ticular tax, but against taxes
and landlords generally. The men of Essex joined forces with those of Kent
on Blackheath, and thence marched on London. With the aid of sympathisers
within the City's gates, the effected an entrance on the night of the 12th
of June, and made free with the wine cellars of the wealthier class. The
next day, the rebels, more mad than drunk (_non tam ebrii quam dementes_),
stirred up the populace to make a raid upon the Duke of Lancaster's palace
of the Savoy. This they sacked and burnt to the ground. They next vented
their wrath upon the Temple, and afterwards upon the house of the Knight's
Hospitallers at Clerkenwell. In the meantime reinforcements were gathering
in Essex under the leadership of one known as "Jack Straw," and were
hurrying to London. At Mile End they were met (14 June) by the young king
himself, who set out from the Tower for that purpose, accompanied by a
retinue of knights and esquires on horseback, as well as by his mother in
a drawn vehicle. The rebels demanded the surrender of all traitors to the
king. To this Richard gave his assent, and having done so returned to the
city to take up his quarters at the Wardrobe, near Castle Baynard, whilst
the rebels, availing themselves of the king's word, hurried off to the
Tower. There they found Simon of Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, and he
and others were beheaded on Tower Hill. The rest of the day and the whole
of the next were given up to plunder and massacre, so that the narrow
streets were choked with corpses. Among those who perished at the hands of
the rebels was Richard Lyons, the deposed alderman. At length, on the
evening of Saturday, the 15th, when the king had ridden to Smithfield
accompanied by Walworth, the mayor, and a large retinue in order to
discuss matters with Wat Tyler (the Essex men had for the most part
returned home), an altercation happened to arise between Tyler and one of
the royal suite. Words were about to lead to blows when the mayor himself
interposed, and summarily executed the king's order to arrest Tyler by
bringing him to the ground by a fatal blow of his dagger. Deprived of
their leader the mob became furious, and demanded Walworth's head; the
mayor, however, contrived to slip back into the City, whence he quickly
returned with such a force that the rioters were surrounded and compelled
to submit. The king intervened to prevent further bloodshed, and knighted
on the field not only Walworth, bu