University of York December 1991
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THE BOWES OF STREATLAM. COUNTY DURHAM: A STUDY OF THE POLITICS AND RELIGION OF A SIXTEENTH CENTURY NORTHERNGENTRY FAMILY. CHRISTINE MARY NEWMAN SUBMITTED FOR THE QUALIFICATION OF DOCTOROF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITYOF YORK DEPARTMENTOF HISTORY DECEMBER1991 CONTENTS Abbreviations. p. 5 Introduction. p. 7 1. The Bowes of Streatlam in the Later Middle Ages: p. 22 the Foundation of Family, Inheritance and Tradition. 2. Service, Rebellion and Achievement; p. 71 Robert Bowes and the Pilgrimage of Grace. 3. The Rewards of Loyalty: p. 126 Robert Bowes and the Late Henrician Regime. 4. The Bowes of Streatlam and the Era of Reform: p. 171 1547-1553. 5. Sir George Bowes and the Defence of p. 226 the North: 1558-1569. 6. The House of Bowes and the end of an Era. p. 260 Conclusion: The Bowes of Streatlam and the p. 307 Tudor Regime: An Overview. Bibliography. p. 344 -2- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe an immense debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Professor M. C. Cross of the Department of History, University of York, whose inspirational guidance and encouragement has made the completion of this thesis possible. I would like, also, to thank Dr. A. J. Pollard, Reader in History at Teesside Polytechnic, who first introduced me to the Bowes family and who has provided me with considerable support and advice throughout the course of my study. I am grateful, too, for the unfailing support and encouragement given to me by members of Professor Cross's postgraduate seminar group, particularly Dr. D. Lamburn, Dr. D. Scott and Mr. J. Holden. Special thanks are due to the Earl of Strathmore who kindly granted me access to the Bowes letterbooks, held amongst the muniments at Glamis Castle. This gratitude is extended to the University of Dundee, and in particular Mrs. J. Auld, the University Archivist, who arranged access to and provided me with the facilities to consult the Glamis manuscripts. I am grateful, too, for the assistance of the various other institutions which held material appertaining to this study, including the Bowes Museum, County Durham, Durham County Record Office, the Bodleian Library, Lambeth Palace Library, the British Library and the Public Record Office. Acknowledgements are also due for the financial assistance given to me by the British Academy and the Richard III and Yorkist History Trust. Finally, I would like to thank the library staff of the University of York and Teesside Polytechnic for their practical guidance and support. -3- THE BOWES OF STREATLAM. COUNTY DURHAM: A STUDY OF THE POLITICS AND RELIGION OF A SIXTEENTH CENTURY NORTHERNGENTRY FAMILY. The conservative nature of sixteenth century northern society, at a time of profound political and ideological change, has long been acknowledged by historians. Yet the extent to which the region remained aloof from the Tudor polity can be exaggerated. Indeed, from an early stage the regime began to recruit, into its service, members of leading local gentry families In order to extend and reinforce its control in a region traditionally dominated by the rapidly declining magnate houses. It was at this time that the Bowes of Streatlam, a Durham gentry family was attracted into the sphere of royal service, particularly in respect of border administration and defence. Thereafter its political fortunes became inextricably linked with the efforts of the Tudors to create a centralized State. At the same time, the Streatlam family's remarkable attachment to Protestantism, in an age when much of northern society remained notoriously conservative in religion, continued to exert an influence upon its secular activities so that its religious idealism came into conflict with its political ambitions on more than one occasion. These twin themes of politics and religion provided strands of continuity throughout the family's history in the sixteenth century. From both perspectives, therefore, a study of the Bowes of Streatlam presents a useful medium through which to observe, in microcosm, the momentous upheavals that were effected in Church and State during the years of the Tudor regime. -4- ABBREVIATIONS. Acts of the Privy Council of England, Vols. 1-11, ed. J. Dasent (1890- 1895). (APC) British Library. (BL) Calendar of Border Papers, 2 Vols., ed. J. Bain (1894-96). (CBP) Calendar of Patent Rolls, (CPR) Calendar of State Papers. Domestic, Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth and James, 12 Vols., ed. R. Lemon and M. A. Everett Green, (1856-72). (CSPD) Calendar of State Papers. Foreign, 1547-1553, ed. W. B. Turnbull, (1861). (CSP Foreign) Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland and Mary. Queen of Scots, 1547-1603,13 Vols., ed. J. Bain et. al. (1898-1969). (CSP Scotland) Calendar of State Papers, (Scottish Series), Scotland 1509-1603,2 Vols., ed. M. J. Thorpe, (1858). (CSP (Scot. Ser. ) G. E. Cockayne, The Complete Peerage, 12 Vols. (1910-59). (CP) Durham County Record Office. (Durham C. R. O. ) Hamilton Papers, 2 Vols. ed. J. Bain, (Edinburgh 