a large stone coffin or chest in which the body was reposited, and beside it is the upper part of a skeleton in stone; the ribs project greatly and the breast is laid open, in the inner side of which appears what by tradition is held to be a toad at the heart (of which he was supposed to die), but it bears little or no resemblance of a toad.’ The brass has now been separated from the coin and skeleton, and their connection with each other forgotten (Prickett, Bridlinqton, p. 187). By his first wife, Joyce, daughter of Sir Humphrey Stafford of Grafton, he left issue Sir Robert Constable [q. v.]; Sir Marmaduke Constable, Sir William Constable of Hatfield in Holderness, Sir John Constable of Kinalton, Agnes, wife of Sir Henry Ughtred, and Eleanor, wife, first of John Ingelby, afterwards of Thomas, lord Berkeley. By his second wife, Marge, daughter of William, lord FitzHugh, and widow of Sir John Milton of Swine, he left no issue.
Constable, Sir Marmaduke (1480?–1545), second son of the above, by his marriage with Barbara, daughter and heiress of Sir John Sotehill of Everingham, founded the family of Constables of Everingham. He fought under his father at Flodden, and was knighted after the battle as Sir Marmaduke Constable of Everingham, 9 Sept. 1513. In 1520 he went to France to the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and was present at the subsequent meeting of Henry VIII and the emperor at Gravelines. He took an active part in the Scotch wars of 1522 and 1523 and in the latter year distinguished himself at the capture of Jedburgh (23 Sept.) and Fernieherst (27 Sept.) In the parliament of 1529 he was one of the knights of the shire for Yorkshire. On the establishment of the council of the north in 1537 Constable was appointed to it and continued an active member till his death in 1545. He had been sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1513–14, and of Yorkshire in 1532–3. His share in the spoil of the monasteries was the priory of Drax in Yorkshire of which he had a grant, 22 July 1538 (Pat. Roll, 30 Henry VIII, p. 3, m. 12).
[Cooper’s Athenæ; Cantab.; Collect. Topog. et Geneal. ii. 60, 399; Prickett’s Bridlington, pp. 184–7; Allen's Yorkshire, ii. 310; Gairdner’s Henry VII; Campbell’s Henry VII; Calendar of Henry VIII; Ballad of Flodden Field, ed. Weber; Battle of Flodden, ed. Garret; Hall’s Chronicle; Gent. Mag. 1753, 1836; Notes and Queries. 2nd ser. iii. 409, 3rd ser. ii. 208; Foster’s Yorkshire Pedigrees, vol. ii.; Dugdale’s Baronage, i. 100; Harleian MSS. 1499 f. 61, 1420 f. 137; Patent Rolls I Hen. VII and Hen. VIII; Escheators’ Inquisitions; Dodsworth MSS. voL clx. f. 212.]
CONSTABLE, Sir ROBERT (1478?–1537), one of the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace, born about 1478, was eldest son of Sir Marmaduke Constable (1455?–1518) [q. v.] of Flamborough. In his youth he carried off a ward of chancery, and tried to marry her to one of his retainers (Froude, iii. 166). In the reign of Henry VII he was of signal service to the crown upon the commotion of Lord Audley and the Cornishmen, who marched on London and were defeated at Blackheath in 1497. Constable was one of the knights bannerets that were created at Blackheath by the king after his victory (Bacon, Henry VII). In the following reign, on the outbreak of the great Yorkshire rising, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, caused by the beginning of the destruction of monasteries in 1536, he took the leading part, along with Aske the captain and Lord Darcy. He was with the rebellious host on their entry into York; and after their advance on Pontefract, which became their headquarters, he was among those who received the royal herald with extreme haughtiness (State Papers, i. 486). He then threw himself into Hull, and urged that the most resolute measures should be taken; that negotiation should be refused until they were strong enough to defend themselves, that the whole country northward from the Trent should be closed, and the rising of Lancashire and Cheshire expected. If this counsel had been followed, the revolt would have been more serious. But the advance on Doncaster followed, and the fatal parley there with the king’s forces, and Constable was among those who afterwards rode over the bridge, took off their badges, made their submission, and received their Ipardon. At the beginning of the next year, January 1537, when Sir Bigod [q.v.] rashly attempted to renew the insurrection, Constable exerted himself to keep the country quiet (see his letter to the commons, Froude, iii. 196). When this last commotion was over, he, like the other leaders, was invited by the king to proceed to London. This he refused, and at the same time removed for safety from his usual place of abode to a dwelling thirty miles away. Hereupon the powerful minister Thomas Cromwell caused the Duke of Norfolk, the king’s general in the north, to send him up with a sergeant-at-arms on 3 March (Hardwick, i. 38). He with Aske and Darcy was committed to the Tower till they should be tried, and meantime Norfolk was directed to say in the north that they were imprisoned, not for their former offences, but for treasons committed since their pardon. What those treasons were the duke was conveniently forbidden to say. There was ‘no speciality to be touched or spoken of,’ but
