Biography of Jack Cade 1420-1450

Chronicle of Gregory. The insurrection, seemingly, was almost at an end. The King rode armed through London at the head of his lords, who mustered their followers at Clerkenwell to the number of 10,000 men. Unhappily a small body, detached from this force, went in pursuit of the captain under Sir Humphrey and William Stafford. They were defeated at Sevenoaks, and their leaders slain. The King and nis lords were seized with a panic. They separated and withdrew into the country, leaving London open to the insurgents, who entered the city on the 3rd July. Here, according to our chronicler, and also two days before at Blackheath, although they professed to be under the same captain as before, they really had a new one who went by the same name. This is quite a novel piece of information, and whether true or not is exceedingly curious as bearing upon the history of the movement. Evidently, the original leader was not well-known, and the facts were not well-known. Apparently it was conceived by some that the first captain had been killed at Sevenoaks, and that the fact had been concealed, another man being artfully put in his place. If so, then, a further question arises whether the name Mortimer assumed by Cade was not the real name of the first leader in the movement. It is quite clear that Cade's assumption of that name passed unchallenged till after the rebellion was over, for under the name of Mortimer he actually received a pardon, which was invalidated when it was found he had no right to it.¹ The only circumstance which renders improbable this substitution of one captain for another is the total absence of corroborative testimony to the fact. But this, it must be owned, throws serious doubt upon it.²

Note 1. I have already pointed this out in another publication (Paston Letters, vol. i. Introduction, p. lv.), quoting as my authority a MS. in the Lambeth Library, which I hope shortly to edit for the Camden Society.

Note 2. The story of Jack Cade, however, is attended with difficulties from any point of view, and it is remarkable that when Cade's body was brought to London it was taken to the White Hart at Southwark [Map], where he had lodged before his entry into the City, and identified by the woman who kept the house (p. 194). We hear nothing of its being identified by anyone who had seen the leader before the battle of Sevenoaks.

Polydore Vergil. Then Thomas Chalton, the Lord Mayor, and Thomas Canning and William Huline, the Sheriffs decided that such an evil should be countered by all means possible and assembled a large band of soldiers. And since Jack, the leader of the mob, was keeping his men on the far side of the Thames in the suburban village of St. George, and himself repaired there nightly, in the middle of the night they attacked the mob, under the leadership of Matthew Gough, and occupied the Bridge, killing the watchmen stationed there. But they failed to catch the Kentishmen unawares. For they were fearful and stood to arms at all times, day and night, and when by the shouting of their comrades they learned the townsmen held the bridge, they suddenly attacked them. In a trice a savage battle occurred. When Matthew saw that, contrary to his expectation, the Kentishmen were putting up a stiff resistance, he encouraged his men and proceeded no farther, but only strove to possess the place won in the battle until the day dawned, so that the rest of the townsmen, awakened by the hubbub, might know where to come to the aid of their struggling friends. But the mob began to press forward with such might that the townsmen began gradually to retire, and finally, suffering losses, were obliged to abandon the bridge. The Kentishmen quickly replaced them, and when thet had gained possession of the bridge they set fire to the little houses built along either side of it. Then you truly could have witnessed a sorry sight. For some men, fleeing the fire, ran headlong into hostile swords, to their destruction. Others leapt into the river, and still others, shrieking, died in the fire. Many, too, were killed in the fight itself, including Matthew Gough, a man of great virtue, patriotism, and martial glory, who for more than twenty years had served in the army overseas, to his great credit. But in the end it came about that this man, who had fought so often with the foreign enemy and emerged unscathed, was rewarded with death at the hands of his own countrymen. And the king, seeing the Kentishmen could not be overcome by arms, thought they must be put down by kindness, and so by edict granted immunity to all men who had participated in that uprising save for their leader Jack Cade, whom he wished to bear all the blame for that crime, since he was its ringleader. Hearing this, the common folk, hastened home with the townsmen's spoils, as if they had gained their heart's desire, having abandoned their leader, who paid with his head a little later.