When the Rising of the North went all wrong in 1569, rebel leader Thomas Percy turned to trusted ally Hector of Harlaw for help.
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.’