No. 175: The Rising in the North
[There are no known US or Canadian traditional versions of this ballad.]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (Found at the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A
5. Endnotes
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 175. The Rising in the North
A. Roud No. 4005: The Rising in the North (4 Listings)
2. Sheet Music: 175. The Rising in the North (Bronson's gives no music examples)
3. English and Other Versions (Including Child version A with additional notes)]
Child's Narrative: 175. The Rising in the North
A. 'Risinge in the Northe,' Percy Manuscript, p. 256; Hales and Furnivall, II, 210.
Printed in Percy's Reliques, 1765, 1, 250, "from two Manuscript copies, one of them in the editor's folio collection. They contained considerable variations, out of which such readings were chosen as seemed most poetical and consonant to history." Bearing in mind Percy's express avowal that he "must plead guilty to the charge of concealing his own share in amendments under some such general title as a modern copy, or the like," one would conclude without hesitation that there was but a single authentic text in this case, as in others. Percy notes on the margin of his manuscript: "N. B. To correct this by my other copy, which seems more modern. The other copy in many parts preferable to this." But this note would seem to be a private memorandum. Or are we to suppose that Percy might employ, from habit perhaps, the same formula, not to say artifice, with himself as with the public? In notes in the Folio to 'Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas' (No 176), Percy speaks of a second copy of that ballad also as being in his possession, and describes it as containing much which is omitted in the other, and as beginning like 'The Earl of Westmoreland,' (No 177). Of the beginning of this last he says, in a note in the Folio, "these lines are given in one of my old copies to Lord Northumberland." "Old copies" is staggering; for any one who examines the variations of the texts in the Reliques from the texts in the Folio will find them of the same character and style as Percy's acknowledged improvements of other ballads, and will be compelled to impute them to the editor or his double.[1]
The earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, having for a time succeeded, by exuberant professions, in allaying very sufficiently grounded suspicions of their loyal dealing, at last, upon receiving the Queen's summons to London, found compliance unsafe, and went into rebellion. They took this step with but half a heart and against their judgment, overcome by the clamor and urgency of a portion of their fellow-conspirators. The intent of the insurgents was, in Northumberland's own words, "the reformation of religion, and the preservation of the Queen of Scots, whom they accounted by God's law and man's law to be right heir, if want should be of issue of the Queen's Majesty's body." These two causes, they were confident, were favored by the larger number of noblemen within the realm.[2] Protestantism had no hold in the north, and the Queen's officers in those parts were, for the moment, not strong enough to make opposition. With leaders of energy and military skill, and a good chest to draw upon,[3] the rising would have been highly dangerous. As things were, it collapsed in five weeks without the shedding of a drop of blood; but hundreds of simple people were subsequently hanged.
The earls, with others, among whom Richard Norton, then sheriff of York, was the most conspicuous, entered Durham in arms on Sunday, the fourteenth of November (1569). They went to the minster, overthrew the communion-table, tore the Bible and service-books, replaced the old altar (which had been thrown into a rubbish-heap), and had mass said. The next day they turned southwards, with nobody to molest or stop them in their rear or in front. The Earl of Sussex was collecting a force at York, but it came in slowly, and it could not be trusted. "To get the more credit among the favorers of the old Romish religion, they had a cross, with a banner of the five wounds, borne after them, sometime by old Norton, sometime by others" (Holinshed). They proceeded to Ripon, Wetherby, and Clifford Moor (Bramham Moor) near Tadcaster. " Their main body was at Wetherby and Tadcaster, their advanced horse were far down across the Ouse." Their numbers, according to Holinshed, never exceeded about two thousand horse and five thousand foot. Tutbury, where Mary Stuart was confined, was but a little more than fifty miles from their advance; they proposed to release the Queen of Scots, and then to move on London, or wait for a rising in the south. Mary Stuart, at the nick of time, was removed to Coventry. On the twenty-fourth we hear that the rebels were drawn back to Knaresborough and Boroughbridge; on the thirtieth, that they are returned into the Bishopric. There they laid siege to Barnard Castle, which Sir George Bowes was obliged to surrender on December twelfth; on the fifteenth the earls were still at Durham. On the thirteenth the earls of Warwick and Clinton, commanders of the Army of the South, met at Wetherby with a combined force of eleven thousand foot and above twelve hundred horse, "eager to encounter the rebels, if they would abide." But on the sixteenth the "lords rebels" warned their footmen to shift for themselves, and fled with such horse as they had left into Northumberland. The twenty-second of December, the Earl of Sussex, qui cunctando restituit rem, Lord Hunsdon, who had been joined with him in command, and Sir Ralph Sadler, who had been deputed to watch him, write to the Queen: "The earls rebels, with their principal confederates and the Countess of Northumberland, did the twentieth of this present in the night, flee into Liddesdale with about a hundred horse; and there remain under the conduction of Black Ormiston, one I, of the murtherers of the Lord Darnley, and John of the Side and the Lord's Jock, two notable thieves of Liddesdale, and the rest of the rebels be utterly scaled."[4]
