All over England where Brits farm common land, and graze and water their animals, the rich and powerful are seizing and enclosing the land that once belonged to all. In Norfolk, Brits fight back.

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Norfolk

DEFYING DEATH
TO DEFEND FREEDOM
AND WIN JUSTICE

Brits find support for freedom in newly translated Scriptures. King and people break with the religious authority of Rome. A Brit dies defending our right not to incriminate ourselves. Farmers resist the stealing of common land by unjust landowners. Burned alive, men and women uphold freedom of religious conscience. Common Law declares slavery cannot survive in England. Brits defeat the Spanish Armada and Inquisition.

1526-1530s RESCUING PEARLS OF TRANSLATION FROM A SEA OF TYRANNY

William Tyndale escapes by boat up the Rhine with partially printed copies of his new English translation of the New Testament just ahead of the agents sent by Henry VIII to destroy them. Within a month, copies of his translation, hidden in bales of cloth, are being smuggled into England. When agents of the King find them, they are burned, but copies escape, reaching even the "boy that driveth the plough," as Tyndale had hoped.

Henry VIII opposes both freedom of expression and freedom of religion. Tyndale fights for both, enduring poverty, shipwreck, and betrayal, and facing death with stubborn courage.

Henry VIII is one of the first kings to use cannons against his own people. The ability of powerful rulers to buy and use destructive weapons will make liberty harder to obtain, and costlier to defend.

Photo by www.pomian.demon.co.uk

1500s FREEING MEN FROM THE UNWANTED ATTENTIONS OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL & ASSERTING THE RIGHT OF HABEAS CORPUS

Brits struggled for centuries to win the right of habeas corpus – to be expeditiously brought before a court for a specified charge or to be released from prison. During the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509) persons imprisoned by the King's Privy Council without being charged, and left to rot in prison, are able to assert their right to habeas corpus. The struggle continues case by case. By the early 17th century, habeas corpus will be recognized as a legal way to stop illegal imprisonment by courts or public officials. Parliament will enshrine the right in law in 1679 in the Habeas Corpus Act. The right to habeas corpus is now under threat. See Defeating Threats to Freedom »

1530s DASTARDLY KINGS DO DASTARDLY THINGS, AND SOMETIMES ONE GOOD THING, TOO: HENRY VIII BREAKS WITH PAPACY

The history of freedom is partly a history of the Brits fighting their Kings. Kings are likely to do dastardly things. 

Described as "axe-happy", Henry VIII rules from 1509-1547. Henry introduces interrogation in the Star Chamber, and establishes the Treasons Act, which makes denying his supremacy as the head of the Anglican Church an offence punishable by death. He executes two wives and Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, a poet and soldier who unwisely publicizes his pretensions to the crown.

But Henry also loves music, supports composer and musician Thomas Tallis, and is responsible for founding Trinity College, Cambridge, and Christ College, Oxford. To read about the artist who sketched and painted the vivid cast of characters at his court, go HERE » ) Henry breaks with an interfering Papacy and a Church which had become hated for its corruption, the oppressive laws of its ecclesiastical courts, and its heavy fees for marriages, wills, and burials.

In 1532-1533 Henry's major Reformation statutes repudiated Papal Roman claims over England, and made Papal writs impotent in Parliament. Many Brits applaud this independent step. They consider their country to be an empire – that is, in this early meaning of the word – a sovereign country that is not ruled by any other.

Henry VIII dissolves the monasteries and distributes their lands and wealth to his cronies, thereby destroying their hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, and schools for poor children. Henry insists that Brits acknowledge him as the Supreme head of the Church in Britain. Brave Brits like the Abbots of Glastonbury, Colchester, and Reading resist his autocratic demands, and forfeit their lives.

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1534 - 1540 THOMAS CROMWELL REFORMS GOVERNMENT

Thomas Cromwell has justifiably received bad press. We would be remiss, however, if we did not record his reform of the major government departments of Signet, Chancery, and the Privy Seal. Not handsome or titled, a poor boy who had made good by dint of his administrative and financial talents, Cromwell reorganises these disheveled departments, makes them accountable, and makes them independent of the King's interventions. He leaves behind officers who would be cabinet ministers in our age, fully supported by professional civil servants.

It is in the areas of independence and accountability that he contributes most to the history of freedom, for it is in the very practical area of accountability that governments so often fail, and liberty and democracy are lost.

1535 CHARTERHOUSE PRIORS AFFIRM FREEDOM OF RELGIOUS CONSCIENCE

Henry's Act of Supremacy, which makes him, not the Pope, the Supreme ruler of the Church of England, is passed by Parliament, but it is not accepted by all Brits. Thomas More refuses to swear obedience. We would like to speak more glowingly about More, for he taught his daughters the Classics, and died bravely. Tragically, however, when More was in power, he executed Lutherans for standing by their faith.

