{"id":13426,"date":"2024-06-27T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/?p=13426"},"modified":"2024-09-24T13:26:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T12:26:29","slug":"election-rigging-in-1560s-hampshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2024\/06\/27\/election-rigging-in-1560s-hampshire\/","title":{"rendered":"Winchester v. Winchester: rivalries and election-rigging in 1560s Hampshire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


Whatever the outcome of a modern election, the process of voting is predictable, reliable, and well-understood. However, in the sixteenth century, the picture was a lot more complicated, and sometimes corrupt, as Dr Paul Hunneyball<\/a> of our Elizabethan Lords<\/a> section explains\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Hampshire in the 1560s was a divided community. Despite the Elizabethan religious settlement of 1559, there was still a sizeable Catholic population in the county, which enjoyed the patronage of the leading local magnate, William Paulet<\/a>, 1st marquess of Winchester. One of the great survivors of Tudor politics, Paulet had been lord treasurer of England since 1550, adapting his own religious opinions to the radically different demands of Edward VI, Mary I and now Elizabeth I, while remaining an indispensable and influential figure at the heart of government. However, many of his own family were openly Catholic, and with the discreet backing of the marquess, they provided the backbone of Hampshire\u2019s recusant community. Set against them was a rival gentry faction, staunchly Protestant, who looked for leadership to the county\u2019s ecclesiastical head, Robert Horne, bishop of Winchester. Horne, who had lived in exile on the continent during Mary\u2019s reign, was a strong-minded character, determined to eradicate Catholicism in his diocese. By the mid-1560s he had already successfully secured the sacking of a number of Hampshire magistrates on religious grounds.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Elderly<\/a>
William Paulet, 1st marquess of Winchester; unknown artist, c.1560; \u00a9 National Portrait Gallery<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n


The next major flashpoint came in the autumn of 1566, when a new session of Elizabeth\u2019s second Parliament was summoned. Hampshire\u2019s senior knight of the shire, Sir John Mason<\/a>, a religious conservative, had died in April that year, necessitating a by-election. Horne was anxious for the new Member to be a convinced Protestant, but there was one very significant obstacle to his plans. The current sheriff of Hampshire, Richard Pexall, was the marquess\u2019s son-in-law, and a leading member of his faction. And as sheriff, Pexall had overall responsibility for managing the election. Writs for the holding of elections were issued by Chancery to sheriffs, who then, in the case of county seats, summoned voters to assemble at the next \u2018county day\u2019, a fixed date each month when people routinely gathered to conduct business. In Hampshire, the normal meeting place was the cathedral city of Winchester. On the day of the election itself, the sheriff served as returning officer, assessing the eligibility of both the candidates and the electors, the latter being required to own at least 40 shillings-worth of freehold land in the relevant county. The sheriff also had complete control over the management and duration of the election, and was the sole arbiter of the outcome. In addition, he was responsible for notifying the result to Westminster. Consequently, sheriffs enjoyed considerable scope for manipulating the entire process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Faced with this situation, Horne responded by trying to wrong-foot Pexall. Already in London for the opening of the new parliamentary session, the bishop used his own contacts, conceivably secretary of state Sir William Cecil<\/a> or the lord keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon<\/a>, to obtain the election writ from Chancery at the end of September. Instead of passing it straight to the sheriff, as he should have done, Horne sent it to one of his own Hampshire allies, Richard Norton<\/a>, who hung onto it for several days. Meanwhile, with the next county day looming on 7 October, another of the bishop\u2019s supporters, William Uvedale<\/a>, the remaining Hampshire knight of the shire, began mobilising Horne\u2019s tenants to turn up at Winchester in force. Pexall finally received the writ just two days before the election was due to be held, which gave him barely any time to rally the Paulet faction.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Old<\/a>
Cropped detail from Procession of the Knights of the Garter (sheet 2)<\/em> of Robert Horne, bishop of Winchester; after Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, 1576; \u00a9 National Portrait Gallery<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n


Horne\u2019s strategy was becoming clear. By law, the election had to be held on the next county day, regardless of how little warning was received, so on 7 October the votes would be heavily weighted in favour of the bishop\u2019s preferred candidate. On the face of things this man was a compromise choice, Sir William Paulet<\/a>, a Protestant grandson of the marquess. However, there was a catch: Paulet was a Dorset resident, which rendered him ineligible to serve as a Hampshire knight of the shire. Consequently, if he was elected, and Pexall agreed to return him, the sheriff would be liable to a hefty fine and even imprisonment for breaking election law. Pexall subsequently alleged, with some justification, that the Horne camp promoted Sir William as a ploy; assuming that the sheriff stuck to the letter of the law, and disqualified him, that would clear the way for an alternative candidate from the bishop\u2019s faction, the hardline Protestant Henry Wallop<\/a>. Faced with this unpalatable choice, Pexall himself cheated. On 7 October, around 300 of Horne\u2019s allies assembled at Winchester in anticipation of an election, but the sheriff simply failed to turn up, and instead returned the writ to Chancery unexecuted, complaining that he\u2019d been given too little time to summon the freeholders. Having himself now broken the law in another way, Pexall should by rights have been penalised, but the marquess presumably intervened to protect him, and in the short term nothing happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The sheriff\u2019s evasive action restored the initiative to the Paulet camp. After the abortive October election, nothing could happen until the next county day on 4 November, which gave the marquess\u2019s supporters plenty of time to mobilise. A fresh election writ was issued, and this time it was collected from Chancery by Pexall\u2019s under-sheriff. Thus, when the rival factions assembled again at Winchester, the numbers were much more evenly matched. Moreover, the Paulets had now identified their own candidate, Sir John Berkeley<\/a>, another of the marquess\u2019s grandsons, but crucially also a Hampshire Protestant whose eligibility couldn\u2019t be questioned. Horne\u2019s allies again initially nominated Sir William Paulet, but Pexall debarred him as a non-resident, whereupon Henry Wallop was put forward as a substitute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The election now settled into a more regular pattern, which again worked in the sheriff\u2019s favour. In the days before secret ballots, votes were conducted in up to three stages, and in this case all three were needed. First, the freemen gathered in the hall of Winchester Castle, where the election writ was read out, and Berkeley and Wallop were formally nominated. There followed a \u2018cry\u2019, during which the rival supporters literally shouted the names of their preferred candidate, \u2018A Berkeley\u2019, or \u2018A Wallop\u2019. After half an hour of raucous bellowing, Pexall ruled that it was not possible to determine which man had the most support, and ordered the voters to re-assemble on the castle green. There, the sheriff took a \u2018view\u2019 of the two camps, the second stage available to him. According to Horne\u2019s allies, Wallop\u2019s supporters clearly outnumbered Berkeley\u2019s, but Pexall questioned whether all of the crowd owned enough land to qualify as voters, and again concluded that neither side had a definite majority.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/a>
Great Hall, Winchester Castle; \u00a9 Johan Bakker<\/a>\u00a0under this Creative Commons License<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n


