Faction, Feud and Reconciliation amongst the Northern English Nobility, 1525–1569

Between 1525 and at least the early 1560s the nobility of the north of England was riven by disputes and personal rivalries. These are described for the first time. It is suggested that much of the ultimate responsibility for these frictions rests with the crown for its policy of shifting the wardenship of the western marches between the lords Dacres and the earls of Cumberland, and, after 1537, employing Sir Thomas Wharton (later lord Wharton) as an alternative to both. The antagonism of the second earl of Cumberland and Wharton in Westmorland was particularly sharp. Whilst the privy council attempted to enforce reconciliation between the parties, relative peace was established by the fifth and sixth earls of Shrewsbury who employed marriage as the means to integrate Wharton into the network of the northern nobility. Only death and illness prevented the emergence of a coherent block of Catholic nobility by 1569.