Rebel: Jack Cade, d 1450

During Medieval times, the government of the realm was tied to the person and abilities of the King.  When he was weak, law and order dissolved and rebellion sometimes followed.  During the reign of Henry VI, not only were other members of the royal family and nobility ready to take up arms, the common people were fed up as well.  By 1450, England had been involved for more than one hundred years in a ruinous war with France.  Squabbling within the two main branches of the royal family, York and Lancaster, led to infighting among the nobles.  The ones who paid the bill in taxes and oftentimes blood were the commoners. 

Enter Jack Cade.  Not much is known of Cade's life, or even if that was his real name.  He was born in between 1420-1430 somewhere in Sussex.  Why he took it upon himself to become the leader of a peasants' revolt isn't clear, but by 1450, he was calling himself Captain of Kent and rallying the men of Kent to his cause.  He also adopted the name John Mortimer.  Some have interpreted the Mortimer alias as a sign that Cade supported the Yorkist claim, since the Duke of York had Mortimer ancestry.  However, there is no evidence linking Richard of York and Cade in any form of alliance.  As his efforts gathered steam, Cade's followers began calling him John Amend-All.  Whether he encouraged this or not is unclear.  As the central government slipped further and further into infighting, common people believed that the King was surrounded by traitors who intended to sell the country out to France.  Since he was unable or unwilling to take hold of his own government, Henry should abdicate to someone else who would.

In the spring of 1450, Cade organized the creation of a manifesto entitled The Complaint of the Poor Commons of Kent.  The document reflected the grievance of common people, but also those of MP's, barons and other members of society at all levels.  There were 15 complaints and 5 demands.  Cade, who had gathered an army of 5,000 men in Kent, determined to take his complaints directly to London.  The Manifesto called on Henry to rid his court of barons who alleged guilty of treasonous actions, and singled out Lord Saye, among others.  Cade's army made it as far as Blackheath, 12 miles southeast of London.  The King sent a small contingent of armed men under Sir Humphrey and William Stafford, who were ambushed and killed on June 18, 1450.  The King fled to Warwickshire while Cade's men entered London.  Cade entered London on July 7 and declared himself Lord Mayor of London and began seeking out the men he believed responsible for the disorder in the royal government.  They soon found James Fiennes, Lord Saye and Sele.  He was brought to trial before an ad hoc court, found guilty of treason and executed at Cheapside along with his son-in-law. 

Though Cade attempted to exert some control over the behavior of his followers, their looting and destruction of property alienated the people of London.  When Cade returned to Southwark for the night, the citizens of London barricaded the bridge and prepared to fight.  The next day, a battle ensued between the rebels and the citizens of London.  It lasted into the next morning, with 40 Londoners and 200 rebels killed.  Lord Chancellor John Kemp attempted to quell the fighting by issuing pardons, which King Henry later revoked.  Henry had a bounty on Cade's head of 1,000 marks.  Cade fled toward Lewes but Alexander Iden, a future High Sheriff of Kent, had his eye on the prize.  He tracked Cade to Sussex and mortally wound him in a skirmish.  The body was tried in an impromptu treason trial and dragged back to London as an example to anyone else thinking of rebellion.  The body was later quartered and pieces sent to larger cities in Kent as an especial warning to the people of Kent to keep their heads down.  The Duke of Buckingham was sent on a punitive investigation into Canterbury, where 8 supposed rebels were found and hanged, then to Blackheath, Faversham and the Isle of Sheppey.  Cade's rebellion was over, but unrest continued to flicker throughout the realm.

King: Henry VI, 1421-1471

History is full of many mad kings, some of them homicidal maniacs who murdered hundreds or thousands of their subjects.  Others were gentle dreamers who weren't up to the task of governing because of matters beyond their control.  Henry VI, 1421-1471, was of the latter variety.

Henry was born at Windsor in December, 1421, the child of Henry V and Catherine of Valois.  When he was 9 months old, his father Henry V, victor of Agincourt, died still campaigning in France, leaving Henry VI the youngest king ever to ascend to the English throne, in August, 1422.  Further, in accordance with the Treaty of Troyes of 1420, he also became titular King of France because of his mother's claim to her father Charles VI's throne.  Thus, while still in diapers, Henry inherited two kingdoms at war with each other.  The Hundred Years War was still very much alive, despite the Treaty of Troyes.  Being a child king in the Medieval era was a dangerous proposition.  There were several able-bodied adult males in the Lancastrian and Yorkist sides of the Plantagenet family, any of whom could have exploited Henry's youth to take the throne for themselves.  His mother, young and suspicious because of her French heritage, wasn't able to offer much support.

Henry's three uncles, John, Duke of Bedford, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Westminster, were among the nobles on his royal council.  Henry, as custom demanded, was placed in the care of Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who would oversee his education and military training.  Henry was crowned King of England in 1429, and then in 1431, crowned King of France at Notre Dame de Paris.  Most Frenchmen disregard his claim.  They had already crowned Charles VII at Reims in 1429 and that was the only coronation that mattered.  Henry assumed royal authority at the age of 16, and early on seemed to take an interest in governing his realm.  Then tragedy struck.  His mother died when he was sixteen and Henry, shy, pious and bookish, soon fell under the sway of favorites, the ultimate doom of many a Plantagenet king.

