Medieval London (Vol. 1&2). Walter Besant

met again and seriously determined that at all costs the rebels must be kept out. They therefore put their defence into the hands of Lord Scales, Lord Governor of the Tower. And then follows a battle, now forgotten, which should have been one of the most picturesque in the whole list of desperate fights. Like the famous Holding of the Bridge of Rome was the Holding of the Bridge of London by Matthew Gough and the citizens. It began on the night of Sunday, July the 5th, at ten “of the bell,” and it continued all night long, without stopping, till eight in the morning. Sometimes the Kentish men drove back the citizens, but never beyond the drawbridge: sometimes the citizens drove back the Kentish men, but never beyond the “bulwark” of the bridge. Matthew Gough, lieutenant of the Tower, was killed in the encounter, so was John Sutton, Alderman, with many other stout citizens and sturdy rebels. All night long, in the clear twilight of the season, while the quiet tide ebbed and flowed beneath the bridge, there were the clash of arms and shouts and groans until the early sun rose. Beyond the Bridge stood the citizens waiting for their turn, which never came, for no one could pass out or in, but the fighting men in the front surged backwards and forwards in a solid mass. And in the houses the people lay sleepless: trembling while the din of battle ceased not.

      LONDON STONE

      The rebels were worsted in the end. That is, thinking it impossible to force their way into the City they withdrew. Then the Archbishop of Canterbury with the Bishop of Winchester offered them a free pardon, to include their leader, if they would go home quietly.

      In the Church of St. Margaret, Southwark, an interview was held between Cade and the Archbishop. The pardons signed by the Chancellor were shown and handed over. The rebels accepted, and in a few hours the whole army had melted away. Probably Cade found that it was useless to hope for success since London held out so fiercely against him. It is said that he tried to continue a hopeless struggle by taking the prisoners out of the Marshalsea and King’s Bench. He then sent his treasures by ship to Rochester and prepared to march on that place with his army of prisoners. Here the story grows confused. There were certainly not enough prisoners to form an army. Perhaps Cade looked for local support at Rochester. However, he found that Rochester would not receive him, so he made an attempt on Queenborough, and he then fled, making for the dense forest which at that time covered nearly the whole of Sussex. He was pursued by the new Sheriff, Alexander Iden, and mortally wounded at a place called Heathfield.

      When all was over and there was no more danger, the King returned to London and marched through the City in state. Mindful, perhaps, of Richard’s broken promises of pardon to the rebels, Henry continued his march into Kent and executed twenty-six of them. With these exceptions there seem to have been no other acts of revenge, and the men were tried by the King’s Justices. The usual distribution of rebels’ quarters followed, and the decorations of London Bridge were enlarged by the addition of Jack Cade’s head and by the heads of a few of his companions.

      When we consider this strange insurrection it is impossible to class it with that of the rabble under Wat Tyler. There were men of substance among Cade’s followers. We do not find that at first they robbed or plundered or committed any acts of violence: they called upon all men to join them; and they undertook, as soon as these things were amended, to go home quietly again. The insurgents were not a mere rabble. In many villages they were regularly called out by the constables. Either they were an orderly body or they were kept in admirable order by this mysterious leader of theirs. It is true that a charge is brought against Jack Cade of taking things from the houses of two rich citizens; and of loading a ship with his plunder. It may be true, on the other hand it may be the invention of an enemy. When, again, we examine into the actual crimes charged against Cade we find that he executed Lord Saye, regarded as one of the greatest enemies of the realm; also Lord Saye’s son-in-law, late High Sheriff for Kent; one man whose offence is unknown; and one or two marauders in his own camp. That concludes the list of executions, or murders. We have also seen that he had influential friends in London. He kept good order; he defeated the royal force sent out to capture him; he sent up to the King, whoever drew it up, a well-drawn statement of grievances; the Archbishop thought it well to confer with him and was under no apprehension of ill treatment; on his giving the word of dismissal his men quietly dispersed and went home. It is impossible to believe that this man was a mere adventurer seeking an opportunity of private pillage. Who he was, what he was, whence he came, why he was made captain of the Kentish army, it is impossible to say. That he was a common robber and murderer the facts of the case will not allow us to believe. That he was considered of great importance is proved by the perfidy which granted him a “charter” of safety and pardon, and yet offered a reward for his body, dead or alive, and set up his head on London Bridge looking towards Kent. The “Short English Chronicle” (“Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles,” Camden Society) contains a memorable statement. The day after the all-night battle of London Bridge, the Chancellor—Cardinal Kemp—went to “the capteyne and gave him a charter and his men another and so withdrewe him homeward.” The “Charter” means a free pardon. Richard II. had done the same thing in the case of Wat Tyler’s rebellion. Yet, a day or two afterwards the charter was disregarded, and a proclamation made of a thousand marks reward for the capture of the leader quick or dead. The reason of this broken faith is said by the chronicler to be that it became known that the leader’s name was not Mortimer but Jack Cade, “and therefore his charter stode in no strength.” So they hunted him down and killed him.

