They'll not take away our freedom -- maybe

The Spanish and French may have arrived on American shores and established colonies before the English, and their legacy lives on in various ways, but the English and their way of life came to dominate American history. As I have discovered for the families that make up the two halves of my family, much of our heritage and ancestry dates back to the English colonies established in the 1600s. I suspect that is true for a great deal of the American population.

Despite this, we know precious little about English history, which predates ours by hundreds of years. We like to think we invented most of the institutions and ideas that shape our culture, but the reality is we pretty much adapted English culture to the needs of a new and growing nation. And English history predates ours by hundreds of years.

I remember picking up a used English history text, I think from the college bookstore, and being shocked at the size of it. The section on the American Revolution was pretty much just a chapter. Far too much happened in England's past to dwell on that bother.

Finding that so many branches of our family tree extend back into that long English history has helped to ameliorate my ignorance, but not by much.

I went back to the late 15th, early 16th centuries part of the tree this week, finding a great-great to the x grandfather named Robert Drury, a knight of the body, a medieval office. Now, given that he had a lasting impact on English history, I expect he will disappear from my tree somehow, even though that impact takes the form of a significant road name in London, Drury Lane. He owned a residence there before it was called Drury Lane, and the street eventually took its name from Drury's house. Today the Theatre Royal Drury Lane gives the street its claim to fame. The theater was established in 1663 and is considered the world's oldest theater site in continuous use. 

This is not Sir Robert's only claim to fame, though. He had a distinguished career as a barrister, being a member of the prestigious Lincoln's Inn, a professional group of judges and lawyers. He also served in the House of Commons and was part of groups engaged in negotiations with Scotland to keep peace.

He obtained his knighthood from King Henry VII, the first of the Tudor kings and Eight's father, for his service at the Battle of Blackheath, sometimes called the Battle of Deptford Bridge. What he did exactly is not in the records I could find, though. 

After Henry VII took the throne from the Yorkists, whom I believe belonged to the Plantagenet dynasty, he proceeded to try to consolidate his power and centralise the government. Now you have to remember that the British Isle actually encompass a number of countries: Scotland, Ireland, and Wales among them. English kings thought all those countries should be under their control and took steps to obtain that control. 

In the process, Henry managed to upset the people of Cornwall, which takes in much of the point that extends from the southwestern part of modern England. If you watched any of the PBS Masterpiece series "Poldark," then you are a bit familiar with the area because Poldark is a Cornishman. 

At the time of Henry's accession, the Cornish were mostly independent and had a different sort of governmental structure. Tin mining was the leading industry in Cornwall and had its own government -- the Stannary Parliament -- separate from local rule. 

Henry began by imposing high taxes on the area to help pay for his intentions to bring other parts of England under his governance -- by force if necessary. This didn't play well because most of the military action at the time was taking place on the Scottish border, on the other side of the island. Why should they have to pay for Henry's war against the Scots?

Then he really set them off by deciding that the Stannary Parliament and its protection of tin mining had to come to and end, and he disbanded it. In response a blacksmith and a lawyer joined together to raise an army of 15,000 men and set out for London to deal with this king fella.

Henry responded by pulling most of his troops from the Scottish border and sending them south. Nobles seeking to curry favor with the king, or solidly backing his ideas, raised troops from their areas, and the force grew to 25.000.

By the time the opposing forces faced off at Blackheath, four miles outside of London, a number of Cornishmen decided they didn't want to be part of the fray and split for home. On the morning of the battle, some 5,000 men had deserted the cause. 

The armies lined up across from each other on either side of the Deptford Bridge, and the Cornish archers, whose equipment was better than that of the English, let loose, killing an unknown number of English troops. 

Unfortunately, the Cornish had no cavalry or artillery, and the archers were forced to withdraw as English troops forced their way across the bridge under the protection of artillery fire. They quickly surrounded the Cornish forces and brought the rebellion to an end. 

The blacksmith and the lawyer were captured and executed, being first hanged, then drawn and quartered. Henry intended to send the pieces back to Cornwall but was talked out of it. Doing so would only serve to rile the Cornish up. They would make other attempts and lose again. 

According to a couple of English websites I looked at, the Cornish still don't like the centralised control of the British government and still have an independent streak. I haven't seen any referendums about independence, but if the Scots ever succeed, who knows who'll decide to be next?

Image: Sir Robert Drury, from the Parliamentary Art Collection at artuk.org