Pg. 614

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 614 HOUSEHOLD WORDS. [Conducted by

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 ship, carrying a hundred and fifty men and called the Nicholas of the Tower, came along­side his little vessel, and ordered him on board. “Welcome, traitor, as men say,” was the captain’s grim and not very respectful salutation. He was kept on board, a prisoner, for eight-and-forty hours, and then a small boat appeared rowing towards the ship. As this boat came nearer, it was seen to have in it a block, a rusty sword, and an executioner in a black mask. The duke was handed down into it, and there his head was cut off with six strokes of the rusty sword. Then, the little boat rowed away to Dover beach, where the body was cast out, and left until the duchess claimed it. By whom, high in. au­thority, this murder was committed, has never appeared. No one was ever punished for it.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 1 There now arose in Kent an Irishman, who gave himself the name of Mortimer, but whose real name was Jack Cade. Jack, in imitation of Wat Tyler, though he was a very different and inferior sort of man, addressed the Kentish men upon their wrongs, occa­sioned by the bad government of England, among so many battledores and such a poor shuttlecock; and they rose up to the number of twenty thousand. Their place of assembly was Blackheath, where, headed by Jack, they put forth two papers, which they called “The Complaint of the Commons of Kent,” and “The Requests of the. Captain of the Great Assembly in Kent.” They then retired to Sevenoaks. The royal army coming, up with them here, they beat it and killed their general. Then, Jack dressed himself in the dead general’s armour, and led his men to London.

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 1 Jack passed into the City from Southwark, over the bridge, and entered it in triumph, giving the strictest orders to his men not to plunder. Having made a show of his forces there, while the citizens looked on quietly, he went back into Southwark in good order, and passed the night. Next day, he came back again, having got hold in the meantime of Lord. Say, an unpopular nobleman. Says Jack to the Lord Mayor and judges: “Will you be so good as to make a tribunal in Guildhall, and try me this nobleman?” The court being hastily made, he was found guilty, and Jack and his men cut his head off on Cornhill. They also cut off the head of his son-in-law, and then went back in good order to Southwark again.

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 1 But, although the citizens could bear the beheading of an unpopular lord, they could not bear to have their houses pillaged. And it did so happen that Jack, after dinner— perhaps he had drunk a little too much— began to plunder the house where he lodged; upon which, of course, his men began to imitate him. Wherefore, the Londoners took counsel with Lord Scales, who had a thousand soldiers in the Tower; and defended London Bridge, and kept Jack and his people out. This advantage gained, it was resolved by divers great men to divide Jack’s army in the old way, by making a great many promises on behalf of the state, that were never intended to be performed. This did divide them some of Jack’s men saying that they ought to take the conditions which were offered and others saying that they ought not, for they were only a snare; some going home at once; others staying where they were; and all doubting and quarrelling among themselves. Jack, who was in two minds about fighting or accepting a pardon, and who indeed did both, saw at last that there was nothing to expect from his men, and that it was very likely some of them would deliver him up and get a reward of a thousand marks, which was offered for his apprehension. So, after they had travelled and quarrelled all the way from Southwark to Blackheath, and from Blackheath to Rochester, he mounted a good horse and galloped away into Sussex. But, there galloped after him, on a better horse, one Alexander Iden, who had a hard fight with him, and killed him. Jack’s head was set aloft on London Bridge, with the face looking towards Blackheath, where he had raised his flag; and Alexander Iden got the thousand marks.

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 1 It is supposed by some, that the Duke of York, who had been removed from a high post abroad through the Queen’s influence, and sent out of the way, to govern Ireland, was at the bottom of this rising of Jack and his men, because he wanted to trouble the Government. He claimed (though not yet. publicly) to. have a better right to the throne than Henry of Lancaster, as one of the family of the Earl of March, whom Henry the Fourth had set aside. Touching this claim, which, being through female relationship, was not according to. the usual descent, it is enough to say that Henry the Fourth was the free choice of the people and the Parlia­ment, and that his family had now reigned undisputed for sixty years. The memory of Henry the Fifth was so famous, and the English people loved it so much, that the Duke of York’s claim would, perhaps, never have been thought of (it would have been so hopeless) but for the unfortunate circumstance of the present King’s being by this time quite an idiot, and the country very badly governed. These two circumstances gave the Duke of York a power he could not otherwise have had.

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 1 Whether the Duke knew anything of Jack Cade, or not, he came over from Ireland while Jack’s head was on London Bridge; being secretly advised that the Queen was setting up his enemy, the Duke of Somerset, against him. He went to Westminster at the head of four thousand men, and on his knees before the King, represented to him the bad state of the country, and petitioned him to summon a Parliament to consider it. This the King pro­mised. When the Parliament was summoned