Chapter XX · THE END OF THE PILGRIMAGE (continued 2)

Thou art tired, best be still.”

There is something noble in this quiet resignation,—something which makes the protests of the modern martyr sound petty and shrill.

In the strength of this resignation died Sir Robert Constable. Norfolk reported that his body “doth hang above the highest gate of the town, so trimmed in chains ... that I think his bones will hang there this hundred year.”^[1225] The Beverley Gate was the scene of Hallam’s sacrifice, when he turned his back on safety and chose to share the fate of his comrades. It was fitting that Sir Robert should die there, he who worthily fulfilled his motto:

“As to the ship is anchor and cable,

So to thy friend be thou, Constable.”^[1226]

A very different scene of friendship was enacted at his execution. Norfolk entered into conversation with Sir William Parr, saying that he was as much bound to Cromwell as ever nobleman could be to 222another. Parr replied that he had heard and partly knew how willing Cromwell was to further Norfolk’s interests. The Duke exclaimed, “Sir William, no man can report more than I know already, for I have found such assured goodness in him to me, that I never proved the like in any friend before; and therefore myself and all mine shall be, as long as I live, as ready to do him pleasure as any kinsman he hath.” Parr, as was expected of him, repeated all this to Cromwell^[1227]. Such were the professions of the man who afterwards arrested Cromwell in the Council Chamber and “snatched off the order of St George which he wore in his neck.”^[1228]

As the plague was raging in Hull, Norfolk left the town immediately after the execution, and conveyed Aske to York, where he was to suffer on the next market day^[1229].

Ever since he had assumed his perilous office as grand captain of the Pilgrimage, Aske had been haunted by the nightmare of an execution for treason, from which he had not even the protection of knighthood. His was not that unhealthy type of mind which despises life and seeks for death in any form. He had none of the hysterical enthusiasm which carries some martyrs through their sufferings in a state of happy insensibility. He saw that the death which threatened him was horrible and shameful, but he had the supreme courage to face it, not because he drugged himself with the thought of future bliss, but because it was necessary for the sake of his cause.

Aske was prepared to suffer martyrdom if it must be so, but he did not pretend to desire it. During the rebellion he was heard to say that “he had rather die in the field than be judged like a traitor.”^[1230] On his last journey up to London he was accompanied by Robert Wall his foster brother and constant companion. When Wall heard of Aske’s arrest, he cast himself upon his bed, and cried, “Oh my master! Oh my master! They will draw him and hang him and quarter him.” A few days afterwards the faithful servant died of sorrow^[1231].

After his trial Aske sent a petition to the King, and another to an unnamed lord, probably Cromwell. He begged that his debts might be paid, and that his lands in Hampshire might revert to the right heirs, as he held them only for life. He solemnly declared that none of his kinsmen took any part in the insurrection, and begged that the King would be gracious to them, and not visit his offences 223upon them. He requested that “other men’s evidences,” which had been in his charge at Gray’s Inn and were seized with his papers, might be restored to the rightful owners. Finally he begged that his sentence might be commuted to perpetual imprisonment “or else let me be full dead ere I be dismembered.”^[1232] On this point the King showed mercy. Aske was allowed to hang “until he died.”^[1233]

The day appointed for Aske’s execution was Thursday 12 July, which was market day in York^[1234]. Richard Coren, the government chaplain, was with him on the last morning, and received from him a list of the spoils which he had taken and not restored; he begged they might be discharged by the King. As with Constable, the chaplain tried hard to draw fresh details of the rising out of him, and noted, with some annoyance, that both men “thought a religion to keep secret between God and them certain things rather than open their whole stomach; from the which opinion I could not abduce them.” The secret which the chaplain was so anxious to discover must have been the identity of the Pilgrims’ friends in the south. The evidence that they had such friends has already been discussed^[1235]. When interrogated on the subject in the Tower Aske replied, “the common report of all that travelled in the south parts was then that if the north parts would come forwards that the countries as they came would take their part and join with them, ... he never received letter nor special message with any promise of help from the South. The gentlemen of Yorkshire adjoining Lincolnshire told him that if any power had come into Lincolnshire before the agreement at Doncaster the commons of Lincolnshire would have taken their part. By such reports the said Aske knew the minds of the countries and none otherwise.”^[1236] When this statement is compared with Aske’s letter to Darcy in November 1536^[1237], it is evident that he was lying to his examiners. He probably confessed the falsehood to the chaplain, but still refused to betray the names of his allies. He stated, out of confession, that Darcy had told him during the Pilgrimage of his communications with the Imperial ambassador in 1535, which though suspected had not been known to the government before, and he also mentioned Darcy’s intention of sending to Flanders, which had been discovered during the trial.