1890-92). (HP) Historical Manuscripts Commission. (HMC) J. Hodgson, A History of Northumberland, 3 parts in 7 Vols., (Newcastle 1820-28). (Hodgson, Northumberland. ) W. Hutchinson, History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, 3 Vols., (Newcastle 1785-94). (Hutchinson, Durham. ) The Works of John Knox 6 Vols., ed. D. Laing (Edinburgh 1846-64). (Knox Works. ) Letters and Papers. Foreign and Domestic. of the Reign of Henry VIII, 21 Vols, with Addenda, eds. Brewer, Gairdener, et. al. (1862-1932) (LP. ) -5- Northern History. (N. H. ) North Yorkshire County Record Office. (North Yorks C. R. O. ) Public Record Office. (P. R. O) Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records. (Dep. Kpr. ) Rotuli Parliamentorum, 6 Vols., ed. J. Strachey, (1767-77). (Rot. Parl. ) R. Surtees, History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, 4 Vols. (London 1816-40). (Surtees, Durham. ) Surtees Society Publications. (SAS. ) Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. (T. R. H. S. ) Victoria History of the Counties of England. (VCH). All dates are given in accordance with the modern Calendar. -6- The relationship between the Tudor Regime and members of the provincial gentry has long been regarded by historians as a major theme of sixteenth century political history. Indeed, as Penry Williams has pointed out, the major achievement of the Tudors was the successful unification of their realm into a centrally-controlled polity, a development effected primarily through the recruitment of leading members of the regional elites into the service of the Crown. (1) Indeed a variety of regional and county studies have been undertaken in order to assess the nature and impact of this political interaction upon individual localities. (2) Particular interest has been focused upon the north, for centuries the "bete noir" of English monarchs by virtue of its remoteness from the administrative centre and its proximity to the internationally- sensitive Scottish frontier. As such the characteristics of northern society in general, the political decline of the northern magnate families and the function and development of the Council in the North I P. Williams, The Tudor Regime, (Oxford 1979) pp. 440,465. 2 See for example P. Clark, English Provincial Society from the Reformation to the Revolution (Hassocks, Sussex 1977); J. T. Cliffe, The Yorkshire Gentry, (London 1969); D. MacCullough, Suffolk and the Tudors, (Oxford 1986); R. B. Smith, Land and Politics in the Reign of Henry VIII; The Weit Riding of Yorkshire 1530-1546, (Oxford 1970); P. Williams, "The Crown and the Counties", C. Haigh (ed. ), The Reign of Elizabeth, (Basingstoke and London 1984). -7- have been discussed in some detail. (3) As some of this research has shown, sections of northern society long resisted the encroachments of Tudor centralization and, at a time of considerable religious and ideological upheaval, remained notoriously conservative for much of the century. Yet the extent to which the north remained aloof from the Tudor polity can be exaggerated and, indeed, from an early stage the regime began to recruit into its service members of leading local gentry families in order to extend and reinforce its administrative and judicial control in a region hitherto dominated by the rapidly declining magnate families. It was at this time that the Bowes family of Streatlam, in the Palatinate of Durham was attracted into the sphere of royal service and its political fortunes thereafter became inextricably interlinked with the efforts of the Tudors to effect a centralized state. From both national and regional perspectives, therefore, the Bowes family provides a useful medium through which to observe, in microcosm, the impact of the political and religious upheavals of the sixteenth century. 3A variety of his articles on northern society are included in M. James, Society. Politics and Culture, (Cambridge 1986). See also M. James, Family Lineage and Civil Society: A Study of Society, Politics and Mentality in the Durham Region 1500-1640, (Oxford 1974); M. J. Tillbrook, "Aspects of the Government and Society of County Durham: 1558-1642", University of Liverpool Ph. D. (1982); M. M. Meickle, "Lairds and Gentlemen: A Study of the Landed Families of the Eastern Anglo-Scottish Borders c. 1540-1603". University of Edinburgh Ph. D. (1989); R. R. Reid, The King's Council in the North, (London 1921). -8- To date there have been relatively few studies of individual gentry families, either in the north or elsewhere. M. E. Jarnes's study of the rise, through Crown service, of Thomas, Lord Wharton has done much to shed light upon the achievements of a particular Tudor border officer. (4) Dr. S. E. James's study of the Parrs of Kendal is also useful for the insight it gives into the foundation and rise of a border gentry family. However, this particular family can hardly be regarded as being representative of the northern Tudor gentry since the Parrs had achieved courtier status during the reign of Edward IV and had begun to shift their sphere of interest to their southern estates by the sixteenth century.