[The battle sways from corner to the stoops in Southwark.] are being "beaten backe to Saint Magnus corner ; but that they have rallied, and driven the rebels "to the stoops in Southwarke," before Cade complains of being left at the White Hart. As however no interval occurs during which the rebels could have been repulsed, Mr. Daniel's stricture (T-A., 312) that the combatants "seem to be on both sides of the river at one time "-is unanswerable. Waiving this difficulty we may assume that 11. 1-3 dramatize the battle which, beginning at 10 o'clock in the evening of Sunday, July 5, 1450,1 [Hol. iii. 635/1/32. Halle, 222.] indured in doubtfull wise on the bridge, till nine of the clocke in the morning: for somtime, the St. Magnus's Londoners were beaten backe to saint Magnus corner: and suddenlie againe, the rebels were repelled to the stoops in Southwarke, so that both parts being faint and wearie, agreed to leaue off from fighting till the next daie; vpon condition, that neither Londoners should passe into Southwarke, nor Kentishmen into London. A staie by assent. Buckingham thus discharges the commission entrusted to him and old Clifford (11. 7-10): Know, Cade, we come Ambassadors from the King Vnto the Commons, whom thou hast misled; Holinshed took from Halle (222) the ensuing account of the rebels' dispersal. [Hol. iii. 635/1/45.] The archbishop of Canturburie, being chancellor of England, and as then for his suertie lieng within the Tower, called to him the bishop of Winchester, who for some safegard laie then at Haliwell. These two prelats, seeing the furie of the Kentish people, by their late repulse, to be somewhat asswaged, passed by the riuer of Thames from the Tower into Southwarke ; bringing with them, vnder the kings great seale, a generall pardon vnto all the offendors, and caused the same to be openlie published. 1 On the "evyn" of July 5 "Londyn dyd a rysse and cam owte uppon hem [the Kentishmen] at x [of] the belle, beyng that tyme hyr captaynys the goode olde lorde Schalys and Mathewe Goughe. And from that tyme unto the morowe viij of belle they were ever fyghtynge uppon London Brygge."Greg., 193. Wyrc. (471), Fab. (625), and Chron. Lond. (136), agree that the conflict began on the night of July 5. 2 John Kempe, then Archbishop of York, was Chancellor in July, 1450. He received the Great Seal on January 31, 1450 (Rot. Parl., v. 172/1), and retained it till his death in March, 1454 (Rot. Parl., v. 240/2). The Bishop of Winchester was William of Waynflete. tio of pardon The poore people were so glad of this pardon, and so readie to Proclama receiue it, that, without bidding farewell to their capteine, they dispersed withdrew themselues the same night euerie man towards his home. Deserted, and fearing treachery from his former adherents, Cade runs away. Buckingham exclaims (11. 68-70): What, is he fled? Go some, and follow him; After relating the dispersal of the rebels,-"euerie man towards his home,"-Holinshed continues: the rebels. Abr. Fl. ex Quart. [Hol. iii. 635/1/59.] But Iacke Cade, despairing of succours, 1. S. pag. and fearing the reward of his lewd dealings, put all his pillage and 2, in goods that he had robbed into a barge, and sent it to Rochester by water, and himselfe went by land, and would haue entred into the castle of Quinborow with a few men that were left about him; but he was there let of his purpose: wherefore he, disguised in strange attire, priuilie fled into the wood countrie beside Lewes in [Cade's Sussex, hoping so to scape. The capteine & his people being thus departed, not long after proclamations were made in diuerse places of Kent, Sussex, and Southerie, that, whosoeuer could take the foresaid capteine aliue or dead, should haue a thousand markes offered for for his trauell. Act IV. sc. ix.—“Multitudes" of the rebels enter "with Halters about their Neckes." Old Clifford tells Henry that they yield; And humbly thus, with halters on their neckes, Henry ends a gentle speech to them by saying (11. 