Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/197

1570.] THE RISING OF THE NORTH. 183 a general pardon, from which only a certain number should be excepted. 1 The turn of those came next who had property to be escheated, and who were therefore to be dealt with less precipitately.. With these an unexpected difiiculty arose from the Palatinate rights of the Bishop of Durham. There was a fear that the forfeitures within ' the bishop- rick' would fall to the See ; and Sussex, wishing to so manage matters that the Queen * should take a good and a long breath upon these northern gentlemen's lands/ suggested that she should either 'compound with the Bishop for his royalties/ or else translate him to some other diocese, when, in the vacancy of the See, 1 all would grow to her Majesty/ 2 Elizabeth would not have allowed a bishop to stand between her and 'her commodity/ and had the law stood as was at first supposed, she would have found her way through it somehow. But Sussex, it seems, was mistaken. Pilkington ventured a faint plea for himself. The Queen ordered him back to his duties, from which he had fled at the outbreak of the rebel- lion, and the law authorities ruled that in cases of high treason, by the 25th of Edward III., ' all forfeitures of escheats, in all places and under all circumstances, be- longed to the Crown.' 3 This objection being disposed of, a Special Commis- 1 Sir T. Gargrave to Cecil, Feb- ruary 6 : MSS. Border. 2 Sussex to Cecil, December 25 : 1570, MSS. Border. 3 Border MSS., February 19,