The Rise of the Democracy

ults of Pop

common people who took up arms against the Government. The Civil War that brought Charles I. to the scaffold, and the Revolution that dep

by force of arms, the earlier centuries witnessed more than one effort to gain

sans in the twelfth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, if t

itical liberty, and marked the road to be travelled; but the lot of the labouring people remained unheeded and

bert, called L

in the reign of Richard I.; and FitzOsbert, known as

y in 1194, and returned no more. England to him was a country where money could be raised, a subject-province to be bled by taxation. Archbishop Hubert did his best to satisfy the royal demands; and though by his inquisitions "England was reduced to poverty from one sea t

at directly caused Archbishop Hubert's retirement, and Fitz

m the Conqueror. It was conspicuous on the arrival of Stephen in 1135, and its in

he Corporation provoked the outbreak. "When the aldermen assembled according to usage in full hustings for the purpose

ad, and not in proportion to the property of the inhabitants. This meant, practically, that the

sted, and the people rose

mself the champion of the poor." To his enemies he was a demagogue and disreputable-so Ralph de Diceto, Dean of St. Paul's at that time, described him. To others of more popular sympathies he was heroic and died a martyr's death

ch other and by their leader; and FitzOsbert, after a vain journey to Normandy to arouse Richard's

tizens, and the aldermen were naturally on the side of constituted authority. FitzOs

rsued by the officers of the law, FitzOsbert climbed up into the tower of the church, and to fetch him down orders were given to set the church on fire. Th

was struck down, and his littl

was carried off to the Tower, to be tried and

e rough streets of London to Tyburn. He was dead before the place of execution was reached, but the body, broken and

is gibbet and of the bloodstained earth underneath the tree were carried away and treasured as sacred relics. It was alleged tha

account of many evil deeds, was published. It is likely enough that an old crusader had plenty of sins to answer for, but FitzOsbert's one crime before the law

of their church, and the violation of sanctuary, they appealed to the King and the Pope-Innocent III.-that Hubert should give up his political work and attend ex

evolt and its

FitzOsbert. Two centuries had passed, and in those centuries the beginnings of representative government

en of power and ability-men of character. It was not only a definite protest against positive evils, but a

if agriculture was to go on. In vain Parliament passed Statutes of Labourers to prevent the peasant from securing an advance. These Acts of Parliament expressly forbade a rise in wages; the landless man or woman was "to serve the employer who sh

ad their grievance because they were obliged to give labour-service to their lords. Freehold yeomen, town workmen, and shopkeepers were irritated by heavy taxation,

derings, spent twenty years organising the revolt, and three times was excommunicated and imprisoned by the Archb

Grindcobbe, in Hertford, and Geoffrey Litster, in Norfolk. In Kent lived Wat Tyler, of whom nothing is told

volutionary talk. It was the way of this vagrant priest to preach to the people on village greens, and his discourses were all on the same text-"

en. By what right are they whom men call lords greater folk than we? If all come from the same father and mother, Adam and Eve, how can

d spices and fair bread, and we oatcake and straw, and water to drink. They have leisure and fine houses; we have pa

es, we are beaten, and we have not any sovereign to whom w

n the social wrongs of the time; Ball was fond of quoti

delved an

hen the g

ymed letters that John Ball sent ab

bids them in the name of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, to

l greetet

erstand he hath

t and might,

ed ever

sketh help to tur

round sma

of Heaven will

right, with its

th might, with sk

ost stand in

might, and skil

our mill

fore right, and wi

r mill mis

e signature of John True

ere ye

friend fro

ugh and

nd better and

peace and d

Trueman and al

time was ripe for revolution, and the word was given that appeal must be made to

s young. If we wait on him in a body, all those who come under the name of serf, or are held in bondage, will follow us in the hope

s name, and beware of guile: he bids Piers Plowman "go to his work and chastise well Hob the Robber (Sir Robert Hales, t

to revolt. If Wat Tyler is the recognised leader of the rebel forces-"the one head"-John Ball's was the work of preparing the uprising. The vagrant priest had rung his bell to some purpose. In every c

g time of the peasants-long to be remembered with horror by the governin

unt, the chief man in the realm, called Parliament together at Northampton, and demanded ￡160,000. Parliament agreed that ￡100,000 should be raised, and the clergy-owning a third of the land-promised ￡60,000. But the only way of raising the ￡100,000 that the Government could think of wa

nce of the Government, and was appointed chief

agers of Fobbing, Corringham, and Stanford-le-Hope, in Essex, were summoned t

ap to punish the offenders, but the people drove the chief justi

place Sir Simon Burley, a friend of Richard II., seized a workman, claiming him as a bondservant, and refusing to let him go under

ith the collector, who made him so bold, the collector answered with stout words, and strake at the tyler; whereupon the tyler, avoiding the blow, smote the collector with his lath

ed under some direction. Authority and discipline were essential if the rising was not to b

d, its prisoners set free and Sir John Newton its governor place

events: commands with authority a vast concourse of men; meets the King face to face, and wrests from sovereignty great promises of reform; orders t

