heavy as very Asses as himself He is said to be a crafty Fellow and of an Excellent Wit but wanting Grace yet crafty enough he was not for the great and dangerous Enterprize A Marius however Impious for such he must be pace pessimus fitter to remove things to overturn overturns than for Peace but as Plutarch of him subtil faithless one who could over do all Men in Dissembling in Hypocrisie practised in all the Arts of Lying and some of these good Sleights Tyler wanted not one who had Sense and Iudgment to carry things on as well as desperate Confidence to undertake had become this part incomparably had gone through with it how easily under such a Captain if we look upon the Weakness of the Opposition and the Villainous Baseness of the Gentry had the Frame of the ancient Building been rased the Model must have held Richard whose Endeavours of Defence or Loyalty alone should have been killing had not fallen by the Sword of Lancaster he had found his Grave on Tower-hill or Smithfield where the faithful Lieges of his Crown were torn in peices by these Cannibals The Reverence due to the Anointed Heads of Kings began to fall away and Naked Majesty could not guard where Innocency could not But Tyler blinded by his own fatal Pride throws himself foolishly upon the Kings Sword and by his over-much Hast preserves him whom he had vowed to destroy The Heathens make it a Mark of the Divinity of their Gods that they bestowed Benefits upon Mortal Men and took nothing from them The Clowns of the Idol upon this Rule were not very Heavenly they were the meek Ones of those times the only Inheritors of Right the Kingdom was made a Prey by them it was cantoned out to erect new Principalities for the Mock-Kings of the Commons so their Chiefs or Captains would be called Here though the Title of Rebellion spoke fair was shewn somewhat of Ambition and no little of unjust private Interest no little of Self-seeking which the Good of the People in Pretence only was to give Way to and no Wonder for the good of the People properly was meerly to be intended of themselves and no where but amongst those was the Commonwealth Had these Thistles these Brambles flourished the whole Wood of Noble Trees had perished If the violent casting other Men out of their Possessions firing their Houses cutting off their Heads violating of all Rights be thought Gods Blessing any Evidence of his owning the Cause these Thieves and Murderers were well blessed and sufficiently owned Such was then the Face of things Estates were dangerous Every rich Man was an Enemy Mens Lives were taken away without either Offence or Tryal their Reign was but a Continuation of horrible Injuries the Laws were not only silent but dead The Idol's Fury was a Law and Faith and Loyalty and Obedience to Lawful Power were damnable Servants had the Rule over Princes England was near a Slavery the most unworthy of free and ingenious Spirits of any What I relate here to speak something of the Story I collect out of Sir John Froissart a French-Man living in the Times of King EDWARD the Third and his Grandchild King RICHARD who had seen England in both the Reigns was known and esteemed in the Court and came last over after these Tumults were appeased And out of Thomas of Walsingham a Monk of St. Albans in Henry the Sixth's Days who says Bale in his Centuries of him writes many the most choice Passages of Affairs and Actions such as no other hath met with In the Main and to the Substance of things I have made no Additions no Alterations I have faithfully followed my Authors who are not so historically exact as I could wish nor could I much better what did not please me in their Order No Man says Walsingham can recite fully the Mischeifs Murders Sacriledge and Cruelty of these Actors he excuses his digesting them upon the Confusion of the combustious Flaming in such Variety of Places and in the same time Tyler Litstar and those of Hartfordshire take up most part of the Discourse Westbrome is brought in by the Halves the lesser Snakes are only named in the Chronicle what had been more had not been to any purpose Those were but Types of Tyler the Idol and acted nothing but according to the Original according to his great Example they were Wolves alike and he that reads one knows all Thomas of Becket Simon of Montfort the English Cataline Thomas of Lancaster Rebels and Traitors of the former years are canonized by the Monks generally the Enemies of their Kings Miracles make their Tâ—…mbs Illustrious and their Memories Sacred The Idol and his Incendiaries are abhorred every where every History detests them while Faith Civility Honesty and Piety shall be left in the World the Enemies of all these must neither be beloved nor pittied THE Rustick Rampant OR RURAL ANARCHY THe Reign of King Richard the Second was but a Throw of State for so many Years a Feaver to whose Distempers all pieces of the home Dominions contributed by Fits the forraign part only continuing faithful In the fourth Year of his Reign and Fifteenth of his Age the Dregs and Off-scum of the Commons unite into Bodies in several parts of the Kingdom and form a Rebellion called the Rebellion of the Clowns which lead the rest and shewed the Way of Disobedience first Of which may truly be said though amongst other Causes we may attribute it to the Indisposition and Unseasonableness of the Age that the Fruits of it did not take it was strongly begun and had not Providence held back the Hand the Blow had fallen the Government had broke into Shivers then The young King at this time had few besides Thomas of Woodstock his Uncle Earl of Buckingham and after Duke of Glocester but the Servants of his House in Ordinary about him the Lord Edmund of Langley Earl of Cambridge after Duke of York with the Lords Beauchamp Botereaux Sir Matthew Gourney with others of the Nobility and Gentry had set sail for Portugal the Duke Iohn of Lancaster another of his Uncles was in Scotland treating a Peace when this Commotion brake out Though no Cause can be given for Seditions those who design publick Troubles can never want Pretences Polidore as much out in this Story as any gives this Reason for this the Poll-mony says he imposed by Parliament a Groat Sterling upon every Head was intolerable It was justly imposed and so by some to whom Law and Custom of England were intolerable not to be endured but we shall find in the Tyranny breaking in not only fifth and twentieth Parts and Loans forced out of Fear of Plunder and Death but Subsidies in Troop and Regiments by Fifties more than Sequestrations and Compositions not under Foot low Sales for what had these Rascals to give but down-right Robbery and Violent Usurpations of Estates Thus would Polidore have it in Defence
those who conspired against his Majesty and Authority likes not the Advice the King ought not says he venture his Person among such hoseless Ribaulds but rather dispose things so as to curb their Insolence Sir says he Your Sacred Majesty in this Storm ought to shew how much of a King you can play what you will go for hereafter by your present Carriage you will either be feared for the Future or contemned if you seriously consider the Nature of these rough hewn Savages you will find the gentle Ways pernicious your Tameness will undoe you Mercy will ever be in your Power but it is not to be named without the Sword drawn God and your Right hath placed you in your Throne but your Courage and Resolution must keep you there your Indignation will be Iustice good Men will think it so and if they love you you have enough you cannot capitulate not treat with your Rebels without hazarding your Honour and perhaps your Royal Faith if you yield to the Force of one Sedition your whole Life and Reign will be nothing but a Continuation of Broils and Tumults if you assert your Soveraign Authority betimes not only these Doults these Sots but all Men else will reverence you Remember Sir God by whom Lawful Princes Reign whose Vicegerent you are would not forgive Rebellion in Angels you must not trust the Face Petitions delivered you upon Swords Points are fatal if you allow this Custom you are ruined as yet Sir you may be obeyed as much as you please Of this Opinion was Sir Robert Hales Lord Prior of Saint Iohn of Ierusalem newly Lord Treasurer of England a Magnanimous and stout Knight but not liked by the Commons When this Resolution was known to the Clowns they grow stark mad they bluster they swear to seek out the Kings Traitors for such they must now go for no Man was either good or honest but he who pleased them the Arch-bishop and Lord Prior and to chop off their Heads here they might be trusted they were likely to keep their Words Hereupon without more Consideration they advance towards London not forgetting to burn and raze the Lawyers and Courtiers Houses in the Way to the Kings Honour no doubt which they will be thought to arm for Sir Iohn Froissart and others report this part thus which probably might follow after this Refusal The Rebels say they sent their Knight so they called him yet was he the Kings Knight for Tyler came not up to Dubbing we find no Sir Iohn nor Sir Thomas of his making Sir Iohn