Sir Robert Constable (c1478-6th July 1537), help King Henry VII to
defeat the Cornish rebels at the Battle of Blackheath in 1497. In 1536,
when the rising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace broke out in the north
of England, Constable was one of the insurgent leaders, but towards the
end of the year, he submitted at Doncaster and was pardoned. He did not
share in the renewal of the rising, Bigod's Rebellion, which took place
in January 1537; but he refused the king's invitation to proceed to
London, and was arrested, tried for treason and hanged at Hull in the
following June.
Maternal uncle Sir Humphrey Stafford c1426-8 July 1486, was also
executed at Tyburn, for his part in an insurrection against King Henry
VII.
In the reign of Henry VII, Robert was of service to the crown upon the
Cornish Rebellion led by Lord Audley, who marched on London and was
defeated at the battle of Blackheath in 1497. Constable was one of the
knights bannerets (a medieval knight, a commoner of rank), that were
created at Blackheath by Henry VII after his victory in 1497. In the
following reign he was also at Flodden. Where the English defeated the
Scots, killing the Scots king James IV.
Pilgrimage of Grace
In 1536, upon the outbreak of the great Yorkshire rising, known as the
Pilgrimage of Grace, caused by the beginning of the destruction of the
monasteries in 1536, Robert took a leading part, along with Robert Aske
and Lord Darcy. Constable was among those who made their submission, and
received their pardon. At the beginning of the next year, January 1537,
when Sir Francis Bigod rashly attempted to renew the insurrection,
Constable exerted himself to keep the country quiet. When this last
commotion was over, he like the other leaders, was invited by King Henry
VIII 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 to send him up with a sergeant-at-arms on 8 March. 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 former offences, but for treasons committed since
their pardon. What those treasons were the Duke was conveniently
forbidden to say. There was 'no specialty to be touched or spoken of',
but all 'conveyed in a mass together'. True bills were returned against
them, and after their condemnation, it seemed to the King 'not amiss'
that some of them should be remitted to their county for execution', 'as
well for example as do see who would groan'. Constable and Aske were
therefore sent down to Yorkshire, and exhibited as traitors in the towns
through which they passed.
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