Jack Cade
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Jack Cade (possibly named John Mortimer) was the leader of a popular revolt in the 1450 Kent rebellion which took place in the time of King Henry VI in England.
Some sources suggest Cade was of Irish origin but raised in Sussex where he is alleged to have murdered a woman in 1449. He escaped to France but returned to live in Kent under an assumed name.
In the spring of 1450 Kentish peasants protested against what they saw as the weak leadership of King Henry, unfair taxes, corruption and the damaging effect of the loss of France and, in a clever move, issued The Complaint of the Poor Commons of Kent, a manifesto listing grievances against the government—grievances not only of the people but of several MPs, lords and magnates.
In early June about 20,000 rebels gathered at Blackheath, south-east of London. They were mostly peasants but their numbers were swelled by shopkeepers, craftsmen, a few landowners (the list of pardoned shows the presence of one knight, two MPs and eighteen squires) and—unfortunately for Henry—a fair number of soldiers and sailors returning from the French wars via Kent. While the King sought refuge in Warwickshire the rebels advanced to Southwark. They set up headquarters in The White Hart inn before crossing London Bridge on 3 July. The Lord Treasurer was captured and beheaded, along with a few other favourites of the King. Many of the rebels, including Cade himself, then proceeded to loot London, although Cade had made frequent promises not to do so during the march to the capital. When the army returned to Southwark for the night the London officials made preparations to stop Cade re-entering the city. The next day, at about ten in the evening a battle broke out on London Bridge, lasting until eight the next morning when the rebels retreated, having suffered heavy casualties.
After the battle Archbishop John Kemp, the Lord Chancellor, persuaded Cade to call off his followers by issuing official pardons and promises to fufil the demands written in Cade's manifesto.
However, after the peasant forces disbanded, a week later, Cade learned that the government regarded him as a traitor and had issued a reward for him dead or alive. He was subsequently killed in a skirmish near Heathfield, East Sussex on 12 July 1450, after which his body was taken to London and quartered for display in different cities, his preserved head ending up on a pike on London Bridge (along with those of other leaders of the rebellion).
Despite all the rebels being pardoned, thirty-four were executed after Cade's death.
Cade appears as a character in William Shakespeare's play Henry VI, Part 2. It is one of Cade's followers, in discussion with Cade, who speaks the well-known line, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
[edit] References
- I.M.W. Harvey, Jack Cade's Rebellion of 1450, Oxford UP, 1991. ISBN 0-19-820160-5
- Reviewed by Joel T. Rosenthal, Speculum, Vol. 69, No. 1. (Jan., 1994), pp. 161-163. Available online at JSTOR.
- Jack Cade's Rebellion on britainexpress.com
