174 TAXES AND CONTRIBUTIONS. 



purpose of Cade was to get rid of the greedy and worthless 

 courtiers about the king, such as Say, Cromer, and the bishops. 

 It was well understood that if the court bishops had stayed in 

 London, or had fled to their dioceses, they were in serious 

 peril. So they hid where they were personally unknown. 

 One, Aiscough of Salisbury, ventured into his diocese, and was 

 speedily murdered. The stones about Cade's hostility to pro- 

 perty and learning and of his pretensions to legitimate descent 

 from the house of Mortimer are late inventions of the Tudor 

 annalists, and at variance with contemporary testimony. 



The Duke of York had left Ireland, where he had gone, it 

 appears, against his will, and had yet so conciliated the 

 people, that long afterwards they remained profoundly attached 

 to his family, and even to the persons who pretended descent 

 from him. The efforts made for the recovery of Normandy 

 were defeated at Fourmigny, and the public exasperation was 

 at its height. Some of the authorities in London had sided 

 with Cade, and the militia was disaffected. After the crisis of 

 Cade's revolt was over, Margaret and the king had hid them- 

 selves at Kenilworth, and to all appearance had abandoned the 

 functions of government. In this crisis, the Duke of York re- 

 quested Tresham to meet him on Wednesday, September 23, with 

 a view to confer with the most eminent members of the House 

 of Commons on the policy which should be adopted. From the 

 sequel of the story, and from the subsequent history of Tresham's 

 family, it was plain that he was in the king's service, a zealous 

 loyalist, and belonged to one of those few families who, having 

 been trusted and enriched by the House of Lancaster, were 

 faithful to it in its misfortunes. Tresham resided at his seat 

 Sywell, a place about seven miles north-east of the town of 

 Northampton, and for generations after in the possession of 

 the same family. 



Certain persons, instigated it is said by Lord Grey de Ruthin, 

 the head of a family which had produced and continued to pro- 

 duce the worst men in the English aristocracy, resolved on 

 waylaying and murdering the Speaker, who had conducted the 



