POLITICAL HISTORY 



Sir Bartholomew de Naunton, Sir Gilbert Peeche, Sir John Loudham, 

 Sir William Carbonel, Sir Oliver de Stretton, Sir Thomas de Colville, 

 Sir Adam de Swillington, Sir Thomas de Vis de Leu. The train of the 

 earl of Suffolk included Richard Fitz-Simond, Richard Freysel of Boyton 

 and Capell, Oliver de Stretton, John de Rattlesden, Oliver de Walkfare, 

 Gilbert Peeche, Thomas de Vis de Leu, Richard att Lee, William Criketot 

 of Ousden and many others, some of whom had already served in the 

 campaign of 1337— 40. * 



After the Crecy and Calais campaign came the Black Death, and the 

 war was not renewed till 1355, when the Black Prince led his army to 

 Gascony. The same Suffolk names appear on the rolls, sons taking the place 

 of fathers. The earl of Suffolk was given lands in Gascony, and on his death 

 in 1369 he was succeeded by his son William, who while the war dragged 

 on was admiral of the north fleet. Now England was no longer the 

 invader, but feared invasion. In 1377, about ten days after the death of 

 Edward III, the harrying of the southern coast by the French brought out 

 the Suffolk men-at-arms and archers. Beacons were watched* to send the 

 signal through the county. Two years later the king demanded loans for the 

 war. The earl 3 headed the list with £100 ; the good men of Hadleigh 

 gave jC5°> those of Bury 50 marks, Ipswich £40, while Alderton and 

 Bawdsey gave 40 marks. This was followed by the calling out by the 

 county of all able men between the ages of sixteen and sixty to resist 

 invasion. 



The county had been passing through an economic crisis. The villeins 

 had during the last century gradually emancipated themselves and the 

 modern farmer class was emerging. At the same time many causes had 

 tended towards the emancipation of the serfs and labourers. The Black 

 Death and the resulting scarcity and dearness of labour had opened the eyes 

 of the landlords, and the Statute of Labourers (1351) had been an attempt 

 to rebind the labourers to the soil. Added to the economic question was the 

 religious one. WycliFs poor priests had been going through the county in 

 their long russet gowns, and were accused of teaching what are now termed 

 socialistic doctrines. The poll tax of 1 38 1 was the culmination of burdens, 

 for the county was already full of ' champerties and embraceries, confederacies, 

 deceptions and other falsities.' In the beginning of that year the sheriff and 

 the escheator were commanded to inquire touching the names, abodes, and 

 conditions of all lay persons over fifteen years of age, men, women and 

 servants, notorious persons alone excepted, and to return the list direct to the 

 treasury. By June 4 all Suffolk was in an uproar, though the storm seems to 

 have concentrated itself round Bury, whither marched those ' angels of Satan,' 

 their Essex sympathizers, with William de Benyngton as archangel. Under 

 John Wrawe and his lieutenant Robert Westbrom, they broke into 

 and pillaged Sir John Cavendisshe's house at Bury, and soon after slew the 

 owner in the neighbourhood of Lakenheath. 5 At the same time another 

 gang was perpetrating a similar act at Mildenhall, where the country folk found 

 and killed the prior of Bury. His murderers marched to Bury, and the two 



1 Cal. of Pat. 1 334.-8, p. 527. * Ibid. 1377-81, p. 3S. ' Ibid. pp. 635-8. 



4 Thomas of Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Scr.), ii, I et seq. 

 1 Powell, East Anglia Rising, 13. 



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