Defying Henry's command, three monks of Charterhouse, whose monastery had taken care of the poor and ill for centuries, refuse to swear allegiance to Henry as head of the Church. Henry VIII orders them hanged, cut down then disembowelled while still alive. Given the chance to recant, the three monks refuse, and die. They bear extraordinary witness to freedom of conscience.

1536-1537 NORTHERNERS REBEL, LAUNCH PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE

In the North, Brits resent Henry’s break with Rome and his tax increases. They face desperate poverty and starvation because landowners have been stealing the land belonging in common to all of them, enclosing it, and turning it into pasture for their flocks.

The northerners rebel, and capture the King’s Tax Commissioners. Under the leadership of Robert Aske, a barrister, nine thousand march on York in the Pilgrimage of Grace, and restore expelled monks and nuns to their religious houses. That they demand a return to papal rule is not well received, but their desire for a Parliament without a King will resonate with later generations.

Henry VIII promises a general pardon, and a Parliament in York to consider their grievances.  Aske agrees to negotiate, and the protestors disband, but Henry breaks his word. Aske and many others are seized and hanged.

1537 JOHN LAMBERT CLAIMS THE RIGHT NOT TO INCRIMINATE HIMSELF

In 1532, John Lambert is summoned before a religious inquisition. He is suspected of having become a convert to Protestantism, and the inquisition interrogates him on the faithfulness of his religious beliefs.

Lambert answers with candour all the inquisition's questions but one. He refuses to say whether he has ever before been suspected of heresy. "Even if I did remember," he tells his inquisitors, "I were more than twice a fool to show you thereof; for it is written in your own law, 'No man is bound to betray himself'."

According to the Gospels, Jesus remained silent before his accusers – he answered nothing (Mark 15:3). Remembrance of his actions may have influenced ecclesiastical and Common Law to develop the principle nemo tenetur edere contra se — no man is bound to accuse himself. This principle can protect people from torture, and give them respect and dignity against the power of the state.

When John Lambert is interrogated, the principle is not firmly established. He becomes the first person on record in England who lays a claim to the protection of the law that no man can be forced to incriminate himself. For his beliefs he forfeits his life. In 1537 he is chained to a stake in Smithfield, England, and, in a grisly account of his death, "roasted in flames." With his bravery he helps to win a fundamental right for us.

1543 WELSH GAIN REPRESENTATION

A positive note in Henry’s reign – the Welsh people obtain representation in Parliament.

1546 ANNE ASKEW DEFIES TORTURE AND BURNING TO AFFIRM HER RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

Anne Askew had been married as a very young girl to a Lincolnshire knight. When she became a Protestant, her husband sent her packing, and she went to London to testify to her religious beliefs. These included unorthodox ideas about the Sacrament. Questioned by Henry VIII's council, she speaks in parables and refuses to declare that the Sacrament is the flesh and blood of Christ.

Richard Rich tries to extract from Anne the names of women supporters at court, so he can attack them. Totally disregarding Common Law, he racks Anne until every one of her joints is distorted, but she refuses to name any names. The Lieutenant of the Tower rushes to the King, to absolve himself of responsibility, and the racking is stopped.

Anne is promised she will not die by burning if she accepts orthodox views about the Sacrament. She replies simply, 'I have not come hither to deny my Master.' She is burned at the stake at Smithfield. She is remembered as a hero.

1549 ROBERT KETT AND 20,000 FARMERS PETITION GOVERNMENT, TRY TO RESTORE STOLEN LAND

Wealthy landowners continue to steal common lands once shared by all, and enclose them for their sheep and cattle. This leaves farmers who depended on common lands and their families in dire straits. In Norfolk, farmers confront Robert Kett, a landowner who has enclosed land.

Kett recognizes the justice of their cause, pulls down his fences, and leads the farmers against unfair and greedy landlords. Twenty thousand join Kett, and draft a set of “Requests” that include stopping enclosures, restoring fishing rights, and establishing fair rents.  The government orders them to disband and go home.

Kett and the farmers set up a court under an oak tree to try men “charged with robbing the poor.” According to Churchill, “No blood is shed, but property acquired by enclosing common land is restored.”

Edward VI’s government sends 16,000 militia, and battle is joined. Almost 4,000 farmers are killed on the battlefield. Many hundreds, including Robert Kett and his brother William, are hanged.

They are long remembered.  It may be no accident that Oliver Cromwell, who will bring down a King and lead the Commonwealth a century later, hails from East Anglia, as does the family of George Washington.

