for Scarborough, 1847-21; +Treasurer of the Household, 1853-58; a Lord-in-Waiting in 1866 and +1868-69; Captain of the Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, 1869-71; Governor +of Nova Scotia, 1858-66; of Queensland, 1871-74; of New Zealand, +1874-78; and of Victoria, 1878-84. He died in 1890, and was succeeded +by his son, the Rev. Constantine Charles Henry, the present Marquis, +who was born in 1846. + + + + +The Traitor Governor of Hull. + + +October the thirtieth, 1640, was a day of great bustle and excitement +in the town of Beverley. All ordinary business seemed to be suspended, +and the streets were filled with groups of people, in earnest +discussion, and with persons hastening hither and thither as if on +important business, whilst great crowds of burghers occupied the space +in front of the old Hanse House or Guildhall, waiting for the opening +of the doors. It was the day appointed for the election of +representatives to Parliament, and as such an event had not taken +place since 1628, excepting that of the spring of the present year, +for the Parliament which lasted only twenty-eight days, combined with +the irritating circumstances which had caused the issue of the writs, +the excitement and the depth of party feeling between the Puritans and +the upholders of the policy of Wentworth and Laud, was all the more +intense. The King had striven to rule and levy taxes absolutely and +irresponsibly, contrary to the Constitution; and the murmurs and +opposition became so great as to compel him to summon together the +representatives of the Commons to sanction his acts, and grant the +necessary subsidies. Hence were the burgesses of Beverley summoned +together to elect their representatives to what came to be called in +after time "The Long Parliament." In due course they were admitted +into the hall, and presently after the Mayor, William Cheppelow, a +mercer, entered, and took his seat as Returning-Officer. He was +accompanied by the Recorder, Francis Thorpe, the Aldermen, the Capital +Burgesses, and the usual officials. After the reading of the writ and +other preliminaries, he asked if any one had a candidate to propose, +when a burgess proposed Sir John Hotham, "our old representative, who +has served us faithfully in four previous Parliaments." Another +proposed Michael Warton, Esq., "our worthy townsman, whose principles +are well known to us all;" and a third proposed Sir Thomas Metham, +Knight, all which proposals were seconded, and the polling proceeded +with, the result being the return of the two former, who, the +following day, posted up to London to take their seats at the opening +of the House on the third of November. + +Sir John Hotham was a descendant of Sir John de Trehouse, Knight, of +Kilkenny, who, for his services at the Battle of Hastings, had a grant +of the Manor of Hotham, near Beverley. Peter, his great-grandson, +assumed the name of "de Hotham," and his descendant, Sir John, was +summoned as Baron in 1315, which dignity became extinct at his death, +as it was a personal summons only. The family subsequently became +possessors of South Dalton and Scorborough, both in the neighbourhood +of Beverley, which were now held by Sir John, who made the mansion at +the latter village his place of residence. He was born towards the end +of the sixteenth century, was made a baronet in 1621, and had been +five times married. He was now destined, by reason of his return to +the Long Parliament, to make his name famous in English history, or, +as some might say, infamous. He was not disaffected towards the King +and his policy; what he did in opposition thereto he deemed to be his +duty to the Parliament of which he was a member, of which, however, he +afterwards repented, impelled partly also by jealousy at the +appointment of Lord Fairfax to the command of the forces in the north, +which, he considered, ought to have been given to him, an old +experienced soldier, who had served for a long time in the Low +Countries, and had fought under the banner of the Elector Palatine at +the Battle of Prague. + +At the neighbouring town of Hull there was at this time a great store +of arms and ammunition, which had been deposited there for the use of +the troops in the Scottish expedition, when the King went thither to +attempt to cram the Liturgy down the throats of the Presbyterian +Scots. It had been under the charge of Colonel Legge, who, on the +disbandment of the army, left it under the care of the Mayor of Hull. +When the rupture between the King and the Parliament was coming to a +crisis, the former went with his Court to York, his secret object +being to get possession of the magazine; and the Parliament, +suspecting his motive for going north, sent Sir John Hotham and his +son, Captain John Hotham, to take charge of it, and not to deliver it +up on any consideration, excepting by their order. This occurred in +March, 1642. Captain Hotham, his son, represented Scarborough in the +Long Parliament. + +In March, the King had sent the Earl of Newcastle to take charge of +Hull and the magazine of arms, but the Mayor declined delivering up +his