A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



forces under threat of burning down the convent, forced the monks to give 

 up their charters and jewels, and divided the latter among themselves as 

 earnest of the fulfilment of the promises of the monks to reduce the customs. 

 Then sticking the heads of Cavendisshe and the prior on tall poles, with 

 ribald jests they carried them through the town to the market-place, where 

 they were posted. The prior's body was flung into the fields, and for fifteen 

 days no man dared to give it burial. In the county the plan of the insur- 

 gents was to seize the person of the earl and cover their depredations with 

 his presence. The earl was warned of their approach and intention, and fled 

 precipitately from his dinner-table to St. Albans. 



The bishop of Norwich, juvenis et audax, marched from Newmarket to 

 Thetford overawing the countryside by his stream of adherents, and so into 

 his own county, where he defeated the insurgents. The danger was first 

 averted by promises and pardons, from which the men of Bury were 

 excepted ; then licence was given to the landowners who had been spoiled 

 to regain their possessions as best they could without hindrance from the 

 king or his ministers. The lands and goods of the late rebels were put up 

 publicly to farm. But in spite of drastic measures the sheriff had no easy 

 business to execute his office. The men of Lowestoft refused admittance to 

 the king's officers, 1 and John de Tudenham, 2 the sheriff, went about in fear of 

 his life from the outlaws who were lying in wait to kill him. Bury was not 

 forgiven till 1385, when after much haggling a large fine was paid by the 

 burghers. In the meantime the earl of Suffolk 3 had died very suddenly on 

 the steps of the council room in 1382. He left no heir, and three years 

 later the earldom was revived for Michael de la Pole. 4 He was the son of 

 that William de la Pole, merchant of Hull, who had established the political 

 fortunes of his family by lending to Edward III the sum of £11,000, in 

 1338, at Mechlin. 5 Edward had always been grateful to the man who had 

 prevented his bankruptcy at the time of the ruin of the Italian bankers. The 

 son was greater in administration than in arms, though he had served, it was 

 said in the articles of impeachment of 1386, for thirty years in the war and 

 had been captain of Calais and admiral. He had raised himself to the 

 position of chancellor, and was in high favour with Richard II. Marriage 

 with the heiress of Sir John Wingfield brought him the lordship of the 

 manor of Wingfield, 6 but save the manor of Lowestoft and the hundred of 

 Lothingland he held no other lands in Suffolk. He was only granted the 

 reversion of the Ufford lands on the death of the widow of the late earl. 7 

 She was still living in 1 395, 8 and Earl Michael died in exile in Paris in 1389.* 



The leaders of the county were the duke of Norfolk and the earl 

 of March. The former revived the preponderance of the Bigod family 

 centring round Bungay and Framlingham, while the latter represented the 

 Gloucester interest which centred round Clare. The banishment of Norfolk 

 and the death of March in Ireland left Michael de la Pole, lord of Wingfield, 

 who had not 10 succeeded to his father's attainted title, without a rival in the 

 county. His opportunity arrived when Henry Bolingbroke came to claim 



1 Cal. of Pat. 1381-5, p. 503. ' Ibid. 587. 



5 Thos. of Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 48-9. * Cal. of Pat. 1385-9, p. 18. 



1 Cal. Gascon Rolls, I— 91. 6 Suff. Inst. Arch, viii, 190. ' Cal. of Pat. 1385-9, p. 18. 



1 Ibid. 1 391—6, p. 659. • Thomas of Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 187. 



10 Cal. of Pat. 1 38 1-5, pp. 449-50. 



'74 



