Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 08.djvu/176

 Gascoigne, another writer of that age, says he was descended from Roger Mortimer, a bastard (Loci e Libro Veritatum, p. 190). It is, however, by no means certain that Cade was the captain originally chosen; for one contemporary authority recently brought to light distinctly says that he was not (, Collections of a London Citizen, p. 191, Camden Soc.) In any case it is clear that the ringleaders desired to give the movement the appearance of being supported by men of distinguished birth, and to suggest that their captain was connected with the family of the Duke of York. It is, moreover, admitted by the chroniclers that the captain chosen performed his part so far well that he established good discipline, and, as it is said, ‘kept the people wondrously together.’ This we should scarcely expect of an audacious adventurer such as we have described, and as a matter of fact Cade certainly did not do so after he entered London. So that we are the more inclined to believe that the original leader disappeared before the insurgents reached the capital, and that the cool audacity of Cade served the purpose of the other leaders well in concealing his defection or loss.

The rebellion first broke out about Whitsuntide in the latter part of May. The rebels encamped upon Blackheath on 1 June, where they ‘made a field diked and staked well about, as it had been in the land of war.’ The king (Henry VI) suddenly dissolved parliament, which had been holding its sittings before him at Leicester, and came to London on the 6th. He sent a deputation of lords, spiritual and temporal, to know the demands of the rebels, who replied by their captain that they desired the removal of certain traitors who had too much influence in his council. On this orders were sent that every loyal man should avoid the field, and the king prepared to march against them in person. The host obeyed the proclamation so far that they retreated to Sevenoaks in the night. Next morning the king and his lords rode through London in their best array, and set out against the retreating host with a following of 10,000 men. They encamped on the ground vacated by the insurgents, against whom they sent on a detachment under Sir Humphrey Stafford and his brother William. But the result was disastrous; for after a severe conflict these forces were defeated, and both the Staffords slain. The news spread consternation in the royal camp at Blackheath. Many of the king's council had previously urged that a favourable answer should be given to the insurgents, and they now protested that they would openly take part with them unless Lord Say were placed in custody. The king was obliged to yield. Lord Say was committed to the Tower, and the royal army returned to London. A few days later the king thought it prudent to remove to Kenilworth, and all resistance to the rebels was abandoned. They accordingly prepared to enter the city. And this was the time, according to Gregory, that another captain took the place of the first, pretending to be the same. If so, the first may have been slain at Sevenoaks, and the fact of his death concealed. Indeed, the first action recorded of the leader which seems really characteristic of an adventurer occurred on the field of Sevenoaks itself; where, as we learn from Fabyan, the captain arrayed himself in the apparel of the vanquished knight, Sir Humphrey Stafford, ‘and did on him his bryganders set with gilt nails, and his salet and gilt spurs.’ Under him the host again occupied Blackheath from St. Peter's day, 29 June, to 1 July, when they entered Southwark. At Blackheath he kept up the reputation for discipline which the captain had already established by beheading a petty captain named Parys for disregard of his orders. Meanwhile a party within the common council had opened negotiations with him, and he had given a passport under his sign-manual to Thomas Cooke, draper, to come and go between them. He also made use of Cooke as his agent in the city, and gave him written instructions to compel the Lombards and other foreign merchants to furnish him with armour and weapons, six horses fully equipped, and 1,000 marks of ready money. ‘And if this our demand be not observed and done,’ so ran the instructions, ‘we shall have the heads of as many as we can get of them.’

Cade was doubtless encouraged by the knowledge that the citizens were mostly in his favour. The common council had just ventured to depose an alderman by name Philip Malpas, whom they had been compelled to elect two years before at the recommendation of the court. On 2 July they were convoked by the mayor to take measures for resisting the rebels; but a large majority voted that they should be received into the city, and an alderman named Robert Horne, fishmonger, who strongly opposed the proposal, was committed to prison. Cade had taken up his quarters at the White Hart in Southwark; but that same afternoon he and his followers entered the city. After they had passed the drawbridge on London Bridge he hewed the ropes asunder. He rode in procession through the streets and struck his sword on London stone, saying, ‘Now is Mortimer lord of this city;’ but still keep-