Moton to the King who was then in the Tower with his Mother his half Brothers Thomas Holland Earl of Kent after Duke of Surrey and the Lord Holland the Earls of Salisbury Warwick and Oxford the Arch-bishop Lord Prior and others The Knight casts himself down at the Kings Feet beseeches him not to look upon him the worse as in this Quality and Imployment to consider he is forced to do what he does He goes on Sir the Commons of this Realm those few in Arms comparatively to the rest would be taken for the whole desire you by me to speak with them Your Person will be safe they repute you still their King this deserved Thanks but how long the Kindness will hold we shall soon find they profess that all they had done or would do was for your Honour For your Glory your Honour and Security are their great Care they will make you a Glorious King fearful to your Enemies and beloved of your Subjects they promise you a plentiful and unparalell'd Revenue They will maintain your Power and Authority in Relation to the Laws with your Royal Person according to the Duty of their Allegiance their Protestation their Vow their solemn League and Covenant without diminishing your just Power and Greatness and that they will all the Days of their Lives continue in this Covenant against all Opposition They assure you Sir That they intend faithfully the Good of your Majesty and of the Kingdom and that they will not be diverted from this end by any private or Self-respects whatsoever But the Kingdom has been a long time ill governed by your Uncles and the Clergy especially by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury of whom they would have an Account They have found out necessary Counsels for you they would warn you of many things which hitherto you have wanted good Advice in The Conclusion was sad on the Knights part His Children were Pledges for his Return and if he fail in that their Lives were to answer it Which moved with the King he allows the Excuse sends him back with this Answer that he will speak with the Commons the next Morning which it should seem the report of the Outrages done by the Clowns upon his Refusal and this Message made him consent to At the time appointed he takes his Barge and is rowed down to Redriffe the place nearest the Rebels Ten thousand of them descend from the Hill to see and treat with him with a Resolution to yield to nothing to overcome by the Treaty as they must have done had not the Kings Fear preserved him When the Barge drew nigh the new Council of State says our Knight howled and shouted as though all the Devils of Hell had been amongst them Sir Iohn Moton was brought toward the River guarded they being determined to have cut him in peices if the King had broke his Promise All the Desires of these good and faithful Counsellors contracted suddenly into a narrow Room they had now but one Demand The King asks them What is the matter which made them so earnestly sollicite his Presence They have no more to say but to intreat him to land which was to betray himself to them to give his Life and Soveraignty up to those fickle Beasts to be held of them during their good Pleasures which the Lords will not agree to The Earl of Salisbury of the ancient Nobility and Illustrious House of Montacute tells them their Equipage and Order were not comely and that the King ought not to adventure amongst their Troops They are now more unsatisfied and London how true soever to the Cause and faithless to the Prince shall feel the Effects of their Fury Southwark a friendly Borough is taken up for their first Quarters Here again they throw down the Malignants Houses and as a Grace of their Entrance break up the Kings Prisons and let out all those they find under Restraint in them not forgetting to ransack the Arch-bishops House at Lambeth and spoil all things there plucking down the Stews standing upon the Thames Bank and allowed in the former Ages It cannot be thought but that the Idol loved Adultery well enough but perhaps these publick Bawdy-houses were too unclean and might stink in his Nostrils we cannot find him any where quarrelling with the Bears those were no Malignants They knocked not long at the City-Gates which some say were never
a Day Tyler who had insinuated himself into the good Grace of these Churls by appearing the most stirring and active of the Kennel who began and ruled the Cry and was by I know not what Ceremony perhaps like that Irish Election by casting an old Shoe over his Head declared Prince of the Rabble leads them to Rochester which will not come behind Canterbury in Kindness The People of the Town says the Knight were of the same Sect it seems the Castle once one of the strongest in the Kingdom was now neither fortified nor manned the Governour Sir Iohn Moton yields himself into their Hands he was one of the Kings Family of his Houshold and must be thought awed as he was into the Engagement Here the Commons might be thought ashamed of their own Choice they offer Sir Iohn the General 's Staff which had he accepted he must have commanded according to the Motions of Lieutenant General Tylers Spirit and when this turn had been over at the least stamp of his Foot have vanished sneaked off the Stage They tell him Sir Iohn you must be our Captain and which shews the Power of his Commission you shall do what we will have you The Knight likes not their Company he trys his best Wit and Language to be rid of them but could not prevail They reply downright Sir Iohn if you will not doe what we will have you you must dye for it we will not be denyed but at your Peril Enough was said the Knight yields but his Charge of Captain General is forgotten we shall see hereafter what Use they make of him and in what manner he must be employed This Example is followed in the other Countrys The Gentry did not only lose their Estates and Honour but their Courage and Gallantry their Bloods were frozen Fear had stifled their Spirits The Clowns as the Knight had brought them into such Obeysance that they caused them to go with them whether they would or not they fawned on them humbled themselves to them like Dogs groveling at their Feet The Lord Molines Sir Stephen Hales Sir Thomas Guysighen this Sir Iohn Moton and others were Attendants and Vassals to the Idol Every Day new Heaps of Men flock to them like Catalines Troops all that were necessitous at Home Unthrifts broken Fellows such as for their Misdeeds feared the Justice of the Laws who resent the dangerous and distracted State of the Kingdom alike and will no doubt hammer out an Excellent Reformation they will mend their own Condition which will be enough we must expect no more and now the Confidence in their Strength made them bold enough to throw off their Mask of Hypocrisie they began to open the Inside They departed from Rochester says Froissart and passed the River he says the Thames at Kingstone and came to Brentford where I think he leads them out of their Way beating down before them and round about the Places and Houses of Advocates and Procurers and striking off the Heads of diverse Persons Walsingham tells us who those Advocates and Procurers were All Men says he were amused some looked for good from the new Masters others feared this Insurrection would prove the Destruction of the Realm The last were not deceived All the Lawyers of the Land so he goes on as well the Apprentices Counsellors as old Justices all the Jury-men of the Country this was Priest Baal's Charge they could gripe in their Clutches had their Heads chopped off It was a Maxim of the Cabal That there could be no Liberty while any of these Men were suffered to breath From little to great they fell upon things which they never thought of in their first Overflow which Guicciardine observes in civil Discords where the Rebellion is Fortunate and Mens Minds are puft up with Success to be Ordinary The Statue of Cumaean Apollo weeps for the Destruction of Cumae we shall here read of Men without Sense or Apprehensions both the Stories will seem as Incredible The stupid Nobility and Gentry sleep in their Houses till they are roused by these Blood-hounds that they might seem to deserve the Calamity tumbling upon their Heads They were becoming Tenants at Will in Villeinage to their Vassals under their Distress their Task and Taxes more by the sottish Baseness of themselves than any Vertue in these Rascals scorned and sleighted by every tatter'd Clunch Their Lands continually upon any Vote or Information to be sold or given away upon any Information of Loyalty or Faithfulness The ancient Vertues of the Gentleman not to be found in that Age and serving only for a Pretence to Ruin no one could form an Expectation of more than this to be the last Man born what was Polyphemus his Kindness to Ulysses to be devoured last all which they were contented to hazard and indure to preserve a Shred or jagg of an incertain ragged Estate for the Health or Mistresses Sake subject ever to the Violence of the same lawless spoiling Force which maimed and rent it before Next to return to this Riffraff their Cruelty reaches to Parchment Deeds Charters Rolls of Courts Evidences are cast by them into