That decision opened the way to the third and final stage of the election, a poll of individual voters, which was again presided over by the sheriff. Unsurprisingly, Pexall opted to record the names of Berkeley\u2019s supporters first, before pausing the whole process around 11 o\u2019clock for a three-hour lunch break. Evidently he hoped that, with winter drawing in, a reasonable number of Wallop\u2019s backers would lose patience and go home before their votes were recorded. When the polling resumed in the afternoon, Pexall began with some more Berkeley voters who had arrived late, then finally turned his attention to the Wallop contingent, who were still present in large numbers. According to subsequent testimony, the sheriff attempted to intimidate some of them into changing sides, threatening to report those that he recognized to the marquess. Eventually, at around eight or nine o\u2019clock in the evening, Pexall declared the poll closed, even though some Wallop supporters who had turned up late insisted that they\u2019d been excluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Predictably, the sheriff declared Berkeley the winner, by 216 votes to 209. However, Horne\u2019s faction maintained that they\u2019d been cheated, and that Wallop\u2019s tally should have been as high as 258. Berkeley duly took his seat in the House of Commons, but Pexall was sued in the court of Star Chamber, accused of electoral malpractice. The outcome of that case is unknown, but it had no impact on Berkeley himself. In the event, this contest was the Paulet faction\u2019s last major success. The old marquess died in 1572, and his family declined in importance from then on, leaving Hampshire\u2019s Protestants in control of subsequent elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PMH<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

R.H. Fritze, \u2018The role of family and religion in the local politics of early Elizabethan England: the case of Hampshire in the 1560s\u2019, Historical Journal<\/em>, xxv (1982), pp. 267-87<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The House of Commons 1604-1629<\/em> ed. Andrew Thrush (2010), i. (especially chapter 4<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whatever the outcome of a modern election, the process of voting is predictable, reliable, and well-understood. However, in the sixteenth century, the picture was a lot more complicated, and sometimes corrupt, as Dr Paul Hunneyball of our Elizabethan Lords section explains\u2026 Hampshire in the 1560s was a divided community. Despite the Elizabethan religious settlement of 1559, there was still a sizeable Catholic population in the … Continue reading Winchester v. Winchester: rivalries and election-rigging in 1560s Hampshire<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135730683,"featured_media":13441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[720013330,103464271,34931755,368880,362124,774275534],"tags":[772499624,35029287,774275589,4203127,35890,348025,772499631,772499690,50359694],"class_list":["post-13426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-first-elizabethan-age","category-16th-century-history","category-elections-2","category-factions","category-legal-history","category-tudor","tag-1st-marquess-of-winchester","tag-by-election-2","tag-election-rigging","tag-electoral-corruption","tag-featured","tag-hampshire","tag-robert-horne-bishop-of-winchester","tag-sheriff-of-hampshire","tag-winchester-castle"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/great_hall_winchester_castle_2.jpg?fit=2228%2C2048&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QYNW-3uy","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":869,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2015\/02\/06\/winchester-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":13426,"position":0},"title":"Parliaments, Politics and People seminar: Richard Aldous (University of Winchester), \u2018Electoral politics in an age of uncertainty: the case of ‘Winchester Man’ 1830-1880\u2019","author":"Emma Peplow","date":"February 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Reporting back from the first \u2018Parliaments, Politics and People\u2019 seminar of the year\u2026 Our seminar returned for 2015 last week when Dr Richard Aldous, from the University of Winchester, spoke on \u2018Electoral politics in an age of uncertainty: the case of \u2018Winchester man\u2019, 1830-1880.\u2019 Dr Aldous\u2019s work explores the nineteenth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences, Seminars and Events"","block_context":{"text":"Conferences, Seminars and Events","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/topics\/conferencesseminars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Holding-Featured-Image-4.jpeg?fit=1200%2C658&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Holding-Featured-Image-4.jpeg?fit=1200%2C658&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Holding-Featured-Image-4.jpeg?fit=1200%2C658&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Holding-Featured-Image-4.jpeg?fit=1200%2C658&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Holding-Featured-Image-4.jpeg?fit=1200%2C658&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1317,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2016\/09\/14\/guy-victor-baring\/","url_meta":{"origin":13426,"position":1},"title":"MPs in World War I: Hon. 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