ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to sketch the histories of half-a-dozen northern families of gentle or noble blood, in order to give some idea of the state of the north at the time and to outline the lives and antecedents of the leaders of the rebellion. The gentlemen had no more sympathy with the out-of-date dynastic dreams of the White Rose party than with the economic grievances of the commons, but they had their own grudges against the government. Each nobleman was responsible for the behaviour of his own district or “country” as it was called; under his supervision the gentlemen kept order, each on his own lands. The attitude of the northern gentlemen to the Church is one of the greatest interest. It was love of the monasteries which caused them so far to forget their fear of the lower classes that they made common cause with their tenants on behalf of the monks.