trust, and the following month the King proceeded thither in +person, to demand admittance, attended by a suite of noblemen and +gentlemen. When he appeared before the town, he found the gates shut, +the drawbridges raised, and the walls swarming with men-at-arms. He +caused a trumpet to be sounded for a parley, when Sir John Hotham, the +new governor, accompanied by the Mayor, appeared over Beverley Gate. +He had previously sent Sir Louis Dives from Beverley with a message +that he was coming with some noblemen to dine with Sir John, who held +a hurried consultation with Alderman Pelham, a Member of the +Parliament, when they determined upon not admitting him, and upon +placing a guard over the Mayor and burgesses, and sent a reply that he +could not admit him without a betrayal of the trust reposed in him by +the Parliament. When Sir John appeared over the gate, the King +demanded admittance, and asked angrily why the gate was shut against +him. Sir John replied, "I am sorry to disobey your Majesty, but I am +intrusted by the Parliament with the charge of this garrison, with +instructions to admit no one who comes with apparently hostile +intentions, and I trust that I may not be misunderstood, for nothing +is meant in it but the good of the kingdom and the welfare of your +Majesty." "Pray, Sir John, by what authority do you act thus +disloyally?" "By order of both Houses of Parliament." "Read or show me +that authority." "I decline doing so." "Has the Mayor seen it?" "No! I +scorn that he should. I am the Governor of the town, and it concerns +no one else." + +The King then asked the Mayor if he sanctioned this treasonable +conduct, who, terrified and abashed in the presence of Royalty, fell +on his knees and replied, "My liege! glad should I be to open the +gates if it were in my power; but, alas! both I and the inhabitants +are under guard, and soldiers, with drawn swords, threaten our lives +if we make the attempt." + +"Well, Sir John," said the King, "this act of yours is unparalleled, +and will, I fear, lead to dismal consequences, and I cannot do less +than proclaim and proceed against you as a traitor; but I will give +you an hour to decide." He then retired, and, on his return, found the +Governor inflexible in his refusal to admit him, excepting with a +following of not more than twenty persons, upon which he caused a +herald to proclaim him a traitor, and all who abetted him guilty of +treason, shouting, "Fling the traitor over the walls! Throw the rebel +into the ditch," after which he retired to Beverley, and spent the +night there. The following morning he sent a messenger with a promise +of pardon for the past, and his favour for the future, if Sir John +would open the gates to him, and when he received a negative answer he +returned to York. The King then sent a complaint to Parliament of Sir +John's conduct, who replied that he had done quite right, and that his +proclamation of him as a traitor was a flagrant breach of the +privilege of Parliament. + +As the King could not obtain admission to the town by persuasive +means, he resorted to force, and laid siege to it, and the Parliament +sent an additional force of 2,000 men to maintain the defence. About +this time, Lord Digby, a Royalist, was captured and brought into Hull, +who, in repeated conversations with Sir John on the evils he was +bringing upon the kingdom, half persuaded him to admit the King; but +eventually he resolved not to betray his trust. Nevertheless he +facilitated the escape of his lordship, and this was what first caused +him to be viewed with suspicion by the Parliament. Soon after, the +King went into the Midlands, and set up his standard at Nottingham, +leaving the siege of Hull in the hands of Lord Newport, and the civil +war commenced in earnest. Captain Hotham, a dashing and dare-devil +officer, left Hull with a small force, had a brush with and was +defeated by Glemham, on the Wolds; frightened Archbishop Williams from +Cawood, who fled to Wales, and never saw his diocese again; disputed +the passage of the Tees with Newcastle, and again at Tadcaster against +an overwhelming force; and assisted Sir T. Fairfax in the capture of +Leeds. + +By various instrumentalities, the Hothams, father and son, had now +veered round from the Parliamentarian to the Royalist side. The +younger had met the Queen when she landed at Burlington, kissed her +hand, and promised obedience to the King's will; and the elder had +been in correspondence with Newcastle, and had undertaken to deliver +up Hull on the 28th of August. But all this had come to the ears of +Parliament, and measures were at once taken to frustrate his +intentions. Orders were sent to Thomas Raikes, the Mayor, Sir Matthew +Boynton, Hotham's brother-in-law, and Captain Meyer, commander of a +vessel of war in the Humber, to arrest him and his son, and send them +up to London, and they lost no time in the matter. Captain Meyer +landed one hundred men, who seized the citadel and the block-house, +and they placed a watch round Sir John's house. Captain Hotham they +captured without difficulty, and placed in security during the night, +and at