Two things troubled Aske because they had “somewhat aggrieved” 224him. One was a speech of Cromwell’s, who “spake a sore word and affirmed it with a stomach,” that all the northern men were but traitors. The other was the fact that Cromwell had several times promised him a pardon, and the King had given him a token of pardon for confessing the truth, yet he was now to die. He said that he had kept these matters secret, and of course the chaplain, in his report to Cromwell, promised never to repeat them. Another secret which Aske had learnt was that Cromwell “did not bear so great a favour to my lord of Norfolk as he thought he did.”^[1238] These blunt statements of facts that no one in diplomatic circles ever mentioned caused a slight flutter among those concerned. Norfolk and Cromwell were obliged to exchange more assurances of perpetual amity^[1239] and the English ambassador in Brussels wrote on 22 January 1539–40 that Chapuys “professeth with great oaths the King’s good service and true intent in the place he was in, wherein he showed me of the accusation that Aske had made against him, and of his innocence therein.”^[1240]

After his confession Aske was brought out of the prison and openly confessed he had offended God, the King, and the world. “God he had offended in breaking of his commandments, many ways; the King’s Majesty, he said, he had greatly offended in breaking his laws whereunto every true subject is bounden by the commandment of God, as he did openly affirm, and the world he had offended, for so much as he was the occasion that many one had lost their lives, lands and goods. After this he declared openly that the King’s Highness was so gracious lord unto all his subjects in these parts that no man should be troubled for any offence comprised within the compass of his gracious pardon.” He was then laid upon a hurdle and drawn through the main streets of York, “desiring the people ever, as he passed by, to pray for him.”

On reaching the Clifford Tower, Aske was made to repeat his confession, and then taken into the Tower to await the coming of the Duke^[1241]. All the principal gentlemen of the West Marches had been summoned to attend the execution, and others of Yorkshire including Aske’s brother John, who afterwards had a severe illness^[1242].

When Norfolk arrived he pronounced an exhortation^[1243]. Aske was brought out upon the scaffold on the top of the tower, and there 225repeated his confession, “asking divers times the King’s Highness’ forgiveness, my Lord Chancellor, my Lord of Norfolk, my Lord Privy Seal, my Lord of Sussex and all the world, and thus, after certain orisons, commended his soul to God.”^[1244] So died Robert Aske, begging the forgiveness of the men who had done him to death. “And all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.”

NOTE TO CHAPTER XX

Note A. There are three long papers (L. and P. XII (1), 847, 848, 849) filled with notes on the evidence against Darcy and Aske. We have taken these to be notes for the prosecution, showing the material for the various charges brought against the prisoners. It has been suggested that our view is mistaken, and that these are really notes for the interrogation of the prisoners, but this seems improbable for the following reasons:—

(1) Against some of the items a note is made that a question is to be asked about that particular point, but if they were all intended for questions, there would be no reason to mark a few in this way. So far as the notes were used as interrogatories, it was chiefly in the matter of the dates of various letters mentioned in them, such dates being added in the margin.

(2) Against some of the items are written such comments as “this shows him a traitor,” “thereby he committed a new treason.” There could be no reason for such notes on a mere list of questions.

For these reasons therefore we take the notes to be the general outline of the case for the crown against Darcy and Aske.

226