place in Holborn, and after a final reconsideration of the state of the country, were mounting their horses to go to Hampton Court 'in a friendly manner, with their ordinary servants' only,[1] when Petre and some other gentlemen rode up to the gates to inquire, in the Protector's name, for what purpose they were breaking the peace of the country, and to warn them that, if they went to the Court, they would be arrested as traitors.[2] The same morning five hundred of the Duke's men had been furnished with harness from the royal armoury, besides the usual guard, and the palace gates were barricaded.
Petre, soon satisfied that the Protector was wrong and the lords were right, did not return, but remained and joined them. The rupture was made known to the world the same day by the issue of the Duke's commission; and Shrewsbury, Sussex, Wentworth, Mr
- ↑ Privy Council Register, Edward VI. MS. The Protector's party said that they were going armed to seize his person.
- ↑ There is some difficulty about the terms of Petre's message. Part, perhaps, was his own information; part the message he was entrusted to give. Edward, in his Journal, says that Sir William Petre 'was sent to know for what cause the lords had gathered their powers together, and if they meant to talk with the Protector, they should come in a peaceable manner.' The Protector, in a letter written the following day, said that he had 'sent Mr Petre with such a message, as whereby might have ensued the surety of his Majesty's person, the preservation of his realm and subjects.' The Privy Council Register says: ' As they were ready to have mounted upon their horses they were certainly advertised, as well by credible reports of divers gentlemen as by letters subscribed by the hand of the said Lord Protector, that he, having some intelligence of their lordships' intents, had suddenly raised a power of the commons to the intent, if their lordships had come, to have destroyed them.'
