Читать книгу History of the Fylde of Lancashire онлайн

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In 1485 a malady called the “Sweating Sickness” visited the different districts of Lancashire, and so rapid and fatal were the effects, that during the seven weeks it prevailed, large numbers of the populace fell victims to its virulence. Lord Verulam, describing the disease, says:—“The complaint was a pestilent fever, attended by a malign vapour, which flew to the heart and seized the vital spirits; which stirred nature to strive to send it forth by an extreme sweat.”

In 1487 the impostor Lambert Simnel, who personated Edward, earl of Warwick, the heir in rightful succession to Edward IV., landed at the Pile of Fouldrey, (Peel harbour) in Morecambe Bay, with an army raised chiefly by the aid of the Duchess of Burgundy, and marched into the country. At Stoke, near Newark, he was defeated and taken prisoner, and subsequently the adventurer was made a scullion in the king’s kitchen, from which humble sphere he rose by good conduct to the position of falconer. Henry VIII., soon after his accession in 1509, became embroiled in war with France, and whilst he was engaged in hostilities on the continent, James IV. of Scotland crossed the border, and invaded England with a force of fifty thousand men. To resist this aggression large levies were promptly raised in Lancashire and other northern counties, and on the field of Flodden, in Northumberland, a decisive battle took place in 1513, in which the Scottish monarch was slain, and his army routed. The Lancashire troops were led by Sir Edward Stanley, and their patriotism and valour are celebrated in an ancient song called the “Famous Historie or Songe of Floodan Field.” In the following extract certain localities in and near the Fylde are mentioned as having furnished their contingents of willing soldiers:—