Henry was averse to resuming an active war with France and agreed to a marriage with Margaret of Anjou, a French princess with ties to the House of Lorraine and the Valois.  If Henry was shy and a bit nerdy, Margaret was not.  Where Henry was backward in taking charge of his realm and keeping his nobles under control, Margaret was determined to take control.   She had Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, imprisoned on charges of treason.  He died before he could be tried.  While the cause was most likely a heart attack or stroke, enemies whispered of poison.  She also alienated the Yorkist faction by excluding Richard, Duke of York and Henry's cousin, from council and court.  He was banished to Ireland to serve as governor there, no a wise move in the long run.  The council broke down into factions and the country followed suit.  The economy foundered, law and order dissolved.  Blame fell on another Plantagenet relation, the Duke of Suffolk, who was exiled, but captured at sea and brought back to England for execution.  English troops were losing ground in France.  Margaret remained childless.  Returning troops and unemployed peasants and laborers rose in Jack Cade's rebellion in 1450.

In the midst of this chaos, Henry's already fragile hold on sanity finally snapped.  He slept for days at time and seemed unaware of what was going on around him.  Modern sources believe he had a form of schizophrenia.  He had little idea, if any, that his son Edward had been born.  Richard of York took complete control of the government and he had a powerful ally.  Richard Neville had inherited the Warwick earldom through his wife, a Beauchamp.  An able administrator and tactician, the future Kingmaker had Beaufort thrown into the Tower on charges of treason and excluded Margaret from any governmental decisions.  Henry finally came around on Christmas Day, 1454, but his mind wasn't strong enough to resist York and Warwick.  He agreed to disinherit his own son, on grounds that the boy may not have been his, but the result of a liaison between the Queen and Beaufort.  Henry VI named Richard of York and his heirs as heirs of the throne, to Margaret's fury.  The factions in the Plantagenet family, the nobility and council exploded into war in 1460 at the Battle of Northampton, touching off the Wars of the Roses.

Following Northampton, Henry was captured and imprisoned as Richard of York's forces took control.  Richard was killed at Wakefield the following year and his son, Edward IV took the throne, deposing Henry at the Battle of Towton.  By this time, Henry had relapsed again.  Henry and Margaret fled with their son to Scotland.  Henry was eventually recaptured in 1465 and placed in the Tower.  Margaret galvanized the Lancastrian side from France.  And she had gained a powerful ally.  Warwick, who had done so much to put Edward IV on the throne, had grown alienated by Edward's secret marriage to a commoner and the flood of her relatives into lucrative positions at Court.  Warwick threw his allegiance to Henry, allowed his daughter Anne to marry Edward, the Prince of Wales, and began working with French backing to amass an army.  Warwick landed in England and Edward IV fled into exile as his brother, Richard of Gloucester, kept up the fight for the Yorkist side.  Edward IV's younger brother, George of Clarence backed Henry VI.

But Henry VI's freedom was short-lived.  He was barely aware of the measures Warwick took in his name, including declaring war on Burgundy, which had supported Edward IV.  Edward landed with an army and met Warwick at Barnet, in April, 1471, where Warwick was killed and Clarence hastily changed sides.  Henry VI was captured and returned to the Tower.  Then, in May of 1471, Edward, Prince of Wales was killed and Henry VI was a shell of a man.  On the night of May 21, 1471, as Henry VI knelt at prayer in the chapel of the Wakefield Tower, he was killed.  Debate goes on about whether Edward IV specifically ordered the death, and what part Gloucester, the future Richard III had in it.  Most likely, Edward IV did order the murder and Gloucester transmitted the order but the actual deed was left to others.  Edward IV ordered Henry VI's body to be buried in Chertsey Abbey.  Ironically, it was Richard III who had Henry reinterred at St. George's Chapel.  By that time, Henry had acquired the status of a local saint.  Miracles were reported at his tomb in Chertsey and there was talk of a cause for canonization, but it never came to fruition.  Centuries later, workers uncovered the body of Henry VI.  Wounds in the skull and the evidence of blood on still-existing hair indicated that he had, in fact, died violently, yet another Plantagenet in the Tower. 

While in the Tower, Henry VI supposedly wrote a poem, as follows:

Kingdoms are but cares
            State is devoid of stay,
 Riches are ready snares,
            And hasten to decay
 Pleasure is a privy prick (private bother)
            Which vice doth still provoke;
 Pomps, imprompt; and fame, a flame;
            Power, a smoldering smoke.
 Who meaneth to remove the rock
            Out of the slimy mud
 Shall mire himself, and hardly scape
            The swelling of the flood.

(Source, Wikipedia).

