Co-editors: Seán Mac Mathúna • John Heathcote
Consulting editor: Themistocles Hoetis
Field Correspondent: Allen Hougland
Wat
Tyler and the 1381 Poll Tax rebellion VillageNet
Local History (Jack Cades Rebellion -
1450AD) Cade Road in
Blackheath looking towards Wat Tyler's
Mound In 1450, it was the turn of the
Kentish rebels led by an Irishman called John Mortimer, who
became better known as Jack Cade. He led rebels onto
Blackheath Common in South London, and marched across
Deptford bridge with 46,000 people into London. They too had
demands similar to the Poll Tax rebels in 1381. Christopher
Hampton in A Radical Reader says the main reasons for
the revolt was Henry VI's oppressive and tyrannical regime.
The rebellion failed, and the brutal aftermath, as noted in
A Radical Reader, was known in Kent as "The Harvest
of Heads" because of the numbers executed who had their
heads (with Cade's) displayed on the King's order above
London Bridge.16 The following are excepts from documents at
the time (most of which were originally written in
Norman-French) of Cade's rebellion, which are reproduced in
A Radical Reader: From Gregory, Chronicle, and
Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles From Gregory, p.
190 From Three Fifteenth Century
Chronicles From Gregory, p.
190 A PROCLAMATION MADE BY JACK
CADE, "CAPTAIN OF YE REBELS IN KENT" From Three Fifteenth Century
Chronicles, pp. 94-6 We, considering that the
king our sovereign lord, by the insatiable, covetous,
malicious pomps, and false and of nought brought-up
certain persons, and daily and nightly is about his
Highness, and daily inform him that good is evil and evil
is good . . . Item, they say that
the commons of England would first destroy the king's
friends and afterwards himself . . . Item, they say that
the king should live upon his commons, and that their
bodies and goods be the king's; the contrary is true,
for then needeth he never Parliament to sit to ask
good of his commons . . . Item, it is to be
remedied that the false traitors will suffer no man to
come to the king's presence for no cause without
bribes where none ought to be had, nor no bribery
about the king's person, but that any man might have
his coming to him to ask him grace or judgement in
such case as the king may give . . . Item, the false lords
impeach men to get their property . . . Item, the law serveth
of nought else in these days but for to do wrong, for
nothing is sped almost but false matters for colour of
the law for mede, drede and favour, and so no remedy
is had in the court of conscience in any wise . .
. Item, we will that all
men know that we blame not all the lords, nor all
those that are about the king's person, nor all
gentlemen nor yeomen, nor all men of law, nor all
priests, but all such as may be found guilty by just
and true enquiry and by the law. Item, we will that it
be known that we will not rob, nor reve, nor steal,
but that these faults be amended, and then we will go
home; whereforewe exhort all the king's true liegemen
to help us, to support us . . Item, we desire that
all the extortioners might be laid down . .
. Item, taking of wheat
and other grains, beef, mutton, and other victual, the
which is importable hurt to the commons, without
provision of our sovereign lord and his true council,
for his commons may no longer bear it. Item, the Statute upon
Labourers, and the great extortioners of Kent, that is
to say, Slegge, Crowmer, Isle and Robert
Est. Item, we move and
desire that some true justice with certain true lords
and knights may be sent into Kent for to enquire of
all such traitors and bribers, and that the Justice
may do upon them true judgement, whatsomever they be .
. . Item, to sit upon this
enquiry we refuse no judge except four chief judges,
the which be false to believe. . . . The Lords followers
went together and said, but the king would do execution
on such traitors as were named, else they would turn to
the captain of Kent. From Gregory, pp.
190-91 THEIR DEMANDS UNANSWERED,
THE KENTISHMEN TAKE LONDON From Gregory, pp.
191-4 And then divers questions
were asked at the Guildhall; and there Robert Horne being
alderman was arrested and brought in to Newgate. And the
same day William Crowemere, squire, and Sherriff of Kent,
was beheaded in the field without Aldgate . . . And
another man that was named John Bayle was beheaded at the
White Chapel. And the same afternoon was beheaded in
Cheap before the Standard, Sir James Fienne, being that
time the Lord Saye and Great Treasurer of England . .
. And that same even London
did arise and came out upon them at ten of the bell . . .
