VAN der Delft wrote on September 15, 1549. Somerset’s handling of the rebellions and the continuing war with France and Scotland had lost him the confidence of the nobility and gentry. “The people are all in confusion, and with one common voice lament the present state of things.”1 It was the beginning of the end of Somerset’s protectorate. Dudley and the conservative nobles, Thomas Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, and Henry FitzAlan, earl of Arundel, were plotting against him and the country was drawing close to civil war. Matters came to a head on Saturday, October 5, when Somerset issued a proclamation commanding men to come to Hampton Court “in most defensible array” with harness and weapons, to defend the king against “a most dangerous conspiracy.”2 Dudley and his supporters immediately took up arms riding through the city, their retinues following behind “attending upon them in new liveries to the great wondering of many.”3 Letters were sent to other members of the nobility across the country, ordering them to ignore Somerset’s proclamation and repair to London armed.
