Abbot John Whethamstede’s Chronicle of the Abbey of St Albans
Abbot John Whethamstede's Register aka Chronicle of his second term at the Abbey of St Albans, 1451-1461, is a remarkable text that describes his first-hand experience of the beginning of the Wars of the Roses including the First and Second Battles of St Albans, 1455 and 1461, respectively, their cause, and their consequences, not least on the Abbey itself. His text also includes Loveday, Blore Heath, Northampton, the Act of Accord, Wakefield, and Towton, and ends with the Coronation of King Edward IV. In addition to the events of the Wars of the Roses, Abbot John, or his scribes who wrote the Chronicle, include details in the life of the Abbey such as charters, letters, land exchanges, visits by legates, and disputes, which provide a rich insight into the day-to-day life of the Abbey, and the challenges faced by its Abbot.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
Pilgrimage of Grace is in June 1536-1540 Marriage to Jane Seymour and Rebellions.
Chronicle of Edward Hall [1496-1548]. Around June 1536.After this book which passed by the King's authority with the consent of the clergy, was published, the which contained certain articles of religion necessary to be taught unto the people, and among other it specially treated of no more than three sacraments, where always the people had bene taught seven sacraments, and beside this book, certain injunctions were that time given whereby a number of their holy days was abrogated and specially such as fell in the harvest time, the keeping of which was much to the hinderance of the gathering in of corn, hay, fruit, and other such like necessary and profitable commodities.
On 20th November 1539 Nicholas Tempest of Holmeside [aged 53] was hanged for his part in the Pilgrimage of Grace.
Around 30th May 1537 the Abbots of Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire [Map], Marmaduke Bradley, and Guisborough Priory [Map], Robert Pursglove, were hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn [Map] for their role in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Their heads were displayed on London Bridge [Map].
On 2nd June 1537 Abbot Adam Sedbar [aged 35] and Prior William Wood were hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn [Map] for their role in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Their heads were displayed on London Bridge [Map].
Around October 1536 the North rose against religious policies of Henry VIII [aged 45]. Thomas Audley 1st Baron Audley Walden [aged 48] condemned the traitors. John Neville 3rd Baron Latimer [aged 42] was implicated. Thomas Howard 3rd Duke of Norfolk [aged 63], Henry Howard Earl of Surrey [aged 20] and Edmund Knyvet [aged 28] undertook the suppression of the rebels.
On 4th October 1536 the Lincolnshire Rising began. Dr Raynes, the chancellor of the Bishop of Lincoln, who was staying nearby at Bolingbroke, after having held a session of the commissionary's court there, was dragged from his sickbed and taken to Horncastle. Francis Aidan Gasquet writes in his book 'Henry VIII and the English Monasteries': "As the chancellor rode into the field with his captors the passions of the mob were stirred, and there occurred one of the two acts of violence, which alone in this or the subsequent Yorkshire rising, disgraced the movement!" "At his coming into the field," declares Brian Staines, "the rebels, whereof were many parsons and vicars, cried out with a loud voice, 'Kill him, kill him.' And upon that one William Hutchinson, of Horncastle, and William Balderstone, by the procurement of the said parsons and vicars, pulled him violently off his horse, kneeling upon his knees, and with their staves they slew him. And being dead, this deponent saith the priests continually crying, 'Kill him, kill him,' he also struck the said chancellor upon the arm with a staff."
The Lincolnshire Rising was sparked off by a sermon at evensong on the 1st October at St James's Church, Louth, and by a visitation from a registrar on 2nd October. Mary Polito, author of "Governmental Arts in Tudor England" describes how Nicholas Melton, a local shoemaker who came to be known as "Captain Cobbler", seized the registrar, burned his papers and then forced him and the priests to swear an oath of loyalty to the rebel cause. The rebels then marched to the nunnery at Legbourne where they took the royal commissioners hostage. The nunnery had been formally suppressed a few weeks earlier.
On 6th March 1537 Thomas Moigne [aged 27] was tried for treason at Lincoln, Lincolnshire [Map]. and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered the following day which sentence was duly carried out. He was attainted, and his estates forfeited. These were recovered by his younger brothers in 1544.
On 7th March 1537 Thomas Moigne [aged 27] was hanged, drawn and quartered.
On 12th May 1537 Abbot Adam Sedbar [aged 35] was captured. He was imprisoned in the Beauchamp Tower, Tower of London [Map] where his inscribed name on the wall "ADAM SEDBAR. ABBAS JOREVALL 1537" can still be seen.
Around 30th May 1537 the Abbots of Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire [Map], Marmaduke Bradley, and Guisborough Priory [Map], Robert Pursglove, were hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn [Map] for their role in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Their heads were displayed on London Bridge [Map].
On 2nd June 1537 Abbot Adam Sedbar [aged 35] and Prior William Wood were hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn [Map] for their role in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Their heads were displayed on London Bridge [Map].