The Revolt of the Northern Earls

• The revolt of the northern earls was in 1569
• The Northern Earls especially hated William Cecil and Robert Dudley, as they were not from traditional families of nobility. nor they were Catholic
• Many of the Northern Earls lost their power which they had during Mary I's reign, which was one of their motives for the revolt
• Charles Neville - The Earl of Westmorland, a Catholic landowner in the North
• Jane Neville - Wife of Charles Neville and the sister of the duke of Norfolk
• Thomas Howard - The duke of Norfolk, who planned to marry Mary queen of Scots and was a protestant
• Thomas Percy - Earl of Northumberland, Catholic landowner
• Mary planned to remove Elizabeth from power and in 1569, she told the Spanish ambassador that she would be queen in three months and that large amounts of religious change would be made
• Dudley told Elizabeth of the plot, and the Duke of Norfolk was arrested and imprisoned in the tower
• During the revolt, Elizabeth moved Mary, who was under house arrested to Coventry, so she could not join the revolt
• During the revolt, rebels continued to move South. Churches in Durham were taken over and English Bibles were burned.
• Why the revolt failed:

  • Support from Spain never arrived
  • Northern landowners e.g. in Cheshire, remained loyal to Elizabeth
  • Landowners did not join out of fear of losing power
• The failure of the revolt caused the Pope to excommunicate Elizabeth and encourage Catholics to try and dispose her
• The revolt caused the government to be harsher on Catholics and the Earl of Hundington, a strict protestant, was made to govern the North Council
• Elizabeth executed around 500 rebels to deter another revolt
• Elizabeth made Southern lords in charge of the land of Northern lords so that Catholic power would be restricted
• In 1569, the Earls of Westmorland and Northumberland rode into the fortress city of Durham with over 4500 men
• Northumberland was captured, handed back to the English in 1572, and executed. Rebel lands, and those of other Catholic families, were confiscated, and the power of the Northern Earls was broken.