the Fire as if they meant to abolish all Remembrance of things this was to defeat their Lords in the Claims of any ancient Rights and to leave no Man more Title than themselves had to their Sword and Power The Kentish and Essexian Rout were joyned says the Monk but he tells us not where and approached near London at Black-heath they made an Halt where they were near 200000 strong Thither came two Knights sent by the King to them to inquire the Cause of the Commotion and why they had amassed such Swarms of the People They answer they met to conferr with the King concerning Business of Weight they tell the Messengers they ought to go back to the King and shew him that it behoves him to come to them they would acquaint him with their Desires we shall quickly discover why his Presence was required Upon Return of the Knights it was debated in Council by the Lords about the King whether he should go or no Some of the Table more willing to venture the King than themselves willing to throw him into the Gulph or perhaps not senting the Design of the Clowns perswade him to see them Your Majesty thus they must make a Tryal of these Men Necessity now must be looked on above Reason if any thing can give the Check to the Uproars it must be your Presence there can be no Safety but in this Venture it is now as dangerous to seem not to trust as to be deceived Fate is too much feared if it be imagined that this Tree of your Empire which has flourished so many Ages can fall in an Hour The Archbishop of Canterbury Simon Theobald of Sudbury Lord Chancellor of England the most Eloquent most wise and most pious Prelate of the Age Faithful to his Prince and therefore odious to
shut against them or as others quickly opened The Citizens fancyed themselves Privy Counsellors born inspired from their Shops for Affairs of State and would not suppose the Reformation could be effected without them They were rich by Lyes and all the most sordid Ways of Falshood and must be sage and knowing Pride the first Sin the Devil taught Man tickles them The Mayor Sir William Waleworth whose Memory while Truth and Loyalty shall be thought Vertues must be Honourable and nine of the Aldermen held for King Richard in vain a prosperous wicked Chief shall never want wicked Instruments three Aldermen and the greatest part of the People for the King of the Commons the Idol and his Priests Those the Considers and well-affected to Tyler forbid their Mayor to keep him out own his Actions as done for the Good of the faithful People of the Land and the Common-wealth and his Followers for their Brethren and Companions of the Holy Cause They vow to live and dye with Tyler Many of those who had no thoughts of doing Mischief yet being none of the wisest were cheated into a good Belief of them because of their Protestation which in their first Entrance they made solemnly that they had no Intent but this only to search and hunt out the Traitors of the Kingdom the Subverters of the fundamental Laws evil Counsellors and Malignants and that this done they would give over they would disband and return home the same Men they were to their Farms and Cottages without enriching themselves without any other Harvest of their Labour not doubting but that in the end it should appear to all the World that their Endeavours have been most hearty and sincere for the Maintenance of Religion the Kings just Prerogatives the Laws and Liberties of the Land in which Endeavours by the Grace of God they would persist though they should perish in the Work Which was believed What confirmed this Faith was they made Theft Capital which yet was confined all without the Fold of the Godly were Aegyptians and could not be robbed and paid justly for what they had but they paid not often nor could their Reckonings be great The Citizens were their Purveyors and made Provision for them every House was open to them and Tables continually furnished Their Entry was on the 14th of Iune 1385. on Wednesday a little before Midsummer the Eve of Corpus Christi Day they spend the Morning of the next Day being the Festival in Ringes discoursing of the Piety Honesty and Fairness of their Cause of Liberty and the Courses to gain it Of seizing Traitors Of bringing Incendiaries Malignants and evil Instruments to condign Punishment Of the Duke Iohn of Lancaster who was above all Men hated by them but too far off for the Scratches of their Claws being imployed in Scotland to treat a Peace there whence these report him turned a Traytor to the King and become Scottish About Noon being warmed more by their Cups than with the Sun for the richest Wines were drawn for them and swallowed with that Greediness that they were got to the height of Drunkenness and raved like Mad-men they are for Execution the Savoy of the Duke of Lancaster a Princely Building the most stately Fabrick of the Kingdom was fired by them his Servants there murthered his Plate and Jewels broke in pieces a Coat of his of great Value called in that Age a Jack in Contempt and Scorn to this Prince was stuck on the top of a Launce made a Mark for their Arrows then cut and gashed to Jaggs with their Hatchets one of them who had hid a piece of Plate was thrown by the rest into the Fire with it crying out We be zealous of Truth and Iustice and not Thieves and Robbers The Londoners were here no slow Men they knew themselves guilty of receiving and that their Condition could be no worse they might think too it would be their shame for ever to be overdone in Mischief nor were they here exceeded The next fiery Shower is discharged upon the Temple and Inns of Court or Colledges for Students of the Laws of the Nobler sort but belonging to the Knights of Saint Iohn of Ierusalem to whom the Possessions of the Knights Templers were given by this Kings Grandfather Many Men lost there the Evidences of their Estates many their Lives From hence in Malice to the Lord Prior they hasten to Clerkenwel where they leave nothing of that Noble Palace of the Knights of S. Iohn of Ierusalem but Rubbish and Ashes their Church too was consumed in the same wicked Flames This House was seven days burning down They break open the Exchequer and rifle Westminster the same day The Flemmings or Dutch Strangers who since the Iews were banished suffer their part in every Sedition are sought for all the Streets through all of them massacred no Sanctuary could save them thirteen Flemmings were drawn out of the Church of the Friers Hermits of Saint Augustine and beheaded in the Streets and seventeen others pulled out of another parochial Church dye in the same manner They had a Shibboleth to discover them he who pronounced Brot and Cawse for Bread and Cheese had his Head lopt off it was their Sport if they could catch any Man who had not sworn their Oath was not of the side or was hated by any of the Commons to snatch off his Hood or Capuch which was a part of the Cloak or outward Garment worn then and served to cover the Head with the accustomed Cry or yelling which they used in beheading and overthrowing Houses then to rush into the Streets and hack with their Fellow Jobernolls at his Neck in Crowds till the Head dropped down Our most Famous Chaucer flourishing then in his Description of the terrible Fright and Noise at the carrying away of Chanticlere the Cock by Reinold the Fox reflects upon these Crys but in an Hyperbole of his Poetical feigned ones and much undervaluing the Horror of the Kentish Throats as he will have it They yellen as Fiends do in Hell At. So hideous was the Noise Ah benedicite Certes Iack-Straw ne his meney Ne made Shouts half so â—…rill When they would any Fiemming kill The Lombards scaped better they were only robbed of what they had their Skins were left them whole Wat the Idol had long agone in France served Richard Lyon a Merchant and Lapidary formerly Sheriff of London one of the wealthiest of the City who had given him Blows it was not fit this Injury should be forgotten nor was it it was a Score now or never to be paid he strikes off his old Masters Head which in Triumph is carried before him on a Spear This Night the King was counselled to fall upon these Beasts for the most part drunk and cut their Throats easie to be destroyed if any Man had had but the Courage to overcome It was the Gallant Mayors Advice they lay on Heaps without Sense or Motion tired
