[47] "That a populous and wealthy city like Norwich should have been for three weeks in the hands of 20,000 rebels, and should have escaped utter pillage and ruin, speaks highly for the rebel leaders."—W. Rye, Victoria County History of Norfolk.
"Robert Ket was not a mere craftsman: he was a man of substance, the owner of several manors; his conduct throughout was marked by considerable generosity; nor can the name of patriot be denied to him who deserted the class to which he might have belonged or aspired, and cast in his lot with the suffering people."—Canon Dixon, History of the Church of England.
[48] "There was something in the temper of these celebrated men which secured them against the proverbial inconstancy both of the Court and of individuals.... No Parliament attacked their influence. No mob coupled their names with any odious grievance.... They were, one and all, Protestants. But ... none of them chose to run the smallest personal risk during the reign of Mary. No men observed more accurately the signs of the times.... Their fidelity to the State was incorruptible. No intrigue, no combination of rivals could deprive them of the confidence of their Sovereign."—Macaulay, Burleigh, his Times.
[49] "The Tudor monarchs exercised freely their power of creating boroughs by charter. They used their Parliaments, and had to find means of controlling them. In the creation of 'pocket' or 'rotten' boroughs, Queen Elizabeth was probably the worst offender. She had much influence in her Duchy of Cornwall, and many of the Cornish boroughs which obtained such a scandalous reputation in later times were created by her for the return of those whom the lords of her council would consider 'safe' men."—Ilbert, Parliament.
[50] Elizabeth's popularity steadily diminished in her last years. The death of Essex, ecclesiastical persecutions, increased taxation, and the irritations caused by royal expenditure were all responsible for the discontent. James I. failed from the first to secure the goodwill of the people.
[51] Oxford men all three. Sir John Eliot was at Exeter College, 1607; John Hampden at Magdalen, 1609; and John Pym at Broadgate Hall (later called Pembroke), 1599.
[52] Clarendon, History of the Great Rebellion.
[53] "The same men who, six months before, were observed to be of very moderate tempers, and to wish that gentle remedies might be applied, talked now in another dialect both of Kings and persons; and said that they must now be of another temper than they were the last Parliament."—Clarendon, ibid.
[54] Macaulay, Hallam's Constitutional History.
[55] "The great rule of Cromwell was a series of failures to reconcile the authority of the 'single person' with the authority of Parliament."—Ilbert, Parliament.