      HENRY VI. AND HIS COURTIERS

       From tapestry in St. Mary’s Hall, Coventry.

      The most interesting of all the Paston Letters is one signed John Payn, in which the writer narrates his personal recollections of the Cade Rebellion. I quote it entirely as illustrative of the remarkable movement:—

      “Pleasyth it your gode and gracios maistershipp tendyrly to consedir the grete losses and hurts that your por peticioner haeth, and haeth jhad evyr seth the comons of Kent come to the Blakheth, and that is at xv yer passed, whereas my maister Syr John Fastolf, Knyght, that is youre testator, commandyt your besecher to take a man, and ij of the beste orsse that were in his stabyll, with hym to ryde to the comens of Kent, to gete the articles that they come for. And so I dyd; and al so sone as I come to the Blakheth, the capteyn made the comens to take me. And for the savacion of my maisters horse, I made my fellowe to ryde a wey with the ij horses; and I was brought forth with before the capteyn of Kent. And the capteyn demaundit me what was my cause of comyng thedyr, and why that I made my fellowe to stele a wey with the horse. And I seyd that I come thedyr to chere with my wyves brethren, and other that were my alys and gossippes of myn that were present there. And than was there oone there, and seid to the capteyn that I was one of Syr John Fastolfes men, and the ij horse were Syr John Fastolfes; and then the capteyn lete cry treson upon me thorought all the felde, and brought me at iiij partes of the feld with a harrawd of the Duke of Exetter before me in the dukes cote of armes makyng iiij Oyes at iiij partes of the feld; proclaymyng opynly by the seid harrawd that I was sent thedyr for to espy theyre pusaunce, and theyre abyllyments of werr, fro the grettyst traytor that was in Yngelond or in Fraunce, as the seyd capteyn made proclaymycion at that tyme, fro oone Syr John Fastolf, Knyght, the whech mynnysshed all the garrisons of Normaundy, and Manns, and Mayn, the whech was the cause of the lesyng of all the Kyngs tytyll and ryght of an herytaunce that he had by yonde see. And morovyr he seid that the seid Sir John Fastolf had furnysshed his plase with the olde sawdyors of Normaundy and abyllyments of werr, to destroy the comens of Kent whan that they come to Southewerk; and therfor he seyd playnly that I shulde lese my hede.

      And so furthewith I was taken, and led to the capteyns tent, and j ax and j blok was brought forth to have smetyn of myn hede; and than my maister Ponyngs, your brodyr, with other of my frendes, come and lettyd the capteyn, and seyd pleynly that ther shulde dye a C or ij [a hundred or two], that in case be that I dyed; and so by that meane my lyf was savyd at that tyme. And than I was sworen to the capteyn, and to the comens, that I shulde go to Southewerk, and aray me in the best wyse that I coude, and come ageyn to hem to helpe hem; and so I gote th’articles, and brought hem to my maister, and that cost me more emongs the comens that day than xxvijs.

      Wherupon