with the Mischiefs of the Day drunk and asleep without Guards or Watch the Earl of Salisbury and the Nobility against whose Lives Honours and Fortunes these Beasts had conspired desire the King to try all fair and gentle Ways of appeasing them which Counsel he approves They were not so kind to themselves many lost their Lives by the Hands and Swords of their Companions every petty discontent or grudging being enough to provoke them Thirty two of them being drunk in a Cellar of the Savoy were immured there finding in the same place Death and the Grave together Some of them threw Barrels of Gunpowder which was little known then into the Fire and are blown up with part of the Palace Proclamations were formerly made in Tylers Name not in Straws as Polydore would have it Straw was this while busied elsewhere The Country about was by these Proclamations summoned to repair to London with all speed to spoil this Babylon the close Menaces lest they provoke Gods Iudgments pluck them down upon their Heads which themselves explain if ye fail if ye and your Officers give not Obedience freely to the Protector we will send out 20000 Men 20000 of our Locusts who shall burn the Towns of the Children of Disobedience Those of S. Albans and Barnet whose Famous Deeds challenge a place in this Story by themselves struck with the Thunder of this Edict haste to London in their Journey thither at Heibury a retiring House of the Lord Prior of S. Iohn near Istington they find 20000. or thereabouts casting down the firmer parts of the House which the Fire could not consume Iack Straw Captain of this Herd calls these new Comers to him and forces them to swear to adhere to King Richard and the Commons How long this Oath will be sworn to we shall see and how much the safer the King will be for it We shall see too what is lost by this new Union of King and Commons by the new Fellowship to observe the horrible Irreligious Hypocrisie of these Clowns who only would be thought the Protectors of his Crown and Person They alone had decreed his Ruin who swear thus often to prevent it to guard him from it A Treason not to be believed by some then till it had taken The Commons were then divided into three Bodies this with Iack Straw the second at Mile-end under the Essexian Princes Kirkby Treder Scot and Rugge the third on Tower-hill where the Idol and Priest Baal were in Chief This last Crue grew horribly rude and haughty the Commons there were not contented to be the Kings Tasters and no more they snatch the Kings Provision violently from the Purveyors he is to be starved for his own Good and after Harpies or Vultures chuse you whether strike high like brave Birds of Prey they will kill no more Flies this was the Way to secure their smaller Mischiefs Polydores conceit that the Arch-bishop and Lord Prior of S. Iohn were sent out by the King to allay their Heat is not probable Walsingham relates it thus that they demanded these two with full Crys no doubt of Iustice Iustice with some others Traitors by their Law a Fundamental never to be found or heard of before to be given up to them by the King with all the Earnestness and Violence imaginable They give him his Choice bid him consider of it they will either have the Blood of these their Traitors or his they making all those Delinquents who attended on him or executed his lawful Commands whom say they the King with a high and forcible Hand protects will not be appeased unless they be delivered up conjuring him to be wise in time and dismiss his extraordinary Guards his Cavaliers and others of that Quality who seem to have little Interest or Affection to the publick Good Whether the Tower Doors flew open at this Fright or the Man-wolfs crowded in at the Kings going out to appease the Party at Mile-end as Sir Iohn Froissart tells it Wat the Idol with Priest Baal are now Masters of the Tower into which on Fryday the 16th of Iune they entred not many more than 400 of their Company guarding them where then were commanded six hundred of the Kings Men of Arms and six hundred Archers a Guard not so extraordinary as was necessary then all so faint-hearted so unmanned at the Apparition at the sight of these Goblins they stood like the Stones of Medusa remembred not themselves their Honour nor what they had been The Clowns the most Abject of them singly with their Clubs or Cudgels in their Hands venture into all the Rooms into the Kings Bedchamber which perhaps had been his Scaffold had he been there sit lie and tumble upon his Bed they press into his Mothers Chamber where some of the merry wanton Devils offer to kiss her others give her Blows break her Head She swoons and is carried privately to the Wardrobe by her Servants Some revile and threaten the Noblest Knights of the Houshold some stroke their Beards with their unclean Hands which beyond the Roman Patience in the same Rudeness from the Gauls is endured and this to claw and sweeten they meant it so they gloss with smooth Words and bespeak a lasting Friendship for the time to come they must maintain the Injuries done to themselves must not disturb the Usurpers of their Estates and Rights must not shew any Sense of Generosity of Faith of Honour it concerned Tyler that they should be the veriest Fools and Cowards breathing if they stir make any Claims they shall be reputed Seditious Turbulent and Breakers of the Publick otherwise and plainly Tylers Peace It was never heard says the Emperor Charles in Sleydan that it should be lawful to despoil any Man of his Estates and Rights and unlawful to restore him Our Tyler and his Anabaptists thought otherwise As Walsingham they went in and out like Lords who were Varlets of the lowest Rank and those who were not Cowherds to Knights but to Bores value themselves beyond Knights Here was a Hotchpotch of the Rabble a mechanick sordid State composed as those under Kettes Oak of Reformation after Of Country gnooffes Hob Dick and Hick with Clubs and clouted woon A medley or huddle of Botchers Coblers Tinkers Draymen of Apron-men and Plough-joggers domineering in the Kings Palace and rooting up the Plants and wholesome Flowers of his Kingdom in it This place was now a vile and nasty Stye no more a Kings Palace who will value a stately Pile of Building of Honourable Title or Antique Memory since Constantine when it is infected with the Plague haunted by Goblins or possessed by Thieves The Knights of the Court were but Knights of the Carpet or Hangings No Man seemed discontented all was husht and still White-hall was then a Bishops Palace The Tower was to be prepared for Tylers Highness and his Officers but the Cement of the Stratocracy of the Government by Sword and Club Law
could not be well tempered with vulgar Blood a Servant of the Arch-Bishops who had trusted himself to these Guards and Walls is forced to betray his Lord. He brings them into the Chappel where the Holy Prelate was at his Prayers where he had celebrated Mass that Morning before the King and taken the Sacred Communion where he had spent the whole Night in watching and Devotion as presaging what followed He was a Valiant Man and Pious and expected these Blood-hounds with great Security and Calmness of Mind when their bellowing first struck his Ears he tells his Servants that Death came now as a more particular Blessing where the Comforts of Life were taken away that Life was irksome to him perhaps his pious Fears for the Church and Monarchy both alike indangered and fatally tied to the same Chain might make him weary of the World and that he could now dye with more quiet of Conscience than ever a Quiet which these Parricides will not find when they shall pay the Score of this and their other Crimes However the Flattery of Success may abuse our Death-bed represents things in their own Shape and as they are After this the Rout of Wolves enter prophanely roaring where is the Traitor where is the Robber of the Common People He answers not troubled at what he saw or heard Ye are welcome my Sons I am the Arch-Bishop whom you seek neither Traitor nor Robber Presently these Limbs of the Devil griping him with their wicked Clutches tear him out of the Chappel neither reverencing the Altar nor Crucifix figured on the top of his Crosier nor the Host these are the Monks Observations for which he condemns them in the highest Impiety and makes them worse than Devils and as Religion went then well he might condemn them so They drag him by the Arms and Hood to Tower Hill without the Gates there they howl hideously which was the Sign of a Mischief to follow He asks them what it is they purpose what is his Offence tells them he is their Arch-Bishop this makes him guilty all his Eloquence his Wisdom are now of no Use he adds the Murder of their Soveraign Pastor will be severely punished some notorious Vengeance will suddenly follow it These Destroyers will not trouble themselves with the idle Formality of a Mock-trial or Court of their own erecting an abominable Ceremony which had made their Impiety more ugly they proceed down-right and plainly which must be instead of all things He is commanded to lay his Neck upon the Block as a false Traitor to the Commonalty and Realm To deal roundly his Life was forfeited and any particular Charge or Defence would not be necessary his Enemies were his Accusers and Judges his Enemies who had combined and sworn to abolish his Order the Church and spoil the Sacred Patrimony and what Innocency what Defence could save Without any Reply farther he forgives the Headsman and bows his Body to the Axe After the first hit he touches the Wound with his Hand and speaks thus It is the Hand of the Lord. The next Stroke falls upon his Hand e'er he could remove it cuts off the tops of his Fingers after which he fell but dyed not till the eighth Blow his Body lay all that day unburied and no Wonder all Men were throughly Scared under the Tyranny of these Monsters all Humanity all Piety were most unsafe The Arch-bishop dyed a Martyr of Loyalty to