daylight went to Sir John's house to take him, but found he had +effected his escape. + +Too old a soldier to be caught in a trap like that, and too old in +strategy not to be able to devise means of extrication from a peril, +he, having learned from his spies what was passing, and seeing that +matters were coming to a crisis, determined upon flying to his house +at Scorborough, which was fortified and able to stand a short siege. +He eluded the watch by passing out by a private door at the back, and +made his way, by obscure lanes and streets, to Beverley Gate. When he +arrived there he was saluted by the guard, who knew nothing of the +order for his arrest, and, assuming a lofty unembarrassed bearing, he +ordered the gate to be opened and six of the guards to follow him to +Beverley. He was immediately obeyed, and, securing a horse, he rode +off in the direction of Beverley; but as soon as he had purposely +outridden his attendants, he turned to the right, through Sculcoates, +towards Stone Ferry. His pursuers meanwhile learnt what had passed at +the gate, and rode after him along the Beverley road. They overtook +the six guards, who informed them that Sir John could not be more than +a few furlongs ahead on the road, and they spurred on towards Beverley +without overtaking the fugitive. + +Sir John's house lay three or four miles beyond Beverley, on the west +of the river Hull, and as he knew it would be dangerous to pass +through the town, he resolved to cross the river and proceed along the +eastern side, and re-cross it when he had passed Beverley. +Unfortunately, when he came to Stone Ferry, there was no boat, and the +river was running too rapidly to allow of swimming his horse across; +he therefore hastened on to Wawn Ferry, hoping to cross there, but the +fates seemed to be against him; there was no boat there either, and +the hazard was too great to attempt reaching the opposite bank by any +other means. He paused for a few minutes, thinking over what course he +should pursue. There appeared to be nothing for it but to make a bold +dash through Beverley. It was true that the town was held by the +Parliamentarians, but they might not have heard of the events which +had transpired in Hull. Besides, there was no alternative, and putting +spurs to his horse's flanks, he soon came in sight of the towers of +Beverley Minster. He entered the town by Queensgate, and passing along +the streets with an air of indifference, came to the Market-place, +which he found occupied by a troop of 700 or 800 men, with his nephew, +Colonel Boynton, at their head. With an assumed nonchalant air, he +saluted his nephew, and ordered a company of the men to follow, which +they were preparing to do, when the Colonel, who had been made +acquainted with his treachery, came up, and seizing his horse's +bridle, said, "Sir John, you are my prisoner. I respect you as my +kinsman, but I must, although with the greatest reluctance, pass by +all tender respect, and arrest you as a traitor to the Commonwealth." +Sir John, seeing that resistance was useless, replied, "Well, kinsman, +since such is your will I must be content and submit," but, espying a +lane close by, he clapped spurs to his horse and galloped down it, +followed by his nephew, shouting "Down with the traitor; knock him +down;" and a soldier, striking him with the butt end of his musket, +brought him to the earth, bleeding and almost senseless. By a strange +coincidence, he was confined for the night in the same house where the +King had slept after his discomfiture at the gates of Hull. The +following morning he was taken to Hull, placed on board Captain +Meyer's vessel, and, with his son, immediately conveyed to London. On +the 3rd of December they were arraigned at the Guildhall for treason, +the Earl of Manchester presiding, and were sentenced to be executed on +the last day of the year. The House of Lords, desirous of pardoning +him, reprieved Sir John for three days; but the Commons would not +listen to it. Captain Hotham was beheaded in due course before his +father, which some said was a piece of concerted malice, that he +might not die a baronet, which he would have done had his father +suffered first. + +On the 2nd of January, Sir John was brought out upon Tower Hill and +mounted the scaffold, accompanied by the Rev. Hugh Peters and other +ministers and friends. He met his fate bravely and like a soldier, and +before laying his head on the block, addressed the people, +saying--"Gentlemen,--I know no more of myself but that I deserve this +death from God Almighty, and that I deserve damnation and the severest +punishment from Him. As for the business of Hull--the betraying it +from the Parliament--the ministers that have all been with me and gave +me good counsels, I thank them. Neither was I any ways guilty of it. +That's all I can say to that act," etc., etc. + +It will be seen that he was no orator, and did not give utterance to +his ideas in a very clear and coherent manner. The speech of his son, +three days previously, was very superior, both in matter and manner. + +After Peters had addressed the crowd, putting Sir John's