The sternest possible measures were taken to suppress the least disaffection shown against the policy of dissolution. Lives were lost, even of those in high position up and down the country, on the merest hearsay evidence of having indulged in private talk against the King’s policy. At the time when Henry and his Court were seriously alarmed by the Lincolnshire rising on behalf of the smaller monasteries, lists were drawn up on October 7th, 1536, of the names of noblemen and gentlemen to whom it was proposed to write, under privy seal, requiring their aid with men and horses fit for war. The Derbyshire names on this list were: the Lord Steward, Lord Talbot, Sir Henry Sacheverell, Matthew Kniveton, Sir Godfrey Foljambe (Sheriff), Roland Babington, and Francis Cokayne. The rising was, however, so summarily suppressed that there was no necessity for the calling out of any general array.
There are full particulars extant of the Derbyshire musters for April, 1539, giving the exact number under each parish of archers with horses and harness, of billmen with horses and harness, and also of unharnessed archers and billmen. The total for the various hundreds of the county, including the town of Derby, reached the total of 4,510.
As to the various religious changes in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, which affected Derbyshire as much as any other part of the kingdom, it is not proposed here to enter. Suffice it to say that their distinguishing feature under Elizabeth, which was also continued throughout the greater part of the seventeenth century, was the fierce persecution and ruinous fining directed against the recusants of the Roman obedience. The reason for the pre-eminence of Derbyshire in this respect arose from two facts: firstly, that some of the most influential of the old Derbyshire families, such as the Fitzherberts and the Eyres, remained steadfast to the unreformed faith; and, secondly, that the wild districts of the Peak afforded so many places of shelter to those recusants of this and the neighbouring counties who desired to escape the rigorous search of Elizabeth’s pursuivants.
Throughout the long reign of Elizabeth, the county musters were under frequent survey. A few months before the reign began, the old local militia, with its scale of arms (including bows and arrows) as revised in 1285, which had continued for more than four centuries in accordance with the scheme laid down by Henry II., came to an end. The old Assize of Arms had long been found unsuitable to the advance in the art of war. Eventually an Act of Parliament of Philip and Mary “for the having of horse armour and weapon,” which provided that after May 1st, 1558, everyone who had an estate of inheritance of the value of £1,000 or above was to keep at his own cost six horses meet for demi-lances (heavy cavalry), and ten horses meet for light horsemen, with the requisite harness and weapons; also 40 corselets for pikemen, 40 Almayne rivettes (flexible German armour), 40 pikes, 30 longbows, 30 sheaves of arrows, 30 steel caps, 20 black bills or halberds, 20 hand-guns, and 20 morions or light open helms. A sliding scale followed, making due provision for what was required from those having lands of various values down to £10, and these last had to find a longbow, a sheaf of arrows, a steel cap, and a black bill. Another section of the Act provided that the inhabitants of every town, parish, or hamlet, other than those who were already charged in proportion to their landed property, were to find and maintain at their own charges such harness and weapons as might be appointed by the commissioners of the musters.
Within a few months of Elizabeth’s accession, this new legislation was tested by calling out the general muster throughout the kingdom, and by obtaining returns of the number in equipment from each county. The long, interesting return for Derbyshire, dated March 9th, 1558–9, is extant; it is signed by seven justices—George Vernon, Humphrey Bradbourne, Henry Vernon, Francis Curzon, John Frances, Gilbert Thacker, and Richard Pole. Every hundred and township is set forth in detail, both as to the arms and the men. There was only one landowner of sufficient wealth in the county to be called upon to provide all that was requisite for a heavy horseman; but there were ten light horsemen. The total of “the able Footemen harnissed and unharnissed” amounted to 1,211, namely, 56 harnessed archers, 135 harnessed billmen, 236 unharnessed archers, and 784 unharnessed billmen.
A second full certificate of the able men, arms, and weapons throughout the county was forwarded ten years later to the council. With this return a letter was forwarded signed by the Earl of Shrewsbury as lord-lieutenant, as well as by his deputies. A noteworthy paragraph in this letter shows that Derbyshire was not taking kindly to the general substitution of explosive weapons in the place of archery which was then in progress.
“Touching thorders prescribed for thexercise of harquebuziers, the truthe is this shire doth not aptlie serve theretoe for we have very few harquebuziers & they placed so farre from market townes as they shuld nott come to a day of exercise above the nombre of six, & yet their travell further than in the time for the same is prescribed. Indeed we have good plenty of archers & therefore in our generall musters wee thought it best to appoint many of them to be furnished accordingly & nowe if we shuld make a new charge the countrey undoubledy wuld think themselves oversore burdened.”
The Earl of Shrewsbury received orders in November, 1569, to raise the whole force of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and to proceed against the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, “now in rebellion.” It would be wearisome in a sketch of this character to note the various incidents, which can be gleaned from both the public records and the county muniments, as to the several occasions on which the Derbyshire musters were called out when there was no immediate necessity for their use.
The considerable part that this county played in the safeguarding of Elizabeth’s unhappy prisoner, Mary, Queen of Scots, during her repeated sojourns at Wingfield Manor House, together with her visits to Chatsworth and Buxton, are fully dealt with in another paper in this volume. It may, however, be here remarked that the deplorable execution of Mary, in 1587, and the way in which the youthful Babington had so rashly conspired in her favour, made a great impression upon this county, and caused the Council as well as the local authorities to redouble their precautions. Not only was a certain local undercurrent stirred up in Derbyshire through the Fotheringay execution, but it also had the result of hastening the hostilities of Philip of Spain and other of Elizabeth’s external enemies. There was in consequence at this period frequent exercise of the county forces. The Earl of Shrewsbury’s gout prevented his taking any active part, and the work was chiefly supervised by his brother-in-law, John Manners, the senior of the deputy-lieutenants. A certificate of the musters, as viewed by Manners in November, 1587, shows that there were 400 “selected bands armed and prest for present service”; these bands were divided into 160 “shot,” 80 pikemen, 80 billmen, and 80 archers. It is interesting here to note the remarkable way in which the musket had gained ascendancy over the bow in fourteen years. In addition to the selected 400, Manners returned 1,300 men who were available in times of need, namely, 300 for shot, 300 for pikes, 360 for bills, 200 for bows, 80 as carpenters and wheelwrights, and 60 as smiths. The mounted forces consisted of 9 demi-lances and 178 light-horse.