his King and has his Miracles recorded an Honour often bestowed by Monks Friends of Regicide and Regicides on Traitors seldom given to honest Men. In his Epitaph his riming Epitaph where is shewn the pittiful ignorant Rudeness of those times he goes for no less he speaks thus Sudburiae natus Simon jacet hic tumulatus Martyrizatus nece pro republica stratus Sudburies Simon here intombed lies Who for the Common-wealth a Martyr dies It is fit says Plato that he who would appear a just Man become Naked that his Vertue be dispoiled of all Ornament that be he taken for a wicked Man by others wicked indeed that he be mocked and hanged The wisest of Men tell us There is a Just Man that perisheth in his Righteousness and there is a wicked Man that prolongeth his Life in his Wickedness The Seas are often calm to Pirates and the Scourges of God the Executioners of his Fury the Goths Hunns and Vandals heretofore Tartars and Turks now how happy are their Robberies how do all things succeed with them beyond their Wishes Our Saviours Passion the great Mystery of his Incarnation lost him to the Iews his Murtherers Whereupon Grotius notes it is often permitted by God that pious Men be not only vexed by wicked Men but murdered too He gives Examples in Abel Isaiah and others the MESSIAH dyed for the Sins of the World Ethelbert and Saint Edmund the East-Angles Saint Oswald the Northumbrian Edward the Monarch c. Saxon Kings are Examples at Home Thucidides in his Narration of the Defeat and Death of Nician the Athenian in Sicily speaks thus Being the Man of all the Grecians of my Time had least deserved to be brought to so great a Degree of Misery It is too frequent to proclaim Gods Judgments in the Misfortunes of others as if we were of the Celestial Council had seen all the Wheels or Orbs upon which Providence turns and knew all the Reasons and Ends which direct and govern its Motions Men love by a strange Abstraction to seperate Facts from their Crimes where the Fact is Beneficial the Advantage must canonize it it must be of Heavenly Off-spring a Way to justifie Cain Abimelech Phocas our Third Richard Ravilliac every lucky Parricide whatsoever Alexander Severus that most excellent Emperor assassinated by the Militia or Souldiery by an ill Fate of the Common-wealth for Maximinus a Thracian or Goth Lieutenant General of the Army a cruel Savage Tyrant by Force usurped the Empire after him replyed to one who pretended to foretell his End That it troubled aim not the most Renowned Persons in all Ages dye violently This Gallant Prince condemned no Death but a dishonest fearful one Heaven it self declared on the Arch-bishops side and cleared his Inocency Starling of Essex who challenged to himself the Glory of being Headsman fell mad suddenly after ran through the Villages with his Sword hanging naked upon his Breast and his Dagger naked behind him came up to London confest freely the Fact and lost his Head there As most of those did who had laid their Hands upon this Arch-bishop coming up severally out of their Countrys to that City and constantly accusing themselves for the Parricide of their spiritual Father Nothing was now unlawful there could be no Wickedness after this they make more Examples of barbarous Cruelty under the Name of Justice Robert Lord Prior of St. Iohn and Lord Treasurer of England Iohn Leg or Laige one of the Kings Sergeants at Arms a
when Justice flowed down from the Fountain in the ordinary Channel and which the Damm Head being thus troubled by this Wolf could flow no otherwise which was Authority sufficient by this Power Richards Captains must fight when he has them and kill those whom the Courts of Justice cannot deal with Tyler faints and shrinks to what he had been he was as cowardly as cruel and could not seem a Man in any thing but that he was a Thief and a Rebel He asks the brave Mayor in what he was offendedly him This was a strange Question to an honest Man he finds it so The Mayor says Froissart calls him false stinking Knave and tells him he shall not speak such Words in the Presence of his natural Lord the King The Mayor answers in full upon the accursed Sacrilegious Head of the Idol with his Sword He struck heartily and like a faithful zealous Subject Dagon of the Clowns sinks at his Feet The Kings Followers inviron him round Iohn Standish an Esquire of the Court alights and runs him into the Belly which thrust sent him into another World to accompany him who taught Rebellion and Murder first Event was then no Sign of a good Cause All History now brands him for a Traitor which by some will be attributed to his Miscarriage without Doubt had he prospered in the Work he had had all the Honours which goe along with Prosperity The King had been the wrong Doer and his Afflictions if nothing in so much Youth could have been found out had been Crimes we must over-power those whom we would make guilty Henry the Great of France under the Popes Interdict is told by a Gentleman Sir if we be overcome we shall dyne condemned Hereticks if your Majesty conquer the Censures shall be revoked they will fall of themselves He who reads the Mischiefs of his Usurpation will think he perished too late Now I come to an Act of Richards the most glorious of his History which the Annals past can no where parallel here his Infancy excells his after Man-hood Here and in the Gallantry of his Death he appears a full Prince and perhaps vies with all the Bays of his Usurpers Triumphs Alexander the Monarch of the World not more wondered at for his Victories than for that suppressing the Sedition of his Macedons in Asia tired and unable to march whither his Ambition carried him on Wings leaps from his Throne of State into the Battels of his Phalanges enraged seizes Thirteen of the Chief Malecontents and delivers them to the Custody of his Guards knows not what he should impute this Amazement of the Seditious to every Man returning upon it to his old Duty and Obedience and ready to yield himself up into the same Hands It might be says he the Veneration of the Majesty of Kings which the Nations submitted under Worship equally with the Gods or of himself which laid the Tempest That Confidence too of the Duke Alessandro of Parma in a Mutiny of the German Ruiters at Namurs is memorable who made his Way with his Sword alone through the Points of all their Lances into the middest of their Troops and brought thence by the Collar one of the Mutineers whom he commanded to be hang'd to the Terror of the rest The Youth of Richard begat rather Contempt than Reverence of which too these Clowns Breasts were never very full When the Fall of the Idol was known to the Rout they put themselves into a Posture of Defence thunder out nothing but Vengeance to the King and his whom they now arraign of Murder and Tyranny He is guilty of Innocent Blood a Tyrant a Traitor an Homicide the publick Enemy of the Common-wealth Richard Plantagenet is indicted in the Name of the People of England of Treason and other heinous Crimes He is now become less than Tylers Ghost a Traitor to the Free-born People His Treason was he would not destroy himself he would not open his Body to Tylers full Blow They roar out our Captain General is slain treacherously let us stand to it and revenge his precious Blood or dye with him I cannot pass this place without some little Wonder had these Ruffians with whom Kings hedged about by Holy Scripture and Laws Humane are neither Divine nor Sacred been asked whether Tyler the Idol of their own Clay and Hands might have been tryed touched or struck according to their resenting this Blow here Let his Tyrannies his Exorbitances have been what they would they would have answer'd no doubt in the Negative Though Richard might have been struck thorough and thorough Tyler who had usurped his Power must have been Sacred it must have been Treason to touch him Phocas must not be hurt In Tylers Case Straw would allow the old Text again The Powers were to be obeyed Their Bows were drawn when the King gallops up to them alonae and riding round the Throng asks them what Madness it was that armed them thus against their own Peace and his Life whether they would have no end of Things or Demands He tells them If Liberty be their only Aim as hitherto they have pretended they may assure themselves of it and that it is an extreme Folly to seek to make that our own with the Breach of Faith of Laws with Impieties violating God and Man which we may come by fairly But they trod not the Path to Liberty that where every Man commands no Man can be free the Liberty too they fancy cannot be had the World cannot subsist without Order and Subjection Men cannot be freed from Laws If they were there could be no Society no Civility any where Men must be shunned as much as Wolves or Bears Rapine and Blood-shed would over-run the World the Spoyler must fear the next Comer like savage Beasts who hurt others and know not it is ill to hurt them Men would devour Men the stronger Thief would swallow up the rest No Relations would be Sacred where every Man has the Power of the Sword the aged Sire could there be any such must defend his silver Hairs from the unnatural Violence of his own Sons He adds if there can be any just Cause of Sedition yet is the Sedition unjust which outlasts it which continues when the Cause is yielded to and taken away that if his Prerogative has been sometimes grievous his Taxes heavy and any of those they call evil Counsellors faulty they ought to remember in their first Risings and all along in all their Oaths and Covenants they swore continually not to invade the Monarchy nor touch the Rights of his free Crown You ought to remember your own Remonstrances you once declared that you acknowlegded the Maxim of the Law The King can doe no wrong if any ill be committed in Matters of State the Counsellors if in Matters of Law the Iudges must answer for it My Person was not to be violated He expects they should deal with him as the honest