Double Feature: Isabella and Catherine of Valois, Sisters and Queens

Women of royal families began their official lives young, betrothed and then married to foreign suitors.  And, if died, these young brides were quickly recycled, the word choice is deliberate, put back on the marriage market again, and sometimes again.  Only rarely were they allowed to chart their own destinies.  Two of the daughters of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria illustrate this contract perfectly.

Isabeau of Bavaria had 5 daughters, two of whom became Queens of England, another the Duchess of Britanny, another Duchess of Burgundy and one a nun.  This was a good dynastic record for that generation of the Capet family.  Two of their daughters married Plantagenet kings.  The first up was Isabella, 1389-1409.  Isabella was just seven years old in 1396 when she married the widowed Richard II, who was 22 years her senior.  Not surprisingly, they didn't live together as husband and wife.  Richard took care of his child bride, providing for her safety by sending her to Porchester Castle while he left to campaign in Ireland.  Her tenure as Queen of England was short-lived.  Richard was deposed in 1399 and dead by 1400.  The incoming King, Henry IV, ordered young Isabella to move out of Windsor Castle, but had no intention of returning her to France.  She was too valuable a prize to waste.  He wanted to marry her to his own son, he future Henry V.  Isabella, however, still only 11 years old, stood her ground.  She intended to remain in mourning for the husband who had treated her so well and wanted to return to her French family.  Henry IV eventually let her go.  Isabella would ultimately marry her cousin, the Duke of Orleans, give birth to a daughter, Joan, but die in childbirth at the age of 19.

But the Plantagenets hadn't given up on a Valois bride for Henry V.  Isabella's younger sister Catherine, 1401-1437, would be 18 years old when she married Prince Henry in 1420.  Henry was already the victor of Agincourt and quite a catch.  Catherine was crowned with him in 1421 and quickly became pregnant with a son.  Henry returned to France to resume fighting the final stages of the Hundred Years War.  Catherine gave birth to a son, the future Henry VI.  Henry V died during the Siege of Meaux in 1422.  His son was King of England at the ripe age of 8 months, and Catherine was a young Queen Dowager.  There was no going home for her.  She was now the mother of a Plantagenet lion and had a royal legacy to protect. 

Catherine was still young and marriageable.  There was talk of her marrying a powerful English noble, perhaps a member of the royal family.  To control this, Parliament passed a law requiring anyone marrying the Queen Dowager to have the King's consent, only after Henry VI had attained the age of majority.  As he was still a school-age child, the nobles thought they'd put a lid on this problem for now.  They had reckoned without Catherine's heart and her basic need for human companionship.  She fell in love with a member of her household, Own Tudor, and by 1431 gave birth to their first child, Edmund.  Parliament at first was lenient with Owen Tudor, granting him the rights of an Englishman.  Owen and Margaret would have six children, four of whom would live to grown up.  Edmund, Jasper, Owen, Jr., and Margaret, who would later become a nun. 

On January 3, 1437, Catherine died at Bermondsey Abbey, shortly after her last childbirth.  She had gone to the Abbey seeking a cure for a condition otherwise unspecified.  At the time of her death, her eldest son Henry VI was 15, considered an adult by the standards of the time, though a young one and still vulnerable, particularly given his mental issues.  Owen Tudor had only Henry's goodwill toward himself and his children to stand between him and the wrath of the nobles.  Henry's Council summoned Owen to appear before them on charges of having broken the law by marrying Catherine.  There was no proof of any marriage and nothing in the law preventing Catherine from having had a sexual relationship without the King's permission.  Owen couldn't be charged with a crime, but he was separated from his children and placed in Newgate Prison, but later moved to Windsor Castle.  Later, he would be reunited with his sons under the care of Katherine de la Pole, Duchess of Suffolk.  Henry VI took an interest in his two younger brothers.  Edmund became Duke of Richmond and Jasper became Duke of Bedford.

Edmund later married Margaret Beaufort, a wealthy heiress and Plantagenet by descent with a claim to the throne in her own right.  She bore him Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII.  The Tudors would claim the throne through Margaret's biological rights, and legally as heirs to Henry VI through a fictional marriage to Catherine of Valois.  This was pure smokescreen, as Catherine couldn't have transmitted any royal rights to her possibly illegitimate Tudor offspring, and Henry had to cement his claim with a marriage to Elizabeth of York, but propaganda is usually built on alternative facts, anyway.  Meanwhile, Catherine's tomb in Westminster Abbey was inadvertently destroyed during renovations by Henry VII.  Perhaps not wanting to call attention to her off-the-record 2nd marriage/relationship, he didn't have the tomb repaired.  The lid of the coffin exposed the body and-here we go with another creepy story about corpses, yuck!.  The corpse became a tourist attraction.  In 1699, diarist Samuel Pepys visited the Abbey and was able to both embrace "had the upper body in my hands" and kiss, "I did kiss a Queen."  Victoria did Catherine a favor and had the tomb repaired, with the body out of sight and out of reach!