Even by the standards of the time, Elizabeth exacted savage revenge on the North. Literally, the rebels were decimated: over 600 were executed, and their heads placed on spikes across the region. The southern army looted the region. Rebel lands and property, such as the Neville’s Brancepeth Castle, were forfeited to the Crown and used to reward loyalists. The Tudor state aimed to eliminate any potential Northern threat, by promoting rising gentry such as Forster, and extinguishing the region’s distinctive feudal society.