The ballad, which is the work of a loyal but not unsympathetic minstrel, gives but a cursory and imperfect account of "this geere." Earl Percy has come to the conclusion that he must fight or flee; his lady urges him thrice over to go to the court, and right himself, but he tells her that his treason is known well enough; if he follows her advice she will never see him again. He sends a letter to Master Norton, urging that gentleman to ride with him. Norton asks counsel of his son Christopher, who advises him not to go back from the word he has spoken, and much pleases his father thereby. He asks his nine sons how many of them will take part with him. All but the eldest at once answer that they will stand by him till death: Francis Norton, the eldest, will not advise acting against the crown. Coward Francis, thou never tookest that of me! says the father. Francis will go with his father, but unarmed, and he wishes an ill death to them that strike the first stroke against the crown. There is a muster at Wetherby, and Westmoreland and Northumberland are there with their proper banners,[5] and with another setting forth the Lord on the cross. Sir George Bowes "rising to make a spoil," they besiege him in a castle to which he retires, easily win the outer walls, but cannot win the inner. Word comes to the Queen of the rebels in the north; she sends thirty thousand men against them, under the "false" Earl of Warwick, and they never stop till they reach York. (A gap occurs here, which need not be a large one, considering the leaps taken already.) Northumberland is gone, Westmoreland vanished, and Norton and his eight sons fled.
5-10. The Countess of Northumberland would have been the last person to give such advice as is attributed to her. "His wife, being the stouter of the two, doth encourage him to persevere, and rideth up and down with the army, so as the grey mare is the better horse." Hunsdon to Cecil, November twenty-sixth, Manuscript cited by Froude.
11-27. Richard Norton, miscalled Francis in 40, was a man of seventy-one when he engaged in the rising, and the father of eleven sons and eight daughters. Seven of the sons were involved in the rebellion. Francis, the eldest son, so far from standing out, took a prominent part with his father. But what is said of Francis is true of William, the fourth son. Sir George Bowes says of him: "I neither heard or could perceive William Norton to deal with any office or charge amongst the rebels, but, as I have heard it affirmed, he both refused the taking charge of horsemen when it was offered unto him, and also would wear no armor. Farther, upon my departure from the castle [Barnard Castle], he came to me, and in the way as he rode with me, he entered to declare that he greatly misliked of all their doings and practices, saying that he was there amongst them for his father's sake, and to accompany him, and otherways he never had been with them," etc. Manuscript cited by Sharp, p. 284.
Christopher Norton deserves the distinction accorded him in the ballad. "Christopher had been among the first to enroll himself a knight of Mary Stuart. His religion had taught him to combine subtlety with courage, and through carelessness or treachery, or his own address, he had been admitted into Lord Scrope's guard at Bolton Castle. There he was allowed to assist his lady's escape, should escape prove possible; there he was able to receive messages and carry them; there, to throw the castellan off his guard, he pretended to flirt with her attendants, and twice at least, by his own confession, closely as the prisoner was watched, he contrived to hold private communications with her." (Froude, Reign of Elizabeth, III, 505, where follow lively particulars of these two encounters.) Christopher was the only one of the Nortons who is known to have suffered the death-penalty of treason; it was "after he had beheld the death of his uncle, as well his quartering as otherwise, knowing and being well assured that he himself must follow the same way." (Sharp, p. 286.) Richard Norton, the father, fled to Flanders with his sons Francis and Sampson, and all three seem to have died there.
33 f. Sussex to Cecil: Dec. 6. "The rebels have shot three days together at the wall of the outer ward, but they have done no hurt." Dec. 8. "The rebels have won the first ward." Sir George Bowes' men leaped the walls, one day some eighty at a time, and the next day seven or eight score of the best disposed, who had been appointed to guard the gates, suddenly set them open, and went to the rebels; whereupon Sir George was driven to composition, and there was no need to take the inner walls. [6]
A considerable number of "balletts" were called forth by the northern rebellion, and a few of these have been preserved. See Arber, Stationers' Registers, I, 404-6, 407-9, 413-15; A Collection of Seventy-Nine Blackletter Ballads, etc., 1870, pp. xxv, 1, 56, 231, 239.
