Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy - Rebel

Rebel

Yet the very month in which his son was appointed captain of Jersey Darcy began to hold secret communications with Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, along with Lord Hussey, whom he called his brother, to invite the emperor to invade England and put an end to what he described as a tyranny in matters secular and religious, which the nation endured only because there was no deliverer. His earnest application for leave to go home was with a view to aid the invaders when this scheme should be set on foot, and he actually succeeded in obtaining a license to absent himself from future feasts of St. George on account of his age and debility. On the same day (28 October) he also obtained a license of absence from future meetings of parliament and exemption from serving on any commission; but the latter did not pass the great seal till 12 February following.

For these important privileges he writes to thank Cromwell on 13 November, dating his letter from Templehurst, where, however, he could hardly have been at that time, as Chapuys expressly says on 1 January 1535 that he had not yet been allowed to retire to his own country. The hope of soon going home to Templehurst seems to have influenced his pen to write as if he were actually there when he really was in or about London. The fact is that, although these exemptions were conceded to him on the ground of age and infirmity, permission to go back to his home in Yorkshire was still persistently withheld. The court apparently suspected that his presence in the north would do them little good, and he remained not only till the beginning of 1535, but through most part of the year, if not the whole of it. He kept up secret communications with Chapuys at intervals in January, March, May, and July, hoping now and again that matters were ripe for a great revolt, and sending the ambassador symbolic presents when he dared not express his meaning otherwise. In the beginning of May he was hopeful at last of being allowed to go home immediately. But in the middle of the month, this hope having apparently disappeared, he was thinking how to escape abroad and endeavour to impress upon the emperor in a personal interview the urgent necessity of sending an expedition against England to redeem the country from what he described as the heresy, oppression, and robbery to which it was constantly subjected. How long he was detained in London we do not know, but it was certainly till after July. He appears to have been at Templehurst in April 1536; but there is a blank in our information as to the whole preceding interval.

His presence not being required in the parliamentary session of February 1536, he escaped the pressure which was doubtless brought to bear upon others to vote for the dissolution of the smaller monasteries, a measure which was very unpopular in the north of England, whatever it might be elsewhere. This, indeed, was one of the chief causes of that great rebellion which, beginning in Lincolnshire in October following, soon spread to Yorkshire, and was called the Pilgrimage of Grace.

Almost the only place which seemed for a time to hold out against the insurgents was Pontefract Castle, of which Darcy held the command. Thither fled Archbishop Lee of York, who put himself under Darcy's protection with some of the neighbouring gentry. But Darcy, pretending that his provisions had run short, yielded up the castle to the rebels, who compelled him and the archbishop to be sworn to the common cause. The compulsion, however, was more ostensible than real. Darcy, the archbishop, and nearly all the gentry, really sympathised with the insurgents, and it was in vain that Darcy afterwards pleaded that he was doing his utmost for the king by endeavouring to guide aright a power that he could not resist.

He stood by Robert Aske, the leader of the commons, when Lancaster Herald knelt before him, and he negotiated in their favour with the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk when they were sent down to suppress the rising. His position as a friend and leader of the insurgents was recognised by the king himself, who instructed Norfolk and Fitzwilliam to treat with him as such, and authorised them to give him and the others a safe-conduct if necessary, to come to his presence, or else to offer them a free pardon on their submission. Norfolk, presumably at the King's desire, wrote to Darcy suggesting that he could redeem himself by breaking his word to Aske and arresting him. Darcy replied indignantly " Alas my good lord that ever you a man of so much honour and great experience should advise or choose me to ..betray or disserve any living man". Both he and Aske wrote to the king to set their conduct in a more favourable light. A meeting with some of the king's council was arranged at Doncaster, and the king sent a pardon even to the chief offenders. But on 6 January following (1537) Henry sent him an imperative summons to come up to London; in reply to which he wrote from Templehurst on the 14th, stating that he had 'never fainted nor feigned' in the service of the king and his father within the realm or abroad for about fifty years; but since the meeting at Doncaster he had been confined to his chamber with two diseases, rupture and flux, as several of the council who saw him at Doncaster and the king's own physicians could bear witness.

The country was at that moment in a very dangerous state, a new rebellion having been just begun by Sir Francis Bigod, which Aske and Darcy did their best to stay. Their services were so real that the king pardoned both of them, and encouraged Darcy to victual Pontefract, that his two sons, Sir George and Sir Arthur, might keep it in case of a new rising. Darcy was further assured, by letters addressed to the Earl of Shrewsbury, that if he would do his duty thenceforward it would be as favourably considered as if he had never done amiss. Encouraged by this he wrote to Aske on 10 February, asking him to redeliver secretly to Pontefract Castle (for the custody of which Darcy was responsible) all the bows and arrows that he had obtained out of it. The letter unluckily was intercepted, and it told a tale.

Information was collected to show that since his pardon Darcy had been guilty of different acts of treason, among which his intimating to the people that there would be a free parliament to consider their grievances was cited in evidence that he was still seeking to promote a change, and that if there were no parliament the rebellious spirit would revive with his approval. Even his recent acts in the king's behalf were construed to his disadvantage; for having given orders to stay the commons till Norfolk came, the words were taken to imply that he only wished them pacified for a season.