12th July 1450
In 1450, a proclamation was issued offering 1000 marks to any person who could capture Jack Cade dead or alive, it did not take long, Cade was eventually found hiding in a garden in Sussex, by one Alexander Eden/Iden.
Cade may have died in the scuffle, but he was dead by the time he was transported in a cart on his way to London. Eden got his reward - a marriage to Elizabeth, the widow of William Cromer and daughter of James Fiennes, Baron Saye who had been beheaded five days earlier, and Cade, according to the authorities, got his. Like rebels Wat Tyler over a hundred years before, or Michael Joseph An Gof and Thomas Flamark twenty-seven years later, Jack Cade met a grizzly end, his body was beheaded, quartered, and dragged across London Bridge where is head was placed on a spike for all to see.
Of all of these rebellious heroes, its Jack Cade who stands out for me. Tyler, Gof and Flamark were of low birth, they acted against the mighty forces of government for something they passionately believed, a cause that stemmed from a genuine grievance. To say that Cade didn't have the same grievances would be unfair, but what is interesting is the motive behind the reason he stood up to fight, this is not as clear as that of the others.
Was Cade a real hero like Tyler, Gof and Flamark or was he working to undermine the government on behalf of someone else?
With this in mind then, Jack Cade shouldn't fascinate me, but the truth is, he does.
Cade may have died in the scuffle, but he was dead by the time he was transported in a cart on his way to London. Eden got his reward - a marriage to Elizabeth, the widow of William Cromer and daughter of James Fiennes, Baron Saye who had been beheaded five days earlier, and Cade, according to the authorities, got his. Like rebels Wat Tyler over a hundred years before, or Michael Joseph An Gof and Thomas Flamark twenty-seven years later, Jack Cade met a grizzly end, his body was beheaded, quartered, and dragged across London Bridge where is head was placed on a spike for all to see.
Of all of these rebellious heroes, its Jack Cade who stands out for me. Tyler, Gof and Flamark were of low birth, they acted against the mighty forces of government for something they passionately believed, a cause that stemmed from a genuine grievance. To say that Cade didn't have the same grievances would be unfair, but what is interesting is the motive behind the reason he stood up to fight, this is not as clear as that of the others.
Was Cade a real hero like Tyler, Gof and Flamark or was he working to undermine the government on behalf of someone else?
With this in mind then, Jack Cade shouldn't fascinate me, but the truth is, he does.
RSS Feed