20, 21): And so, with thankes and pardon to you all, 12 It was not until after Cade's death-dramatized in the next scenethat [Hol. iii. 635/2/71. Halle, 222.] the king himselfe came into Kent, and there sat in iudgement vpon the offendors; and, if he had not mingled his iustice with mercy, more than fiue hundred by rigor of law had beene iustlie put to [p. 636] execution. Yet 1 On August 17, 1450, the Archbishop of York and the Duke of Buckingham went to Rochester to try the Kentish rebels.-Paston, i. 139. flight.] [1000 marks him.] [Henry sat in judgment rebels.] upon the [Most of them were he, punishing onelie the stubborne heads, & disordered ringleaders, pardoned.] pardoned the ignorant and simple persons, to the great reioising of all his subiects. A messenger enters, and, addressing Henry, says (11. 23-30): Please it your Grace to be aduértisëd, The Duke of Yorke is newly come from Ireland, Of Gallow-glasses and stout Kernes,1 Is marching hitherward in proud array; His Armes are onely to remoue from thee The Duke of Somerset, whom he tearmes a Traitor. 24 28 York did not take up arms for the purpose here announced until some time had elapsed after his return from Ireland. I give the following excerpt as an illustration of the messenger's news; premising that, by "this yeare," the year 1451 is meant. The date of York's return was September, 1450.2 1 In 2 Hen. VI., Act V. opens with this stage direction: "Enter Yorke, and his Army of Irish, with Drum and Colours." The Contention has: "Enter the Duke of Yorke with Drum and souldiers"; preceding 1. 1, spoken by York: "In Armes from Ireland comes Yorke amaine." The messenger's speech (IV. ix. 23-30) is not in Contention. When, in October, 1459, a temporary Lancastrian success caused York's flight to Ireland, "he was with all ioy and honour gladlie receiued, all the Irish offering to liue and die with him; as if they had beene his liege subiects, and he their lord and prince naturallie borne."-Hol. iii. 650/2/23. This passage may have been the source of York's "Army of Irish"; composed of "Gallow-glasses" and "Kernes." Cp. also the excerpt at p. 248 above, where his beneficial government of Ireland is recorded. 2 In the beginning of September ("in Principio mensis Septembris "), 1450, Henry received news of York's sudden arrival in Wales.-Wyrc., 473. Chron. Lond. has a notice of the Kentish rebellion and Cade's death, which is succeeded by the following passage (136, 137): “And after, in the same yere, Richard Plantagenet duke of Yorke came out of Irland unto Westm', with roial people, lowely bisechyng the kyng that justice and execucion of his lawes myght be hadde upon alle such persones about him and in al his realme, frome the highest degree unto the lowist, as were long tyme noisid and detectid of high treason ageinst his persone and the wele of his realme, offring hymself therto, and his service at the kings comaundement, to spend bothe his body and goodes and yet it might not be perfourmed." The attainder of York by the Lancastrian Parliament which met at Coventry in November 1459 contains this article: "First, he [York] beyng in Irland, by youre graunte youre Lieutenaunt there, at which tyme John Cade, otherwise called Jakke Cade youre grete Traitour, made a grete insurrection ayenst youre Highnes in youre Shire of Kent, to what entent, and for whome it was after confessed by some of hem his adherentes whan they shuld dye, that is to sey, to have exalted the seid Duc, ayenst all reason, lawe and trouth, to the estate that God and nature hath ordeyned you and youre succession to be born to. And within short tyme after, he comme oute of Ireland with grete bobaunce and inordinate people, to youre Paleis of Westmynster unto youre presence," -Rot. Parl., v. 346/1. Moreover, we learn from Rot. Parl., v. 211/2 that, on September 22, 1450, 1 maketh crowne. [He came from consult his Ireland to friends.] [It was that York resolved [Hol. iii. 637/1/50. Halle, 225.] The duke of Yorke, pretend- The duke of ing (as yee haue heard) a right to the crowne, as heire to Lionell claim to the duke of