to fire unless Iohn Lakinhethe Guardian of the Temporalities of the Barony in the Vacancy then were delivered to them which the Towns-men mingled in the Throng put them upon The Guardian stood amidst the Crowd unknown This Man out of Piety to preserve the Monastery it was Piety then though it may be thought Impiety now discovers himself he tells them he is the Man they seek and asks what it is the Commons would have with him They call him Traitor it was Capital to be called so not to be so drag him to the Market-place and cut off his Head which is set upon the Pillory to keep Company with the Priors and Chief Justices Walter of Todington a Monk was sought for they wanted his Head but he hid himself and escaped Our Hacksters Errant of the Round Table Knights of Industry would be thought General Redeemers to take Care of all men in Distress for the Burgesses Sake they command the Monks threatning them and their Walls if they obey not to deliver up the Obligations of the Townsmen for their good Behaviour all the ancient Charters from the time of King Knute the Founder any way concerning the Liberties of the Town besides they must grant and confirm by Charter the Liberties of the Town which could not be done in the Vacancy for so it was Edmund of Brumfield Abbot in Name by Provision of the Pope was a Prisoner at Nottingham nor had any Election been since the Death of Abbot Iohn Brivole and therefore the Jewels of the House are pawned to the Townsmen as a Gage that Edmund of Brumfield whom they would suppose Abbot and whom they intended to set free should seal which Jewels were a Cross and Chalice of Gold with other things exceeding in value One thousand Pounds these were restored again in time of Peace but with much Unwillingness Upon the Bruit of the Idols Mishap and the Suppression of his Legions at London these Caterpillers dissolve of themselves Wraw the Priest Westbrome and the rest of the Capital Villains in the General Audit or Doomesday for these Hurliburlies shall be called to a Reckoning for their Outrages Cambridge suffered not a little in these Uproars the Towns-men with the Country Peasants about confederated together break up the Treasury of the University tear and burns its Charters they compel the Chancellor and Scholars under their common Seals to release to the Mayor and Townsmen all Rights and Liberties all Actions and to be bound in 3000l not to molest the Burgesses by Suits of Law concerning these things for the time to come The Mayor and Bayliffs were fetched up by Writ to the next Parliament where the Deeds were delivered up and cancelled the Liberties of the Town seized into the Kings Hand as forfeited new ones granted by him to the University all which they owe yet to the Piety of this King and his Parliament a Court which the Idol never names Had he set up one of his own begetting it must have had nothing else but the Name it would have been as destroying as the Field Norfolk the Mother of the Kets would not loyter this while nor sit lazily and sluggishly looking on Iohn Litster a Dyer of Norwich King of the Commons there infuses Zeal and Daring into his Country-men he had composed out of his own Empire and the Borders an Army of fifty thousand Men. This Upstart Kingling would not wholly move by Example he makes Presidents of his own and tramples not like a dull Beast the Road beaten by others He had heard what was done by the London Congregations he had a Stock of Traditions from the Elders there which he was able to improve and although I know not how he could exceed the Idol with his Council yet so the Monk exceed them he did he presumed greater things Tyler lost his Life before things were ripe was watched and undermined by the King and Nobility he could not spread his full Sails else for his Presumption he far out-goes Litster Litster the Norfolk Devil begins with Plunder and Rapine the only Way to flesh a young Rebellion The Malignants of the Kings Party the rich and peaceable go under that Notion are made a Prey no place was safe or priviledged Plots were laid to get the Lord William of Ufford Earl of Suffolk at his Mannor of Ufford near Debenham in Suffolk into the Company out of Policy that if the Cause succeeded not then the Rebels might cover themselves under the Shadow of that Peer The Earl warned of their Intention rises from Supper and disguised as a Groom of Sir Roger of Bois with a Portmantue behind him riding By-ways and about ever avoiding the Routs comes to St. Albanes and from thence to the King The Commons failing here possess themselves of the places and Houses of the Knights near and compell the Owners to swear what they list and for greater Wariness to ride the Country over with them which they durst not deny Among those enthralled by this Compulsion were the Lords Scales and Morley Sir Iohn Brews Sir Stephen of Hales and Sir Robert of Salle which last was no Gentleman born but as full of Honour and Loyalty as any Man Knighted by the Kings Grand-father for his Valour he was says Froissart one of the biggest Knights in England a Man not supple enough who could not bend before the new Lords he had not the Solidity of Judgment as some more subtle than honest call it to accomodate himself to the times Like Messala he would be of the justest side let the Fortune be what it would he would not forsake Justice under Colour of following Prudence he thought it not in vain to prop up the falling Government perhaps his Judgment may be blamed he stayed not for a sit time had he not failed here he had not fought against Heaven against Providence whose Councils and Decrees are hid from us are in the Clouds not to be pierced our Understanding is as weak as foolish as Providence is certain and wise Our Hopes and Fears deceive us alike we cannot resolve our selves upon any Assurance to forsake our Duty for the time to come Gods Designs are known only to himself it is Despair not Piety Despair too far from that to leave our Country in her dangerous Diseases in her publick Calamities the Insolency of injust Men is a Prodigy of their Ruin and the Incertainty of things Humane may teach us That those we esteem most established most assured are not seldom soonest overthrown Plato would not have them refer all things to Fate there is somewhat in our selves says he not a little in Fortune Ours are but Cockfights the least Remainder of Force and Life may strike a necking Blow and by an unlooked for Victory raise what is fallen if Death cannot be kept off if our Country cannot he saved by our Attempts there is a Comliness in dying handsomly nor can any Man be unhappy but he who out-lives it We have heard of
Women who cast themselves into the fiery Pits where their dead Husbands are consumed of Vassals who stab themselves to follow their Prince into the next World of Otho's Praetorians of the Saguntines burning in their Cities Flames What can be so honourable as to dye for or with our Country or Faith our Religion or Honesty to dye with that which gave us Life and Liberty and Sense of these Litsters Hog-herds vow to burn Norwich unless this Knight will come out to them which he does well mounted and forsakes his Horse to please them They seem to honour him highly and offer him a fair Canton of the new Common-wealth if he will command their Forces The faithful Cavalier abhorred the proposition and could not dissemble his Dislike He tells them he will not to his eternal dishonour renounce his Soveraign whom all good Men obeyed to engage with the veryest perfidious Traitors living in their Villanies He attempts to horse himself again but fails it was Treason to speak against the Government The Commons grow furious they cry out Treason against Treason and Rebellion Thousands of Hands are lifted up against him as if they all moved by the same Nerves and Sinews they hew him down but he crushes some of them with his Ruin whosoever stood within his Reach lost either Head Legs or Arms he kills twelve of them at length a Villain of his own beats out his Brains Then do the Infernal Curs rush in with full Mouths and mangles him to bits who says Walsingham would have driven a Thousand of them before him had he had fair Play This amazes the rest of the Gentry they strive for Vassalage with the same Emulation others do for Liberty they observe Litster they receive his Commands upon their Knees who in all