n revenge for
the death of the Duke of Suffolk; the wasting of the royal revenue raised
by heavy taxation; the banishment of the 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
their property by royal grant"; interference by "the great rulers of the
land" with the old right of free election of knights of the shire; the
mismanagement of the war in France. A certain number of purely local
grievances, chiefly concerned with the maladministration of justice, were
also included in the "Complaints," and five "Requests"--including the
abolition of the Statutes of Labourers--were added.

Henry and his counsellors dismissed these "Complaints" with contempt. "Such
proud rebels," it was said, "should rather be suppressed and tamed with
violence and force than with fair words or amicable 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; and after a fruitless attempt at negotiations by the
Duke of Buckingham and the Archbishop of Canterbury,[42] the King himself
fled to Kenilworth--leaving London at the mercy of the Captain of Kent.

On July 2nd Cade crossed London Bridge on horseback, followed by all his
army. The Corporation had already decided to offer no opposition to his
entry, and one of its members, Thomas Cocke, of the Drapers' Company--later
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 furnish him with a
certain number of arms and horses, "and 1,000 marks of ready money"; and
this was done. "So that it was found that the Captain and Kentishmen at
their being in the city did no hurt to any stranger."[43]

On the old London stone, in Cannon Street, Cade laid his sword, in the
presence of the Mayor and a great multitude of people, and declared
proudly: "Now is Mortimer lord of this city." Then at nightfall he went
back to his headquarters at the White Hart Inn in Southwark.

The