he rising of the Jacquerie in France; there was no general massacre of landlords, or reign of terror. The lawyers who managed the landowners' estates were the enemy, and against them-against the instruments of landlord tyranny-was the anger of the peasants directed. In the same way John of Gaunt, an

orning, which was Corpus Christi Day, John Ball-released by a thousand hands

e wheat into his barn, but uprooted and burned the tares that had half-choked the good grain. The tares of England are her oppressive rulers, and the time of harvest has come. Ours it is to pluck up these tares and make away with them all-the wicked lords, the unjust judges, th

s, and peasants, were at Blackheath, and these

t Tyler, and then returned to Suffolk and Hertfo

into the city. An attempt to meet the King in conference was frustrated by the royal counsellors. Richard came down in the royal barge as far as Ro

y was in the hands of the rebel captain, but the citizens welcomed the invaders, and offer

Derby, John of Gaunt's son (eighteen years later to reign as Henry IV., in place of Richard), was allowed to p

s-was the next to be burnt, and before nightfall

d came with a very modest retinue. The King was only fifteen, but he was the son of the Black Prince, and he had both courage and cunning. He was fully aware that the people did not lay on him responsibility for the sins of the Government. "If we measure i

eople. But first he asked that all traitors shou

m were put forward, and were at

l pardon to all conc

of all villeinage (forc

buy and sell in all cities, burghs, mercantile town

me leaseholders at a fixed renta

f manumission, and banners were presented to each county. At nightfall thousands returned home con

charters signed and the royal promises given, but several in high office, whom Tyler held to be "traitors," had gone to their doom. Sir Robert Hales, the Treasurer, Archbishop Sudbury, the Chancellor-a gentle and kindly old man, "lenient to heret

at Tyler and Richard met face to face. The conference was held at Smithfield, in the square outside St. Bartholomew's Priory. The King and two

, presented his demands; more sweeping were the re

e commons; and since we are oppressed by so vast a horde of bishops and clerks, let there be but one bishop in England; and let the property and goods of Holy Church be divided fairly according to the needs

only it be consistent with the regality of my Crown." He then ba

attendant brought him a mighty tankard of ale, the rebel leader drank good-humouredly to "King Richard and the Commons." A knight in the royal service, a "valet of Ke

iently, the Mayor drew a cutlass and slashed back, wounding Tyler in the neck so that he fell from his horse. Before he could recover a footing, two knights plunged their s

but when Richard, riding out into the middle of the square, claimed that he and not Tyler was their King, and bade them follow him into

into the Priory, and his he

er, and the leader of the rebels being

ial; and on June 22nd Tresilian, the new chief justice, went on a special assize to try the rebels, and "showed mercy to none and made great havock." Th

St. Albans on July 15th, John Wraw and

; but the rising was not quite in vain. For one thing, the p

hey must treat the peasants like men if they wished them to behave quietly, and it led most landlords to set free their bondsmen, and to take fixed money

Captain o

kespeare's travesty in King Henry VI., Part 2. In the play the name of Cade has been handed down in obloquy, and all that he and his followers aimed at car

e in the county rallied to Cade's banner, and in many parishes in Kent the villag

ocracy. Cade's rising was provoked by misgovernment and directed at political reform. It was far less r

and Lord Say-and-Sele, the Treasurer, was in the Tower under impeachment. Ayscough, Bishop of Salisbury, another Minister, was hanged by his infuriated flock in Wiltshire, and Bishop Moleyns, of Chichester, Keeper

from the royal council, and there was a wide feeling that an i

him after his death were not supported by a shred of evidence, but it was necessary then for the Government to blacken the character of the Captain of Kent for the ut

Battle and the Prior of Lewes. The testimony to Cade's character is that he was the unquestioned and warmly respected leader of the host. The Cade depicted by his enemies

Duke of York-"to make room for unworthy ministers who would not do justice by law, but demanded bribes and gifts"; purveyance of goods for the royal household without payment; arrest and imprisonment on false charges of treason by persons whose goods and lands were subsequently seized by the King's servants, who then "either compassed their deaths or kept them in prison while they got possession of t

ble answer." But when the royal troops moved into Kent to disperse the rising, Cade's army cut them to pieces at Sevenoaks. Henry returned to London; his nobles rode away to their country houses;

ater sheriff and M.P.-had gone freely between the camp at Blackheath and the city, acting as mutual friend to the rebels and the citizens. All that Cade required was that the foreign merchants in London should furni

or and a great multitude of people, and declared proudly: "Now is Mortimer lord of this ci

dhall, tried for "divers treasons" and "certain extortions," and quickly beheaded. Popular hatred, not content with this, placed the heads

ed death to all in his army convicted of theft, it fell out that certain "lawless men" paid t

tesman, but had no mind to provision an army of 50,000 men, and, indeed, had no liking for the proximity of such a host. Plunder b

men. Curtis complied-how much he gave we know not-but he resented bitterly the demand, and he told the tale of his wrongs to his fellow-merchants.[44] The result was that while Cade slept in peace as usual at the White Hart, the Mayor and Corpora

ondon Bridge, which had been seized and fortified before Cade was awake, and by the m

sengers were sent speedily from the Tower, where Kemp, with Archbishop Stafford, of Canterbury, had stayed in safety, to the Wh

