60 BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM. 
Lord Mayor clothed in red velvet and the Sheriffs and Aldermen in 
scarlet cloaks, furred, together with a large company. 
The year 1432 saw a curtailment of the Heath by Humphrey, 
Duke of Gloucester, who received a license from the King to en- 
close 200 acres of land, wood, heather and furze to make a park, 
which exists to-day as Greenwich Park, somewhat enlarged by 
the addition of other portions of the Heath. 
In 1450 Blackheath twice became the rendezvous of those who 
supported Jack Cade in the insurrection of that year, first in June 
and again after the fight at Sevenoaks, when he was joined by 
many adherents from all parts of Kent. There is a considerable 
mystery attaching to the rising, as in some hundreds the men 
seem to have been summoned by the constables as though in 
response to regular authority. Cade himself is styled John 
Mortimer in the ‘‘ pardon” which was issued to him. He subse- 
quently fled and was killed whilst on the point of being captured 
at Heathfield in Sussex. A quarter of his body was sent to Black- 
heath as a warning to malcontents in the district. Amongst those 
pardoned was Edmund Ryculff, of Lee, the Constable of the 
Hundred of Blackheath, several Greenwich men and others of 
neighbouring parishes, but no Lewisham names occur in the lists 
of pardons. Stow says that on 28th February, 1451, numbers of 
the Kentish rebels, ‘‘naked save their shirts,” met Henry VI on 
Blackheath, asked mercy on their knees and were pardoned. 
Blackheath came in for its share in the Wars of the Roses. In 
1452 Henry VI took up his stand on the Heath in order to oppose 
the Duke of York, who had encamped on the Brent at Dartford. 
Nineteen years later, after the Battle of Tewkesbury, Thomas 
Falconberge, known as the Bastard of Falconberge, organized an 
expedition to seize London,~and-set King Henry free. He ad- 
dressed a letter to the Lord Mayor, urging him to join against the 
usurper, and requesting a reply to be sent to him ‘‘at the Blak- 
heth.”’ The Londoners, however, were not to be turned from 
their allegiance to Edward IV, and after an unsuccessful attempt 
on the City, Falconberge retired to Blackheath on the advance of 
that King, and finally submitted at Sandwich. 
In the time of Henry VII the Cornish Rebels, headed by Lord 
Audley, encamped on the Heath, and were attacked on 22nd June, 
1497, by the King, who gained a complete victory. Very many 
were slain, and must have been buried on the spot, and some of 
the hillocks may be of this period. In one of his sermons Bishop 
Latimer refers to this fight, and says he remembers buckling on 
his father’s armour ‘‘ when he went to Blackheath Field.” 
The reign of Henry VIII saw many notable meetings on the 
Heath. Perhaps the most imposing was the reception of the 
Pope’s legate, Cardinal Campeggio. After staying at Otford he 
came to Lewisham on the 2g9th July, 1518, where he dined at 
Rushey Green with Mr. William Hatcliffe, one of the Clerks of the 
Green Cloth. After dinner about one o’clock he proceeded to 