The copy in the Reliques is translated by Seckendorf, Musenalmanach, 1807, p. 103; by Doenniges, p. 102.
Footnotes:
1. To save appearances, we may understand "old copies" to mean copies restored or brought nearer to what is imagined to have been the original form. The variations will be given in notes as pieces justificatives.
2. Sir Cuthbert Sharp, Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569, p. 202; a collection of many original papers pertaining to this rising, with much subsidiary information. But the story should be read in the eighteenth chapter of Mr. Froude's Reign of Elizabeth. Both works have been used here passim; Froude in the edition of New York, 1870.
3. Northumberland, on being asked how much money he spent in the quarrel, says, "about one hundred and twenty pound." The Queen's proclamation, Nov. 24, declares that the earls were two persons as ill chosen for the reformation of any great matters as any could be in the realm, for they were both in poverty, etc. Sharp, pp. 208, 66; also 290.
4. Sham, p. 113.
5. The dun-bull of the Nevilles is given in Sharp, p. 87, and one greyhound's head, with what may pass for a golden collar, at p. 316; the three dogs are not warranted. Percy's half-moon is improperly mixed up with the banner of the five wounds in 31.
6. Sharp, pp. 92, 95, 97 f.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
The ballad, which is the work of a loyal but not unsympathetic minstrel, gives a cursory and imperfect account of the rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland in 1569.
Child's Ballad Text:
'Risinge in the Northe'- Version A; Child 175 The Rising in the North
'Risinge in the Northe,' Percy Manuscript, p. 256; Hales and Furnivall, II, 210.
1 Listen liuely lordings all,
And all that beene this place within:
If you'le giue eare vnto my songe,
I will tell you how this geere did begin.
2 It was the good Erle Of Westmorlande,
A noble erle was call d hee,
And he wrought treason against the crowne;
Alas, itt was the more pittye!
3 And soe itt was the Erle of Northumberland,
Another good noble erle was hee;
They tooken both vpon one part,
Against the crowne they wolden bee.
4 Earle Pearcy is into his garden gone,
And after walkes his awne ladye:
'I heare a bird sing in my eare
That I must either fight or flee.'
5 'God forbidd,' shee sayd, 'good my lord,
That euer soe that it shalbee!
But goe to London to the court,
And faire fall truth and honestye!'
6 'But nay, now nay, my ladye gay,
That euer it shold soe bee;
My treason is knowen well enoughe;
Att the court I must not bee.'
7 'But goe to the court yet, good my lord,
Take men enowe with thee;
If any man will doe you wronge,
Your warrant they may bee.'
8 'But nay, now nay, my lady gay,
For soe itt must not bee;
If I goe to the court, ladye,
Death will strike me, and I must dye.'
9 'But goe to the court yett, [good] my lord,
I my-selfe will ryde with thee;
If any man will doe you wronge,
Your borrow I shalbee.'
10 'But nay, now nay, my lady gay,
For soe it must not bee;
For if I goe to the court, ladye,
Thou must me neuer see.
11 'But come hither, thou litle foot-page,
Come thou hither vnto mee,
For thou shalt goe a message to Master Norton,
In all the hast that euer may bee.
12 Comend me to that gentleman;
Bring him here this letter from mee,
And say, I pray him earnestlye
That hee will ryde in my companye.'
13 But one while the foote-page went,
Another while he rann;
Vntill he came to Master Norton,
The foot-page, neuer blanne.
14 And when he came to Master Nortton,
He kneeled on his knee,
And tooke the letter betwixt his hands,
And lett the gentleman it see.
15 And when the letter itt was reade,
Affore all his companye,
I-wis, if you wold know the truth,
There was many a weeping eye.
16 He said, Come hither, Kester Nortton,
A fine fellow thou seemes to bee;
Some good councell, Kester Nortton,
This day doe thou giue to mee.
17 'Marry, I'le giue you councell, father,
If you'le take councell att me,
That if you haue spoken the word, father,
That backe againe you doe not flee.'
18 'God a mercy! Christopher Nortton,
I say, God a mercye!