Church of St. Margaret, Southwark, and promised that Parliament should give consideration to the "Complaints" and "Requests

, the rebel army had broken up, taking the road back to the towns and villages, farms and cottages in Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. Cade, with a small band of followers, retreated to Rochester, and attempted without success, the capture of Queenborough Castle. On the news that the commons had dispersed from Southwark, the Government at once took the of

uly 13th, preferring to die sword in hand than to perish by the hangman. He fell before the overwhelming

that remained was to stick the head on London Bridge, and dispatch the quarter

in addition, the governorship of Roch

d tenements were made forfeit to the Crown, and statem

Cardinal Kemp's pardons, a number of men were hanged at Canterbury and Rochester for t

remained for civil war to drive Henry VI. from the

ising under R

ed by Ket. This insurrection was agrarian and social, concerned neither with the fierce theological differenc

a nation of small farmers, but radical changes were taking place

the turning of arable land into pasture, were the main causes of the distress.[45] Whole parishes were evicted in so

cres had been enclosed in seven Midland counties. In some cases, waste lands only were enclosed, but landowners were ordered to make restitution within forty days where small occupiers had been dispossessed. Royal commissions and royal proclamations were no more effective than Acts of Parliament. Bad harvests drove the Norfolk peasantry to riot for food in 1527 and 1529. The dissolution of the mon

rkless-so that it seemed to many that Government had got rid of Papal authority only to bring back slavery. The agrarian misery, the violent changes in the order of churc

et was social, and unconcerned with religion. Lesser agrarian disturbances took place in Somerset, Lincoln, Essex, Kent, Oxford, Wilts, and Buckingham.

the landowners, but his proclamation and royal commission were no more successful th

t failed, as all popular insurrection in England has failed, and it brought its leaders to the gallows; but for six w

common fields. On July 7th, at the annual feast in honour of St. Thomas of Canterbury, at Wymondham, a mighty con

Robert was a tanner by trade, William a butcher. Three manors-valued at 1,000 marks, with a yea

ll be ready at all times to do whatever, not only to repress, but to subdue the power of great men. Whatsoever lands I have enclosed shall again be made common unto ye and all men, and my own hands shall f

Norwich, and on July 10th, when a camp was made at Eaton Wood, every hour brought fresh recruits. It is clear from Ket's speeches, and from "The Rebels' Complaint," issued by him at this

t Eaton Wood wa

ced by these landlords for their private benefit, and as well kept under by the public burdens of State, wherein while the richer sort favour themselves, ye are gnawn to the very bones. Your tyrannous masters often implead, arrest, and cast you in

ngs of a landless peasantry, and called on the people to end these wrongs by op

reat men; not freely, but by prescription, and, as it were, at the will and pleasure of the lord. For as so

r predecessors for our relief a

common, those are ditched and hedged in and made

quiet minds behold so great covetousness, excess, and pride of the nobility. We wil

envied us other things. While we have the same form, and the same condition of birth together w

n hedges, fill up ditches, and make a way for every man into the common pasture. Finally, we will l

e of all things. This will we have. Otherwise these

line and maintain law and order in the rebel camp. And with all his passionate hatred against the rule of the landlord, Ket would allow neither massacre nor

ousehold Heath, where the permanent camp was to be made, Ket simply led his forces round by Hailsdon and Drayton, and so reached Mousehold on July 12th without bloodshed. A week later, and

tree, called the Oak of Reformation. Mayor Cod, and two other respected Norwich citizens, Aldrich, an alderman, a

re the cessation of enclosures, the enactment of fair rents, the restoration of common fishing rights, the appointment of resident clergymen to preach and instruct the children, and the free ele

with a promise that Parliament would meet in October to consider the gri

being chosen by their fellows from the various hundreds of the eastern half of the county. A royal messenger, bearing commissions of the peace to certain country gentlemen, falling into the hands of Ket,

ence or injury was to be done to "any honest or poor man." Contributions came in from the smaller yeomen "with much private good-will," but the landowners generally were stricken with panic, and let t

itizens and rebels were in conflict on July 21st, but "for lack of powder and want of skill in the gunners" few lives were lost, and Norwich was in the hands of Ket the following day. No reprisals followed; but a week later came William Parr, Marquis

not countenance in any way an armed revolt, however great the miseries that provoked insurrection. The Earl of Warwick was dispatched with 14,000 troops to end the rebellion, and arrived on August 24th. For two days the issue seemed uncertain-half the city only was

d Magdalen and Pockthorpe gates, and were

e north, but was taken, worn out, at the vil

eing tried and condemned for high treason, were returned to Norwich in December for execution. Robert Ket was hanged in chains from Norwich Castle, and William suffered in simi

and mob violence have been seen even to our own time, but no great, well-organised movement to o

gnised as a disinterested, capable, high-minded man. Ket took what seemed to him the only possible course t

dy depopulation of rural England. In the eighteenth century came the second great series of enclosures-the enclosing of t

tems in the discussion of the whole social question, for the relations o