Introduction
In 1558, Mary I died and her half-sister Elizabeth, a Protestant, assumed the crown. Both the Pope and Philip II of Spain, Mary’s widower, were wrathful but no reaction came until September 1569. Mary Queen of Scots, a Catholic, had fled to cousin Elizabeth’s protection, and two Catholic nobles spotted an opportunity for change. George Carleton, Bishop of Chichester, takes up the tale of ‘the Rising of the North.’
THE issue was, the Pope and the Spaniard were disappointed,* the world wondered how this state was so soon quieted. The Earls Northumberland and Westmorland* seduced by a Priest that the Pope had sent, one Nicholas Morton,* came to Durham where they had the Mass set up.
From thence they marched to Clifford Moor, not far from Wetherby, where hearing that the Scots Queen (for whose deliverance they took arms,) was carried from Tutbury to Coventry,* under the custody of the Earls of Shrewsbury and Huntingdon, and that the Earl of Sussex on the one side had gathered a strong army against them,* that Sir George Bowes was behind them,* having fortified Barnard Castle, that the Lord Scroop and the Earl of Cumberland had fortified Carlisle,* and gathered an army there in readiness, that the soldiers of Berwick with the power of Northumberland were in Newcastle, they turned back again and besieged Barnard Castle.*
* ‘The Spaniard’ is King Philip II of Spain, the widower of Queen Mary I of England. Mary died without an heir in November 1558. The Pope at the time was Paul IV (r. 1555-1559). When the Rising of the North broke out in 1569, the Pope was Pius V (r. 1566-1572).
* Mary was imprisoned in Tutbury Castle in 1569, after seeking refuge with her cousin (once removed) Queen Elizabeth I of England. She had been forced out of Scotland in 1567 following the scandals surrounding her marriage to Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley; plots and rumours so swirled about her that Elizabeth kept her under house arrest. See Mary Queen of Scots.
* Thomas Percy (1528-1572), 7th Earl of Northumberland, and Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland. The Percys’ seat was at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland. The Nevilles’ seats were at Brancepeth and at Raby, both in County Durham; it was at Brancepeth that the Rising began. Historically, the two families had been great rivals.
* Dr Nicholas Morton (?1517-1583) had been a Prebendary of York, but was now Canon Penitentiary of St Peter’s in Rome, having quitted England on the accession of Elizabeth in 1558. He was sent back in 1569 to tell the Catholic nobility that Elizabeth had been excommunicated and that they were free to depose her, with Papal blessing; thereafter he made several visits to his homeland incognito. Pope Pius V took action on his own account too: see The Ridolfi Plot.
* Thomas Radclyffe, Earl of Sussex, Lord Deputy of Ireland 1556-1564, and Lord President of the North from 1568 to 1572, when he was appointed Elizabeth’s Lord Chamberlain.
* Sir George Bowes (1527-1580). In 1568, he had been given the responsibility of escorting Mary Queen of Scots from Carlisle to Bolton Castle, and the two kept up a friendly correspondence thereafter. His seat was at Streatlam Castle, near Barnard Castle.
* Henry Scrope (?1534-1592), 9th Baron Scrope of Bolton. Scrope is pronounced Scroop; Carleton wrote the name phonetically. The Earl of Cumberland, Henry Clifford (1517-1570), was Scrope’s maternal grandfather. Clifford’s wife Eleanor was a niece of Henry VIII.
* That is to say, that the Earls of Westmorland and Northumberland were near Wetherby on their march south to capture York, when they learned that forces loyal to Queen Elizabeth were closing in under the command of Earl of Sussex, the Earl of Cumberland and Baron Scrope. Outnumbered by about 10,000 to 6,000, with more government forces to come, they retreated, and besieged Sir George Bowes at Barnard Castle on the River Tees while an army loyal to Northumberland built up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne further north.
Précis
In 1569, two Catholic noblemen, the Earls of Northumberland and of Westmorland, led a rebellion in the hope of replacing Queen Elizabeth I with her cousin Mary Queen of Scots. However, their march south was called off when they heard of a large government force coming their way, and they contented themselves with besieging Sir George Bowes in Barnard Castle. (60 / 60 words)
In 1569, two Catholic noblemen, the Earls of Northumberland and of Westmorland, led a rebellion in the hope of replacing Queen Elizabeth I with her cousin Mary Queen of Scots. However, their march south was called off when they heard of a large government force coming their way, and they contented themselves with besieging Sir George Bowes in Barnard Castle.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: just, may, must, not, or, ought, unless, whereas.
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