122 LAND REFORM 



During the progress of the outbreak the territorial 

 party was panic-stricken. Local authorities took the 

 side of the rebels, and the local forces could not be 

 relied on to oppose them. Even in London, where 

 the kind's forces were stationed, the same state of 

 things was found. "It is strange to consider," writes 

 the chronicler, "in what fear the lords, knights, and 

 gentlemen stood of these rude and base people. For 

 there were 600 armed men and as many archers in 

 the Tower, but there was not one that durst gainsay 

 their doings."^ 



On the news of Wat Tyler's death, which spread 

 rapidly, the rebellion collapsed everywhere. Then 

 terror gave place to revenge, and a series of reprisals 

 was begun of a character too atrocious almost for 

 belief. The charters of manumission, so solemnly 

 conferred, were cancelled and the promises of pardon 

 revoked. 



Commissions were appointed to try all prisoners and 

 others who had taken part in the rebellion or were 

 suspected of having taken part in it. Sir Robert 

 Tresilian, Chief Justice, was appointed head of one of 

 these commissions. This man seems to have been a 

 prototype of the infamous Judge Jefferies. Before 

 him "above 1500 men were found guilty and in sundry 

 places put to death." He received his desserts, how- 

 ever, a few years afterwards. He was sent to the 

 Tower, " thence drawn to Tyburn, and there hanged." 

 The judges at first employed the method of beheading 

 the rustics "on account of the multitudes that had to 

 be executed." But this method of capital punishment 

 " did not correspond to such monstrous and manifold 

 crimes," and they decided " to punish with hanging 



^ Holinshed's " Chronicles of England," Vol. II, p. 739. 