things imitates the State and Pomp of Kings Sir Stephen of Hales a Knight of Honour carves before him and tasts his Meats and Drinks the rest of the miserable Courtiers are imployed in their several Offices But when the Fame of the Kings good Fortune began to go strong and of his Preparations to assert his Right and Authority Litster sends on Embassy from North-Walsham the Throne of his Tyranny to London the Lord Morley and Sir Iohn Brews with three of the confiding Commons to obtain Charters of Manumission and Pardon with great Summs of Mony squeezed out of the Citizens of Norwich under Pretence of preserving the City from Slaughter Fire and Spoil or as others raised by an ordinary Tribute to Litster Which Monyes were sent for Presents to the King to win him to grant them Charters more ample and beneficial than had been given to any others These Messengers are met at Ichlingham near New-Market by Henry le Spencer Lord Bishop of Norwich of a noble Family stout and well-armed He had been at his Mannor of Burleigh near Okeham and there heard of the Tumults in Norfolk and was now hasting thither to see how things were carryed with eight Lances only in his Company and a few Archers He charged the Lord Morley and Sir Iohn upon their Allegiance to tell him whether any of the Commons the Kings Traitors were with them They look upon the Bishop as a young rash Man and the Awe of their Masters was so prevalent he could hardly wrest the Secret from them After many Words they discover it and the Bishop causes the Heads of the Clowns to be struck off and fixed on a publick place at New-Market Then taking with him that Lord and Knight he posts for North-walsham The Gentry hearing of the Bishops Arrival in his Coat of Male with his Helmet upon his Head his Sword by his side and his Lance upon his Thigh croud in to him the Bishop quickly found himself in a Gallant Equipage and as quickly reaches North-walsham the sink of the Rebellion Litster was intrenched he had fortified his Ditch with Pales Stakes and Doors and shut himself in behind with his Carts and Carriages The Heroick Bishop like another Maccabeus charges bravely through the Ditch into the midst of the Rebels when all the Barons of England hid themselves so suddenly that the Archers could not let an Arrow fly at him and came to handy Blows As the French Historian de Serres observes in Affairs of the World oftentimes he that is most strong carrys it a good Fortune and a good Mind seldom go together Otho tells his Souldiers often times where the Causes of things are good yet if Judgment be wanting I may put in where the Counsels are unsound the Agents faithless where Money Arms and Men are wanting the Issue must be pernicious The Goods and Honours of this World which follow the Triumphers Chariots are common to the good and bad Grace Charity and Love are the Marks of a pious Man not Success to brag of which becomes rather a Spartacus or Mahomet who carry Faith and Law upon the Swords point than a Christian The God of the Christians is not the God of Robbery and Blood But things here fell out as could be wished the Innocency of the side prevailed and the righteous weak side overcame the strong unjust Litster touched with the Conscience of his Mischiefs struggles to the utmost to avert his Danger at length gives Ground and attempts to shift for himself by leaping over his Carriages in the Rere The Bishop pressed forward so fiercely that this Course proved in vain most of the unhappy Clowns are laid along upon the place Litster and the Captains of the Conspiracy are taken and condemned to be drawn hanged and beheaded which was done Others of the chief Conspirators dispersed over the Country are searched out and executed The Monk here tells us It was apparent by the Works of these Demoniacks by their Fruits that they had conspired he speaks of the whole not only the Destruction of the Church and Monarchy but of the Christian Faith too School-Masters were sworn by them never to teach Grammar more and whosoever was taken with an Inkhorn about him never saved his Head Our Monk attributes these Calamities to the remisness of the Bishops to the Conceits and Fangles of Presbyter Wycliff which if they be truly registred by the Monks his mortal Enemies were pestilential and damnable Indeed Presbyter Wycliff was then living but is not named in these Commotions as one busie in them by the Monk though busie he might be we shall find Sir Iohn Old-Castle Lord Cobham and others of Wycliffs Disciples Rebels and Traitors too too busie in Henry the Fifths Beginning Baal and Straw and Wraw were Priests of the Idol and his Lieutenants and might serve the turn to imbroil without fetching more Aid in He attributes too these Mischiefs to the licentious Invectives of the Clowns against their Lords generally to the Sins of the Nation inclusively taking in the Orders of Mendicants or Begging Fryers like factious Lecturers wâ—… had nothing of their own and were obliged 〈◊〉 flatter the People and make themselves
c. Because we are given to understand that divers of our Subjects who against our Peace c. have raised and in divers Conventicles and Assemblys c. Do affirm that they the said Assemblys and Levies have made and do make by Our Will and Authority c. We make known to all Men That such Levies Assemblys and Mischiefs from Our Will and Authority have not proceeded He adds They were begun and continued much to his Displeasure and Disgrace to the Prejudice of His Crown and Damage of the Realm Wherefore he injoyns and commands c. To take the best Care for the keeping of his Peace and opposing of all such Levies with a strong Hand Further he commands every Man to leave such Assemblys and return Home to his own House under Penalty of Forfeiture of Life and Member and all things forfeitable to the King c. These Clowns charge not the King to be transsported furiously and hostily to the Destruction of the whole People which can never happen where the King is in his Wits but what is fully as mad they will suppose him to arm against his own Life and Power against his own Peace and the Peace of all that love him This Proclamation put Life into the Royalists into all honest Hearts and dismays as much the Rebels yet after this the Essex Traitors gather again at Byllericay near Hatfield Peverel and send to the King now at Waltham to know whether he intends to make good his Grants of Liberties and require to be made equal with their Lords without being bound to any Suits of Court View of Frank-pledge only excepted twice the Year The King and his Council are startled at this Impudence The King answers the Agents That if he did not look upon them as Messengers he would hang them up Return says he to your Fellow Rebels and tell them Clowns they were and are and shall continue in their Bondage not as hitherto but far more basely trampled on While we live and rule this Kingdom by Gods Will we will imploy all our Means and Power to keep you under So that your Misery shall frighten all Villains hereafter And your Posterity shall curse your Memory At the Heels of the Messenger the King sends his Unkle Thomas of Woodstock Earl of Buckingham and Sir Thomas Piercy with a Body of Horse to quell them The Rebels were intrenched according to the manner of Liâ—…sters Camp in the midst of Woods ten Lances of the Avant Currors rout them the Lords when they were come up inclose the Woods round five hundred are killed eight hundred Horses for Carriage taken the broken Remainders of the Defeat escape to Colchester a Town ever honest and faithful to the Prince where the Loyal Townsmen would not be gotten to stir they sollicite the Townsmen says the Monk with much Intreaty great Threats and many Arguments neither Intreaties nor Threats nor Arguments would move them From thence they get to Sudbury making every where such Proclamations as of old they had used where the Lord Fitzwalter whose Seat was at Woodham-Walters in Essex and Sir Iohn Harlestone rush suddenly upon them kill and take them the King meaning to visit Essex in his own Person comes to Havering at the Boure a Mannor of his own Demain of the Sacred Patrimony and from thence to Chelmsford where he appoints Sir Robert Tresilian Chief Justice of his Bench of Pleas of the Crown to sit and inquire of the Malefactors and Troublers of the Country and to punish the Offendors according to the Customs of the Realm known and visible Five Hundred of these wretched Peasants who had no Mercy for others heretofore cast them selves down before the King bare-footed and with Heads uncovered implore his Pardon which he grants them on Condition they discover the great Conspirators the Captain Rogues The Jurors are charged by the chief Justices to carry themselves indifferently and justly in their Verdicts neither swayed by Love or Hatred to favour or prosecute any Man Many upon the Evidence given in and the finding of the Jury were condemned to be drawn and hanged nineteen of them were trussed upon one Gallows Heading had formerly been the Execution of others in Essex Kent and London because of the Numbers of the Guilty which was now thought a Death short of the Demerits of the most