sentiments in +better language, the unfortunate baronet placed his head on the +block. His head was stricken off by the headsman, and his mutilated +remains were buried in the church of All-Hallows, Barking, the liturgy +being read at his funeral, although it had been abolished by Act of +Parliament. + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + +Archaic and inconsistent spelling and punctuation retained. + + + * * * * * + + +_Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8vo., price, 6s._ + +Yorkshire Battles. + +By EDWARD LAMPLOUGH. + + +CONTENTS: + +This work contains carefully-written accounts of the following +Yorkshire Battles, which cannot fail to interest and instruct the +reader. It is a book of more than local interest:-- + + _Winwidfield, etc.--Battle of Stamford Bridge--After Stamford + Bridge--Battle of the Standard--After the Battle of the + Standard--Battle of Myton Meadows--Battle of + Boroughbridge--Battle of Byland Abbey--In the Days of Edward + III. and Richard II.--Battle of Bramham Moor--Battle of + Sandal--Battle of Towton--Yorkshire under the Tudors--Battle of + Tadcaster--Battle of Leeds--Battle of Wakefield--Battle of + Adwalton Moor--Battle of Hull--Battle of Selby--Battle of + Marston Moor--Battle of Brunnanburgh--Fight off Flamborough + Head--Index._ + + +Opinions of the Press. + + "A remarkably handsome volume, typographically equal to the + best productions of any European capital."--_North British + Daily Mail._ + + "A handsome book. It is extremely interesting, and is a work + which cannot fail to find a permanent place amongst the best + books devoted to the history of the county. The military + history of Yorkshire is very closely investigated in this work. + Although the book is written in a clear and picturesque style, + great care and attention have been given to the researches of + antiquaries and historians, and many authorities have been + consulted, in consequence of which, several long-established + errors have been corrected, and some oft-repeated but + superficial conclusions confuted. Special attention has been + given to the military history of the county during the great + rebellion--a subject which has yet to be fairly and + intelligently treated by the general historian. So far as the + limits of the work permit, the general history of the county, + from epoch to epoch, has been sketched, maintaining the + continuity of the work, and increasing its interest and value + both to the general reader and the specialist. The printers of + the book are Messrs. Wm. Andrews and Co., Hull, and it must be + regarded as a good specimen of local typography."--_Wakefield + Free Press._ + + "An important work."--_Beverley Independent._ + + "Does great credit to the new firm of book + publishers."--_Yorkshire County Magazine._ + + "A beautifully printed volume."--_Halifax Courier._ + + "Mr. Lamplough's book is thoroughly readable, and is written in + a manly as well as a discriminating spirit."--_Yorkshire Post._ + + _LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & CO. + HULL: WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS._ + + +_Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8vo., price 6s._ + +Old-Time Punishments. + +By WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S., + +AUTHOR OF "CURIOSITIES OF THE CHURCH," "HISTORIC ROMANCE," "FAMOUS +FROSTS AND FROST FAIRS," "HISTORIC YORKSHIRE," ETC. + + +CONTENTS. + +Carefully prepared papers, profusely illustrated, appear on the +following subjects:-- + + _The Ducking Stool--The Brank, or Scold's Bridle--The + Pillory--Punishing Authors and burning + books--Finger-Pillory--The Jougs--The Stocks--The Drunkard's + Cloak--Whipping--Public Penance in White Sheets--The + Repentance-Stool--Riding the Stang--Gibbet + Lore--Drowning--Burning to Death--Boiling to + Death--Beheading--Hanging, Drawing, and Quartering--Pressing to + Death--Hanging--Hanging in Chains--The Halifax Gibbet--The + Scottish Maiden, etc.--An Index of five closely-printed pages._ + +MANY CURIOUS ILLUSTRATIONS. + + +PRESS OPINIONS. + + "This is an entertaining book ... well-chosen illustrations and + a serviceable index."--_Athenæum._ + + "A hearty reception may be bespoken for it."--_Globe_ + + "A work which will be eagerly read by all who take it + up."--_Scotsman._ + + "It is entertaining."--_Manchester Guardian._ + + "A vast amount of curious and entertaining matter."--_Sheffield + Independent._ + + "We can honestly recommend a perusal of this book."--_Yorkshire + Post._ + + "Interesting, and handsomely printed."--_Newcastle Chronicle._ + + "A very readable history."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + + "Mr. Andrews' book is well worthy of careful study, and is a + perfect mine of wealth on the subject of which it + treats."--_Herts Advertiser._ + + "It is sure of a warm welcome on both sides of the + Atlantic."--_Christian Leader._ + + + LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & CO. + HULL: WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Yorkshire Family Romance, by Frederick Ross + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40522 *** |