A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



seven o'clock in the morning, accompanied by his mother in a ' whir- 

 lecote,' the mayor of London, and many earls, knights, and esquires.' 8 

 He was surrounded by 60,000 petitioners, who demanded the abolition 

 of slavery, the reduction of rents, and free liberty to buy and sell at 

 fairs and markets." By granting their demands and by giving a charter of 

 liberties to each parish, Richard persuaded the Commons to return to 

 their homes, not, however, before they had dragged the archbishop of 

 Canterbury and the prior of St. John of Clerkenwell from the Tower, 

 and summarily beheaded them. 100 



On the following day the king proclaimed that he would meet the 

 remainder of the insurgents two miles beyond the North- West gate. 101 

 He rode to the appointed place in the morning and took up his position, 

 surrounded by the nobles, near the priory of St. Bartholomew, the 

 Commons being drawn up to the west and further from the City. 102 The 

 story is well known of how Wat Tyler rode up to the king and saluting 

 him familiarly, rehearsed the demands of the peasants, and then having 

 threatened the valet de Kent, who stood among the king's retinue, was 

 struck to the ground by William Walworth, mayor of London. 103 The 

 king's marvellous presence of mind saved the situation, and while he led 

 the Commons to the field of St. John of Clerkenwell, 104 the mayor rode 

 with all haste to London for armed help. Tyler was carried into 

 St. Bartholomew's priory, but on Walworth's return he was brought out 

 and executed, and his head and that of Jack Straw replaced those of the 

 archbishop and the prior of St. John's on London Bridge. 105 The mass 

 of the Commons were meanwhile surrounded in Clerkenwell Fields, and 

 would have been slaughtered if the king had not intervened to spare 

 them. 108 After quiet was restored, he knighted the mayor, Nicholas 

 Brembre, John Philpot, and Ralph Laundre, beneath the standard. 107 



At the end of the same reign, during the struggle between Richard II 

 and the barons, the latter marched into Middlesex under Thomas of 

 Woodstock, duke of Gloucester. The king had spent the year in a 

 royal progress with the object of consolidating his friends, and in the 

 late summer had gained the favourable decision of the five judges at 

 Nottingham, which declared the Commission of Regency to be illegal. 108 

 In November he marched into London intending to prevent by force 

 the renewal of the Commission, and to punish as traitors those who had 

 originated it. News of his intention reached the duke of Gloucester, 

 and on 12 November the king was surprised to learn that he and 

 Warwick were marching on London with an armed force, and were 

 already only a few miles north of the City. 109 The earl of Arundel joined 



* ' Anominalle Cronicle,' ut supra. " Lingard, Hist, of Eng/. iii, 291. 



00 Riley, Memt. of Loud. 449. M ' Anominalle Cronicle,' ut supra. Ict Stow, .jxnats. 



* 'Anominalle Cronicle,' ut supra ; Walsingham, Hist. dngl. i, 43, 389 ; K nigh ton, C4/W. (Twysden), 

 2637. Riley, Mems. of Lmd. 450. 



05 'Anominalle Cronicle,' ut supra. "* Riley, Mems. of Lmd. 450. 



107 ' Anominalle Cronicle ' ; cf. Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles (Camd. Soc.), 48. 

 " Stubbs, Const. Hist, ii, 266 ; Lingard, Hist, of Engl. iii, 328. 

 " Men. Evtsh. (ed. Hearne), 90 ; Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 163. 



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