Lion and the Saltire: The Fall of the Great Northern Houses, 1536-1572

On a November night in 1569, the church bells of Topcliffe were rung backward, and the North of England rose for the last time. Within days, the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland had ridden into Durham, torn the English Bibles from the cathedral of St Cuthbert, and restored the Latin Mass before crowds of their tenants. Within weeks, they were fugitives in the snow-covered hills of the Scottish border, and gibbets stood in the villages that had followed them.This is the full story of the only armed rebellion against Elizabeth I. It traces the border dynasties of Percy and Neville through four centuries of power, the Pilgrimage of Grace that cast its long shadow, the captive Queen of Scots whose arrival set a conspiracy in motion, and the court intrigue that left two hesitant earls with no road but rebellion. It follows the march south, the siege of Barnard Castle, the betrayal in Liddesdale, the papal bull that came too late, and the executions at York and Tyburn.Written with narrative force and scholarly command, this is the story of how the old North died, and how the modern English state was built from its ruins