he need call no council, he would give an answer of his own wit himself.
Standing in the highest place in the chamber, taking the high estate upon him, 'Herald,' he replied, 'as a messenger you are welcome to me and all my company, intending as I do; and as for the proclamation sent from the lords from whom you come, it shall not be read at the market cross,[1] nor in no place amongst my people which be under my guiding.'
He spoke of his intentions; the herald inquired what they were. He said 'he would go to London, he and his company, of pilgrimage to the King's Highness, and there to have all the vile blood of his council put from him, and all the noble blood set up again; and also the faith of Christ and his laws to be kept, and full restitution to Christ's Church of all wrongs done unto it; and also the commonalty to be used as they should be.' 'And he bade me trust to this,' the herald said, 'for he would die for it.'
Lancaster begged for that answer in writing. 'With, a good will,' Aske replied; and he put his hand to his bill, and with a proud voice said, 'This is mine act, whosoever say to the contrary. I mean no harm to the King's person, but to see reformation; I will die in the quarrel, and my people with me.'
- ↑ In explanation of his refusal, Aske said afterwards that it was for two causes: first, that if the herald should have declared to the people by proclamation that the commons in Lincolnshire were gone to their homes, they would have killed him; secondly, that there was no mention in the same proclamation neither of pardon nor of the demands which were the causes of their assembly.—Aske's Narrative: Rolls House MS. A 2, 28.