If I doe liue and scape with liffe,
Well advanced shalt thou bee.
19 'But come you hither, my nine good sonnes,
In mens estate I thinke you bee;
How many of you, my children deare,
On my part that wilbe?'
20 But eight of them did answer soone,
And spake full hastilye;
Sayes, We wilbe on your part, father,
Till the day that we doe dye.
21 'But God a mercy! my children deare,
And euer I say God a mercy!
And yett my blessing you shall haue,
Whether-soeuer I liue or dye.
22 'But what sayst thou, thou Ffrancis Nortton,
Mine eldest sonne and mine heyre trulye?
Some good councell, Ffrancis Nortton,
This day thou giue to me.'
23 'But I will giue you councell, father,
If you will take councell att mee;
For if you wold take my councell, father,
Against the crowne you shold not bee.'
24 'But fye vpon thee, Ffrancis Nortton!
I say fye vpon thee!
When thou was younge and tender af age
I made full much of thee.'
25 'But your head is white, father,' he sayes,
'And your beard is wonderous gray;
Itt were shame for your countrye
If you shold rise and flee away.'
26 'But fye vpon thee, thou coward Ffrancis!
Thou neuer tookest that of mee!
When thou was younge and tender of age
I made too much of thee.'
27 'But I will goe with you, father,' quoth hee;
'Like a naked man will I bee;
He that strikes the first stroake against the crowne,
An ill death may hee dye!'
28 But then rose vpp Master Nortton, that esquier,
With him a full great companye;
And then the erles they comen downe
To ryde in his companye.
29 Att Whethersbye the mustered their men,
Vpon a full fayre day;
Thirteen thousand there were seene
To stand in battel ray.
30 The Erle of Westmoreland, he had in his ancyent
The dunn bull in sight most hye,
And three doggs with golden collers
Were sett out royallye.
31 The Erle of Northumberland, he had in his ancyent
The halfe moone in sight soe hye,
As the Lord was crucifyed on the crosse,
And set forth pleasantlye.
32 And after them did rise good Sir George Bowes,
After them a spoyle to make;
The erles returned backe againe,
Thought euer that knight to take.
33 This barron did take a castle then,
Was made of lime and stone;
The vttermost walls were ese to be woon;
The erles haue woon them anon.
34 But tho they woone the vttermost walls,
Quickly and anon,
The innermust walles the cold not winn;
The were made of a rocke of stone.
35 But newes itt came to leeue London,
In all the speede that euer might bee;
And word it came to our royall queene
Of all the rebells in the north countrye.
36 Shee turned her grace then once about,
And like a royall queene shee sware;
Sayes, I will ordaine them such a breake-fast
As was not in the north this thousand yeere!
37 Shee caused thirty thousand men to be made,
With horsse and harneis all quicklye;
And shee caused thirty thousand men to be made,
To take the rebells in the north countrye.
38 They tooke with them the false Erle of Warwicke,
Soe did they many another man;
Vntill they came to Yorke castle,
I-wis they neuer stinted nor blan.
* * * * *
39 . . . .
. . . .
'Spread thy ancyent, Erle of Westmoreland!
The halfe-moone faine wold wee see!'
40 But the halfe-moone is fled and gone,
And the dun bull vanished awaye;
And Ffrancis Nortton and his eight sonnes
Are fled away most cowardlye.
41 Ladds with mony are counted men,
Men without mony are counted none;
But hold your tounge! why say you soe?
Men wilbe men when mony is gone.
End-Notes
34. their for the.
74. they altered in Manuscript from them.
181. amercy: and afterwards.
191. 9.
201. 3th.
212. godamercy.
293. 13000.
302. Dum: m for nn. Furnivall.
303. 3.
343. imermust.
352. all they.
364. 1000.
371,3. 30000.
382. Only half the n in many. Furnivall.
And for & throughout.
Variations of the copy in Percy's Reliques, 1765, I, 250.
12-4. Lithe and listen unto mee,
And I will sing of a noble earle,
The noblest earle in the north countrie.
2, 3 wanting.
42. after him walkes his faire.
43. mine.
51,2. Now heaven forefend, my dearest lord,
That eer such harm should hap to thee.
61, 81, 101, 241. Now for But.
62,3. Alas thy counsell suits not mee;
Mine enemies prevail so fast.
64. That at: I may.
71. O goe.
72. And take thy gallant men.
73. any dare to doe.
74. Then your warrant.
81. thou lady faire.
