Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/369

 gates had to be opened to them; they held the city to ransom, but nevertheless destroyed the houses of nobles and lawyers.

Distrusting themselves, and perhaps fearful of being led too far by Litster and his fellow-artisans, the villeins pressed into their company (, ii. 6, cf., u.s.) certain knights who had to submit to the whims of the ‘king of the commons.’ He appointed them tasters of his food and drink, and one of them in especial, ‘being an honourable knight,’ his carver.

When the villeins heard that Richard had granted charters of manumission to the serfs of the home counties, and probably after news of the collapse of the main revolt had reached Norfolk, they sent three of their own number, Seth, Trunch, and Cubit, according to Capgrave, with two of the knights, to the king, bearing the money extorted from Norwich, in the hope of obtaining more comprehensive charters for themselves. At the same time Litster and his friends evacuated Norwich and retired northwards to North Walsham, to await their envoys' return. But the latter were intercepted at Icklingham, between Thetford and Newmarket, by a small armed band led by Henry le Despenser [q. v.], bishop of Norwich, from his manor of Burleigh, near Oakham. The bishop promptly beheaded the three villeins, and hastened, ‘armed to the teeth,’ through Wymondham and Norwich, towards the headquarters of the rebels. The terrified gentry, taking courage, issued from their hiding-places, and it was with a considerable force that the bishop drew near North Walsham. Under Litster's skilful direction the rebels had barred the Norwich road to North Walsham with a fosse and a barricade of windows, doors, and tables. But the bishop rode into their midst, and though they fought desperately, they were broken and cut down. Litster escaped, but was speedily discovered in a field of standing corn, brought before the bishop, and absolved, drawn, hanged, beheaded, and quartered on the spot. The bishop graciously held his head lest it should drag on the ground as he was borne disembowelled to the gallows. The four quarters were sent to Norwich, Yarmouth, Lynn, and his own house at Felmingham, ‘that all might know how rebels end.’ Froissart (ix. 421), with characteristic inaccuracy, places Litster's execution at Stafford. On the Norwich side of North Walsham there is a cross which is thought to mark the scene of the battle, and a mound believed to cover the slain. 

LITTLEDALE, JOSEPH (1767–1842), judge, born in 1767, was eldest son of Henry Littledale of Eton House, Lancashire, who was of a Cumberland family. His mother was Mary, daughter of Isaac Wilkinson of Whitehaven. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, was senior wrangler and Smith's prizeman, and graduated B.A. in 1787 and M.A. in 1790. He entered at Gray's Inn, and practised as a special pleader until 1798, when he was called to the bar on 28 June. It was during this time that, being asked what his politics were, he gave the well-known answer, ‘My politics are the politics of a special pleader.’ He joined the northern circuit, and attended the Chester sessions. In 1813 he was appointed counsel to the university of Cambridge. He enjoyed a good practice. On 30 April 1824 he was appointed, in succession to Mr. Justice Best, to a judgeship in the court of king's bench, though he had never been made a king's counsel or sat in parliament, or had any government recognition, beyond being appointed Hullock's colleague in managing the government prosecutions in Scotland in 1822. He took his seat on the first day of Easter term, 5 May 1824, and was knighted on 9 June. Consisting as it did of Abbott, Bayley, Holroyd, and Littledale, the court of king's bench at this time was one of the strongest ever constituted, and Lord Campbell speaks of this as the golden age of justice (Lives of the Chief Justices, iii. 291; Autobiography, i. 421). Littledale resigned owing to failing health on 31 Jan. 1841. He was sworn of the privy council, but died shortly after at his house in Bedford Square on 26 June 1842. He left 250,000l. His only daughter, Elizabeth, married Thomas Coventry, barrister-at-law. In character he was a lawyer, and little more—‘one of the most acute, learned, and simple-minded of men,’ according to Lord Campbell, but he was respected and even beloved by those who practised before him. He edited Skelton's