In 1601, William HUNT was Lord of Sharrington.
The Great Queen Elizabeth I died, in 1603, to be succeeded by James VI of Scotland son of Mary Queen of Scots. James VI of Scotland became James I of England and, on his coinage, King of France, though it had long gone.

This was another century of religious troubles with the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 by Catholic malcontents attempting to blow up the King and Parliament. It was also the century of Bartholomew Legate, the last heretic burned at Smithfield; the Witchfinder General, Civil War, the execution of a King, The Commonwealth of England, the Lord Protector, the Restoration of the Monarchy and the final, ejection of a Catholic King, James II, brother of Charles II.

In spite of some good intentions, life was often short and brutal during the 17th Century. In 1603, 38,000 Londoners died of the Pestilence, hygiene and sanitation was virtually none existent. Many people lived in hovels which were breeding grounds for fleas, bedbugs and lice. Childbirth deaths were common for mothers and babies. The roads were unsafe with highway robbers, often in league with innkeepers, running wild. Criminals were hanged in dozens and, during two years in the middle of the century, about two hundred so called “Witches” were executed in East Anglia alone.

Religion also stirred up troubles in this century. Although James I and later Charles I were Protestants, there was a leaning towards the ornamentation of the Roman Church, which upset the Puritans.

Luckily again, England was saved from the great wars of the Counter Reformation by the North Sea, when great armies under the Catholic Generals, Wallenstein and Tilly, and Protestant armies under Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, ravaged the continent for thirty years and decimated the populations of the German States in the name of Christianity.

The English Civil War.
This war, which began in 1642, was not another Peasants’ Revolt. The King, Charles I, believed that he reigned by the auspices of Christ and his coins were stamped “Christo Auspice Regno”. This arrogance led him to impose laws and taxes without reference to Parliament. He was ostensibly Protestant, but his wife was a French Catholic. This caused a huge split in the country, with some aristocracy and gentry supporting the King, but with Parliament, also composed of aristocracy and gentry in firm opposition. King Charles raised his Standard, virtually declaring war on Parliament. The armies met at Edgehill, which was an undecided battle.

Oliver Cromwell, Gent., from the eastern counties, returned home to form his own “Ironsides”, cavalry, and eventually the New Model Army.

Although in the two major battles, Marston Moor and Naseby, Oliver Cromwell was not the Commander in Chief, he was, nevertheless, instrumental in causing the defeats of the King’s army. Whereas Prince Rupert of the Rhine, the King’s cavalry Commander, after charging through part of the Parliamentary Army, went chasing away after booty, Cromwell’s Ironsides, through strict discipline, charged through their enemy, but remained at the battle and charged again, routing the King’s Army. The war rumbled on and, eventually, the King was utterly defeated, captured and executed.

Norfolk, during this time, was mainly parliamentarian, though there were some Royalist sympathisers. Luckily, there were no major battles or upheavals in this county, so families were not generally, “By the Sword Divided”. No doubt, some Norfolk men served in the New Model Army.

After the defeat of the King, a Commonwealth of England was formed but was so troubled by religious dissent between Protestant seats that Cromwell, who was by now, Commander in Chief of the Army, was forced to declare a Protectorship and declared himself Lord Protector, though he refused to be crowned King. However, England was not ready for revolution and, after Cromwell’s death, Charles II, son of the executed King, was restored to the throne. It is interesting to speculate on what the result would have been had these events occurred 150 years later, at the time of the American and French Revolutions.

Charles II also had his problems, what with The Great Plague of 1665 (people were still dirty and did not realise that flea bites could kill) and the Great Fire of London in 1666. Towards the end of the century, after Charles II died, his brother, James II, became King. James was a fervent Catholic and the fear of him trying to reintroduce Catholicism as the Religion of England led to his ejection from the country and the entry of the Stadtholder, William of the Netherlands and his wife, Mary. This was William of Orange, the “King Billy”, beloved of the Northern Irish Protestants after the Battle of the Boyne.

By Peter Chapman 2000

References:

• A History of England, 1966, Redwood Press Ltd.
• An Historical Atlas of Norfolk. Published by Norfolk Museums Service. 2^nd