82. The court is full of subtiltie.
83. And if.
84. Never more I may thee see.
91. Yet goe to the court, my lord, she sayes.
92. And I: will goe wi. ryde in ed. 1794.
93. At court then for my dearest lord.
94. His faithfull horrowe I will.
101. lady deare.
102-4. Far lever had I lose my life,
Than leave among my cruell foes
My love in jeopardy and strife.
111. come thou: my little.
113. To maister Norton thou must goe.
122. And beare this letter here fro mee.
123. And say that earnestly I praye.
124. That wanting.
131. But wanting: little footpage.
132. And another.
133. to his journeys end.
134. little footpage.
141. When to that gentleman he came.
142. Down he knelt upon.
143,4. Quoth he, My lord commendeth him,
And sends this letter unto thee.
The reading of the Folio is restored in ed. 1794.
152. Affore that goodlye.
153. you the truthe wold know.
161. thither, Christopher.
162. A gallant youth thou seemst.
163,4. What doest thou counsell me, my sonne,
Now that good earle 's in jeopardy.
17. Father, my counselle 's fair and free;
That earle he is a noble lord,
And whatsoever to him you hight,
I wold not have you breake your word.
181-3. Gramercy, Christopher, my sonne,
Thy counsell well it liketh mee,
And if we speed, and
184. thou shalt.
191. But wanting.
192. Gallant men I trowe.
194. Will stand by that good earle and mee.
201. But wanting: answer make.
202. Eight of them spake hastilie.
203,4. father, till the daye we dye,
We'll stand by that good earle and thee.
211. Gramercy now, my children deare,
You showe yourselves right bold and brave;
And whethersoeer I live or dye,
A fathers blessing you shal have.
221. O Francis.
222-4. Thou art mine eldest sonn and heire;
Somewhat lyes brooding in thy breast,
Whatever it bee, to mee declare.
23 wanting, and instead, this stanza, like 25:
Father, you are an aged man,
Your head is white, your bearde is gray;
It were a shame, at these your yeares,
For you to ryse hi such a fray.
24, 26. For these:
Now fye upon thee, coward Francis,
Thou never learnedst this of mee;
When thou wert yong and tender of age,
Why did I make soe much of thee?
271,3. But, father, I will wend with you,
Unarmd and naked will I bee.
273. And he: the first stroake wanting.
274. Ever an.
28 Then rose that reverend gentleman,
And with him came a goodlye band,
To join with the brave Earl Percy,
And all the flower o Northumberland.
29 With them the noble Nevill came,
The earle of Westmorland was hee;
At Wetherbye they mustred their host,
Thirteen thousand faire to see.
301,3. Lord Westmorland his ancyent raisde,
The dun bull he raysd on hye.
303. And wanting: collars brave.
304. Were there sett out most.
31 Earl Percy there his ancyent spred,
The half moone shining all soe faire;
The Nortons ancyent had the crosse,
And the five wounds our Lord did beare.
321. Then Sir George Bpwes he straitwaye rose.
322. some spoyle.
323. Those noble earles turnd.
324. And aye they vowed that.
33 That baron he to his castle fled,
To Barnard castle then fled hee;
The uttermost walles were eathe to win,
The earles have wonne them presentlie.
34 The uttermost walles were lime and bricke;
But thoughe they won them soon anone,
Long eer they wan the innermost walles,
For they were cut in rocke of stone.
351. Then newes unto leeve London came.
352. ever may.
353. word is brought.
354. Of the rysing in.
361. Her grace she turned her round about.
362. swore.
363. Sayes wanting.
364. As never was in the North before.
371. be raysd.
372. harners faire to see.
373. And wanting: be raised.
374. the earles i th'.
381,2. Wi them the false Earle Warwick went,
Th' earle Sussex and the lord Hunsden
383. to Yorke castle came.
384. stint ne.
39 Now spread thy ancyent, Westmorland,
Thy dun bull faine would we spye;
And thou, the Earl o Northumberland,
Now rayse thy half moone up on hye.
401. the dun bulle is.
402. the half moone vanished.
403,4. The Earles, though they were brave and bold,
Against soe many could not stay.
41 Thee, Norton, wi thine eight good sonnes,
They doomd to dye, alas! for ruth!
Thy reverend lockes thee could not save,
Nor them their faire and blooming youthe.
Wi them full many a gallant wight
They cruellye bereavd of life,
And many a childe made fatherlesse,
And widowed many a tender wife.