1550s BRITS RISK FLAMES TO DEFEND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Bloody Queen Mary wants Brits back under the thumb of Rome, and is willing to burn people to do it. Nicholas Ridley goes to the stake rather than renounce his reformed faith and obey the Pope. With him is Hugh Latimer, who some years before had been responsible for the deliberately slow and agonizing burning of an old priest, a torture stopped by outraged bystanders.

Brits hauled into court to answer questions designed to trap them as religious heretics bravely demand to know the identity of their accusers and the specific charges against them. They refuse to incriminate themselves or others. They assert their rights as Englishmen and women.
To hold your hand over a candle flame until the skin burns is painful. To die at the stake in a sheet of fire is painful beyond belief, but hundreds of Brits do so to uphold their rights and their children's rights.

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1556 FRIGHTENED OLD MAN BECOMES HERO

Thomas Cranmer, the old Archbishop of Canterbury, is forced to watch friends who refuse to renounce their faith die at the stake. He is understandably unenthusiastic about the prospect of being burned alive, and signs a recantation, swearing obedience to the Pope.

On March 21, 1556, dressed in ragged clothes and a dunce’s cap, he is led to St. Mary’s, Oxford, to recant publicly. It is a minute before the crowd grasps what he is saying: "I renounce and refuse as things written with my hand contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, written in fear of death and to save my life."

Thomas Cranmer is not recanting. He is speaking the truth. The guards are shouting. They force him outside, and rush him along Brasenose Lane to the front of Balliol College, where he is stripped of his clothes, chained to a stake piled high with wood, and burned alive, a witness to freedom of religion. Many men and women, both Protestant and Catholic, endure death by fire to defend freedom of religious conscience.

1559 PURITANS AND CATHOLICS PROTEST

Beautiful, brilliant, and cunning, the young Queen Elizabeth I declares that she makes 'no windows into men’s souls’. But she is terrified of a religious civil war, and asks Parliament to pass the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, which establish the Anglican Church as the national church. Elizabeth does not want to know what a person feels inwardly. She simply wants outward conformity. The result is peace, but non-Anglicans and Catholics risk their lives when they protest on behalf of freedom of religion, and Irish Catholics are harshly punished with the first Penal Laws.

The word martyr comes from the Greek word that means witness-bearer. Elizabeth’s reign sees almost 200 Catholics die on the scaffold as witnesses to freedom of religious conscience.

1569 SLAVERY CANNOT SURVIVE ‘THE PURE AIR OF ENGLAND’

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, a spectacular lawsuit, the Matter of Cartwright, is brought against a person for beating a man he had bought as a slave.

According to the court, "One Cartwright brought a slave from Russia and would scourge him; for which he was questioned," that is, charged with assault. The decision of the court, framed in a decidedly hopeful and lyrical style, makes a deservedly famous contribution to Common Law: “Resolved, that England was too pure an air for a slave to breathe in." The slave was freed.

1588 BRITS FIGHT SPANISH ARMADA WITH FIRE AND SHEER NERVE

The Spanish launch their Armada. They intend that the Armada will meet the Spanish Army in the Netherlands, at Dunkirk, invade Britain, and force the Brits to return to the Church of Rome. Outgunned and outnumbered, the Brits fight back against the huge galleons of the Spaniards. John Hawkins has designed small, speedy ships for the English Navy, and armed them with long-range cannon.

Beaten back from the Isle of Wight by Sir Francis Drake, the Spanish anchor off Calais in a tightly-packed crescent. At midnight, July 28, the Brits send old vessels loaded with explosives against the Spanish galleons, sinking four, damaging dozens, and forcing them to cut anchor and scatter, allowing the Brits to fight them one on one. As the Brits run out of ammunition, a serendipitous gale drives the Armada into the North Sea. The Spanish galleons attempt to circumnavigate Britain, but many are wrecked on the West Coast of Ireland.

Painting of the August 8, 1788 Battle of Gravelines
by Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg
© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK »

In these centuries Brits are creating a homeland. Here they and their children can live according to the fair Common Laws they have created to protect themselves and other citizens whom they do not know. These common laws arise out of the Ten Commandments and Christ's injunction to love God and to love your neighbour as yourself.

Loving their country, Brits are willing to die so their country and their children may live. They take the long view. They establish universities and hospitals for their children and their fellow citizens. When they are faced with disaster, they stand together.

Increasingly they will worship God in the different ways that God calls to them. At their best they are wise enough to recognise that they cannot understand all the different ways that God calls to each individual person, and they are strong enough to see that God wants love freely offered, not forced. Allowing each other to worship God as each person feels called, they will eventually create a country where for a brief time they can live in peace and harmony.

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View over the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire

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