Clarence, came this yeare out of Ireland vnto London, in the parlement time, there to consult with his speciall freends: as Iohn duke of Northfolke, Richard earle of Salisburie, and the lord Richard, his sonne, (which after was earle of Warwike,) Thomas Courtneie earle of Deuonshire, & Edward Brooke lord Cobham. After long deliberation and aduise taken, it was thought expedient to keepe their cheefe purpose secret; and that the duke should raise an armie of men, vnder a pretext to remooue diuerse coun- under cellors about the king, and to reuenge the manifest iniuries doone removing to the common-wealth by the same rulers. Of the which, as counsellors principall, the duke of Summerset was namelie accused, both for that he was greatlie hated of the commons for the losse of Normandie; and for that it was well knowne, that he would be altogither against the duke of Yorke in his chalenge to be made (when time serued) to the crowne; . . Act IV. sc. x.-Cade climbs into a garden belonging to " Alexander Iden, an Esquire of Kent" (1. 46); whom he challenges to mortal combat, and by whom he is slain. Iden resolves to bear Cade's head "in triumph to the King," leaving the "trunke for Crowes to feed vpon" (11. 89, 90). 3 Cade was slain before July 15, 1450.2 Halle's account 3 (222) is that, when the Kentishmen withdrew to their homes, Cade, desperate of succors, whiche by the frendes of the duke of Yorke William Tresham, being then at Sywell, Northamptonshire, was "purposyng 1 Parliament was opened at Westminster on November 6, 1450.-Rot. Parl., v. 210/1. York returned before this date. See foregoing note. 2 The date of an order to pay Iden 1000 marks for Cade's head.-Rymer, xi. 275. Cade was slain on July 12 (Greg., 194), or on July 13 (Three Chronicles, S. E. C., 68). In Rot. Parl. (v. 224/2) the latest date assigned to his movements is July 11. 3 On comparing the excerpt in my text with Hol.'s account-derived from Stow (647)-the reader will observe that the latter is less like the dramatic version. After a reward had been offered for Cade, "a gentleman of Kent, named Alexander Eden, awaited so his time, that he tooke the said Cade in a garden in Sussex so that there he was slaine at Hothfield [Heathfield, Sussex], and brought to London in a cart, where he was quartered; his head set on London bridge, and his quarters sent to diuers places to be set vp in the shire of Kent.”—Hol. iii. 635/2/64. should raise an army, pretext of divers about the among King, chief whom was Somerset.] [Cade betook himself in disguise to Sussex.] wer to him promised, and seing his company thus without hys knowledge sodainly depart, mistrustyng the sequele of ye matter, departed secretly, in habite disguysed, into Sussex: but all hys metamorphosis or transfiguracion little preuailed. For, after a Proclamacion made that whosoeuer could apprehende the saied Iac Cade should haue for his pain a M. markes, many sought for garden, and hym, but few espied hym, til one Alexander Iden, esquire of Kent, [A thousand marks offered for his apprehension.] [He was found in a slain by Alexander Iden.] The miser able ende of Jacke Cade. found hym in a garden, and there in hys defence manfully slewe the caitife Cade, & brought his ded body to London, whose hed was set on London bridge. Act V. sc. i.-Buckingham and Somerset were present when Henry learnt that York was in arms for the purpose of removing Somerset from the royal counsels. Hoping to disappoint York's enmity, the King said (IV. iv. 36-40): I pray thee, Buckingham,1 go and meete him, Buckingham now enters, and, in return to York's question (V. i. 16), answers: A Messenger from Henry, our dread Liege, The cause why I haue brought this Armie hither, 336 40 Then, Buckingham, I do dismisse my Powres. 44 48 Ile send them all as willing as I liue: 1 In May, 1455, "the king, when first he heard of the duke of Yorks approch [to St. Albans], sent to him messengers, the duke of Buckingham, and others, to vnderstand what he meant by his comming thus in maner of warre."-Hol. iii. 643/1/34. |