And from that time unto the morrow 8 of the bell they
were ever fighting upon London Bridge, and many a man was
slain and cast into the Thames . . . And . . . the
Captain of Kent did fire the drawbridge of London; and
before that he broke both King's Bench and the
Marshalsea, and let out all the prisoners that were in
them . . . THE REBELS DISPERSED, THE
RISING ENDS From Gregory, p.
194 SEVEN MONTHS LATER, THE MEN
OF KENT ARE STILL PAYING From Gregory, pp.
196-7 And at Rochester nine men
were beheaded at the same time and their heads were sent
unto London by the king's commandment, and set upon
London Bridge all at one time; and twelve heads at
another time were brought unto London and set up under
the same form as it was commanded by the king. Men call
it in Kent the harvest of heads. CADE AND THE LONDON
STONE Cade - who is remembered by
Cade Road on Blackheath Common - was also connected with the
London Stone. According to tradition, this was originally a
temple alter-stone, laid by none other than Brutus the
Trojan, the mythical founder of London who gave his name to
the country. Because of this, it was considered a scared
object on which oaths were sworn. It was also the point from
which proclamations were made. Cade observed the tradition
by striking his sword against it as a symbol of sovereignty
after his forces entered London.17 On striking the stone, he
declared himself lord of the city. The London Stone is a
survivor of the thousands of mark stones which used to exist
at important geomantric points in cities up until medieval
times. It is said that so long as the Brutus stone is safe,
no harm will come to Britain. The Brutus stone was not the
only totem in London that has this legend. The ancient site
of the White Hill (known in Celtic times as the Bryn Gwyn)
was not only sacred to the Goddess, but is said to have been
the site of the burial of Bran's Head. This site today is
the White Tower in the Tower of London. As Bran was the crow
god, thus he was protected by the Ravens, a bird sacred to
the Celts, who still "guard" the site today. Bran and his
Ravens must have been connected with Deptford and Greenwich
or the River Ravensbourne would not have been named as such.
It have probably would have been known as Aber Bran in
Celtic times (Raven's River). Like with the Brutus Stone, it
is said that as long as the Ravens are still in the Tower,
Britain will be safe from invasion. Cade is also said to have been
connected with Jack Cade's Cavern underneath The Point by
Maidenstone Hill on the edge of Blackheath Common. There is
also said to be an effigy of The Horned God in the cave, but
it is not known if is dates from that period. If it did,
then it would connect Jack Cade directly to the myth of The
Horned God, and it is worth speculating whether he performed
pagan rites in the cave before marching on
London. Legend records that the Celtic
chieftain Arthur disinterred Bran's head in the 6th Century
AD, claiming that only he would protect Britain from
invaders. This fulfilled the prophesy by the Celtic shaman
Merlin of the triumph of the White Dragon (representing the
Saxon's) over the Red Dragon (the Celts). Thus, within 200
years, the Celts had lost the area of their country that
later became known as England (from Angland or Land of the
Angles, the Saxon tribes who came from Germany), and they
were hemmed into Cornwall, Wales and Cumbria (who were known
as the Strathclyde Britons). It was to be the Cornish
however who were to return to London and fight at the
Battle
at Deptford Bridge over the River Ravensbourne in
1497. © 1997
The
basic freedoms that so many English men and women now
accept, both in fact and in law, as their birthright, are
of course neither so firmly established nor so proof
against attack that we can afford to take them for
granted or believe that they are to be maintained, let
alone extended, without constant vigilance and constant
effort. And above all we have to remember that these
freedoms have been won for us over the centuries by the
determined efforts of others, people who have had to
fight, often against overwhelming odds, for every inch of
the ground. Christopher Hampton, Writing in A Radical
Reader: The Struggle for Change in England, 1381-1914
(Penguin, London, England, 1984)
The rebellion was a
carefully organized rising of the people against the
oppression and tyranny of Henry Vl's ministers and
particularly the Lord Treasurer, in their exaction of
laws and taxes at the bitter end of the French Wars, a
time of economic depression and poverty for the common
people. What makes it significant is that even the local
gentry followed Cade's standard, and (from Stow's
Chronicle) it seems that the King's followers, too,
plainly suggested that, unless his traitorous ministers
were dealt with, they would desert to the Captain. Cade
led the rebels to Blackheath, retreated after a week,
defeated part of the royal army at Sevenoaks (8 June) and
took possession of London. Lord Saye, the King's
Treasurer, was executed; but the commons were soon driven
out (5-6 July) and eventually dispersed, though Cade
continued to resist till killed on 12 July. William
Gregory (d. 1467) was Lord Mayor of London for
1451-2.