foul and heinous Offenders wherefore according to the Custom of the Realm it was decreed says the Monk that the Captains should be hanged The like was done in other Countrys by the Justices in Commission where the King was in Person Here the King with the Advice of his Council revokes his Letters Patents the Charters granted to the Clowns Although so he speaks we have in the late detestable Troubles c. manumised all the Commons our Liege Subjects of our Shires and them c. have freed from all Bondage and Service c. And also have pardoned the same our Liege Men and Subjects all Insurrections by riding going c. And also all manner of Treasons Felonies Trespasses and Extortions c. Notwithstanding for that the said Charters were without mature Deliberation and unduly procured c. To the prejudice of us and our Crown of the Prelates and great Men of our Realm as also to the disherison of Holy English Church and to the Hurt and Damage of the Common-wealth the said Letters we revoke make void and annul c. Yet our Intention is such Grace upon every of our said Subjects to confer though enormously their Allegiance they have forfeited c. As shall be useful to us and our Realm The Close commands to bring in to the King and his Council all Charters of Manumission and Pardon to be cancelled upon their Faith and Allegiance and under Forfeiture of all things forfeitable c. Witness our self at Chelmsford the 2. of July and 5th Year of our Reign False for the 4th In the Case of a Subject and no reason Kings shall be more bound every Act extorted by Violence and Awe upon the Agent is void In the Time of Edward the Third two Thieves which was the Case here force a Traveller to swear that he will at a day appointed bring them a thousand Pound and threaten to kill him if he refuse their Oath he swears and performs what he had sworn By Advice of all the Justices these two were indicted of Robbery and the Court maintains that the Party was not bound by this Oath Yet if this be denyed as unsafe Violence or Force which strikes a just Fear into any Man makes any Contract void say the Casuists Bishop Andrews that most learned Prelate answers to the pretended Resignation of King Iohn urged by Bellarmine that what this King did if any such Act was done was done by Force and out of Fear Widdrington the most Loyal of all Roman-Catholick Priests who writ much against the Gunpowder Jesuits in Defence of the Right of Kings
grow and prevail than one single good one There is a Proneness in unruly Man to run into Debauchments and no wonder that the arrogant misled silly Multitude capable of any ill Impressions should deprave and disorder things where all Ties of Restraint are loofened nay where Disorders are not only defended by the corrupt Wits of Hirelings but bidden strengthened by a Law and Villanies made legal Acts. Had the Idol King Tyler with his Council not gone on too far in the Way of Extermination but endeavoured to repair the Breaches of his Entrance it would have been no small Labour to have restored things to any mean and tolerable Condition if Presbyter Wickliff and his Classes by their pernicious Doctrines as they are charged to this Day did first pervert and corrupt the People and broach that Vessel with which Father Baal and Straw poysoned them they must have ruined themselves by the Change sure enough they had been no more comprehended in any of Tylers Toleration than the Prelatical or Papistical Party In the Turmoils and Outrages of this Tyranny had it taken Innocence Virtue Ingenuity Honesty Faith Learning and Goodness had been odious and dangerous The Profit and Advantage of the new Usurpers had been the Measure of Justice and Right The Noble and Ignoble had died Streets and Scaffolds with their Blood not by Laws and Judgment but out of Malice to their Height and Worth out of Fury and Covetousness to enrich publich Thieves and Murtherers The Jealousies too and Fears of Tyler had made all Men unsafe Yet the Repute the Renown of the Founders could not have been much The Glory of Success cannot be greater than the Honesty of the Enterprise there must be Justice in the Quarrel else there can be no true Honour in the Prosperity Cato will love the conquered Common-wealth Iugurtha's Fame who is said to be Illustrious for his Parricides and Rapines will not make all Men fall down and worship On Munday the Fifteenth of Iuly not of October as Walsingham is mis-printed the Chief Justice Tresilian calls before him the Jury for Inquiry who faulter and shamelesly protest they cannot make any such Discovery as is desired The Chief Justice puts them in Mind of the Kings Words to them upon the Way promising Pardon if they will find out the Offenders else threatning them with the Punishment they should have suffered who through such Silence cannot be apprehended Out they go again and the Chief Justice follows them He shews them a Roll of the principal Offenders Names tells them they must not think to delude and blind the Court with this Impudence and advises them out of a Care to preserve wicked Mens Lives not to hazard their own Hereupon they indict many of the Town and Country which Indictments are allowed by a second Inquest appointed to bring in the Verdict and again affirmed by a third Jury of Twelve charged only for the Fairness of the Tryal So no Man was pronounced guilty but upon the finding of thirty six Jurors Then were the Lieutenants Greyndcob Cadindon and Barber and twelve more condemned Drawn and Hanged Wallingford Iohn Garleck William Berewill Thomas Putor and many more with Eighty of the Country were Indicted by their Neighbours and Imprisoned but forgiven by the King's Mercy and discharged They were forgiven most by the Kings Mercy for he had forbidden by Proclamation all Men to sue or beg for them a Command which the good Abbot sometimes disobeyed and he shall be well thanked for it No Benefits can oblige some Men A true rugged Churl can never be made fast never be tyed by any Merit whatsoever Nothing can soften him See an unheard of Shamelesness till then These lazie tender-hearted Clowns who could hardly be got to discover the Guilty now run with full Speed to betray the Innocent They indict the Abbot as the principal Raiser and Contriver of these Tumults which struck at his own Life and the Being and Safety of his Monastery The Abbot as it is said sent to Tyler upon his Ordinances some of the Town and Monastery but to temporize and secure himself This is now supposed by the very Traitors indeed Treason by Common Law and Statute against the King his Natural Liege Lord. This having not the Fear of God in his Heart c. but being seduced by the Instigation of the Devil is compassing the Death c. the Deprivation and deposing of his Soveraign Lord from his Royal State c. as such Indictments use to run This must goe for levying War against the Lord the King adhering to comforting and aiding his Enemies by open Fact Which are the Words of the Statute of Treason declarative of the Common Law The Chief Justice abominating and cursing the treacherous Malice and Perfidiousness of these Brutes makes them tear the Indictment which themselves though urged are not wicked enough to swear to nay which publickly they confess to be false in the Face of the Court. Villeinage was not now abolished though some think otherwise but by Degrees extinguished since this Reign Besides the Letters of Revocation before restoring all things to their old Course a Commission which the Abbot procured from the King out of the Chancery then kept in the Chapter-house of this Monastery makes this manifest which speaks to this Effect RIchard by the Grace of God King of England and of France and Lord of Ireland c. To his Beloved John Lodowick John Westwycomb c. We command you and every of you upon Sight of these Presents c. That on our Part forthwith ye cause to be proclaimed That all and singular the Tenants of our Beloved in Christ the Abbot of S. Albans as well free as bond the Works Customs and Services which they to the foresaid Abbot ought to do and of ancient Time have been accustomed to perform without any Contradiction murmur c. Do as before they have been accustomed The Disobedient are commanded to be taken and Imprisoned as Rebels In the Time of King Henry the Seventh there were Villains This I observe to make it appear how little it is which the miserable Common People without whom no famous Mischief can be attained are Gainers by any of their Riots or Seditions whatsoever the Changes are their Condition is still the same or worse If some few of them advance themselves by the Spoils of the publick Shipwrack the rest are no happier for it the insolent Sight offends their Eyes they see the Dirt of their own Ditches lord it over them and the Body of them perhaps more despised than ever Tyler who could not but have known that nothing can be so Destructive to Government as the Licentiousness of the base Commons would doubtless when his own Work had been done quickly have chained up the Monster he would have perched in the Kings sacred Oak all the Forrest should have been his Bishopricks Earldoms nay the Kingdoms had been swallowed by him Instead of a