And after that the
commons of Kent arose with certain other shires, and they
chose them a captain, the which captain . . .
. . . named himself
John Mortimer, whose very true name was Jack Cade, and he
was an Irishman;
[and]
compelled all the gentlemen to arise with them. And at
the end of Parliament they came with a great might and a
strong host unto the Black Heath, beside Greenwich, the
number of 46,000; and there they made a field, dyked and
staked well about, as it had been in the land of war,
save only they kept order among them, for also good was
Jack Robyn as John at the Noke, for all were as high as
pigsfeet, unto the time that they should come and speak
with such states and messengers as were sent unto them;
then they put all their power into the men that named him
Captain of all their host. And there they abode certain
days to the coming of the king from the Parliament at
Leicester. And then the king sent unto the captain divers
lords both spiritual and temporal, to wait and to have
knowledge of that great assemblage and gathering of that
great and misadvised fellowship. The captain of them
sending word again unto the king, that it was for the
weal of him our sovereign lord, and of all the realm, and
for to destroy the traitors being about him, with their
divers points that they would see that it were in short
time amended.
These being the
points, causes and mischief's of gathering and assembling
of us the King's liege men of Kent, the 3rd day of June,
the year of our Lord 1450, the reign of our sovereign
lord the king XXIX, the which we trust to Almighty God to
remedy, with the help and the grace of God and of our
sovereign lord the king, and the poor commons of England,
and else we shall die therefore.
Item, they say
that our sovereign lord is above his laws to his
pleasure, and he may make it and break it as him list,
without any distinction. The contrary is true, and
else he should not have sworn to keep it, the which we
conceived for the highest point of treason that any
subject may do to make his prince run in perjury . .
.
Upon which answer
that the king, thither sent by his lords, did make a cry
in the king's name of England that all the king's liege
men of England should avoid the field. And upon. the
night after they were all voided and agone . .
.
And after that,
upon the first day of July, the same captain came again,
as the Kentish men said, but it was another that named
himself the captain, and he came to the Black Heath. And
upon the morrow he came with a great host unto Southwark,
and at the White Hart he took his lodging. And upon the
morrow, that was the Friday, again even, they smote
asunder the ropes of the drawbridge and fought sore a
many, and many a man was murdered and killed in that
conflict, I wot not what to name it for the multitude of
riff raff. And then they entered into the city of London
as men that had been half beside their wit; and in that
furnace they went, as they said for the common weal of
the realm of England, even straight into a merchant's
place named Philip Malpas of London. If it were true as
they surmised after the doing, I remit myself to ink and
paper . . . But well I wot that every ill beginning most
commonly hath an ill ending, and every good beginning
hath very good ending . . . And that Philip Malpas was
alderman, and they spoiled him and bare away much goods
of his, and especially much money, both of silver and
gold . . .
And upon the 12th
day of July . . . the said Captain was cried and
proclaimed traitor, by the name of John Cade, in divers
places of London, and also in Southwark, with many more,
that what man might or would bring the same John Cade to
the king, quick or dead, should have of the king a 1000
marks. Also whosoever might bring or would bring any of
his chief counsellors . . . that kept any state or rule
or governance under the said false captain John Cade he
should have his reward of the king . . . And that day was
the false traitor the Captain of Kent taken and slain in
the Weald in the county of Sussex, and upon the morrow he
was brought in a cart all naked . . . beheaded and
quartered . . . and his head . . . set upon London
Bridge.
. . . On Candlemas
Day, the king was at Canterbury, and with him was the
Duke of Exeter, the Duke of Somerset, my lord of
Shrewsbury, with many other lords and many justices. And
there they held the Sessions four days, and there were
condemned many of the Captain's men for their rising, and
for their talking against the king . . . And the
condemned men were drawn, hanged, and quartered, but they
were pardoned to be buried, both the quarters of their
bodies and their heads withal.