28 THE DOVER ROAD 



was a new burden, and one exacted harshly from the 

 people by the nobles among whom the Government 

 had farmed it. Then, too, the state of serfdom in 

 which the villeins existed was odious to them at 

 this lapse of time, when men began to aspire to some- 

 thing better than to be the mere pawns of kings 

 and nobles, sent to fight for feudalism on foreign 

 battlefields, or in fratricidal conflicts at home. The 

 days were drawing to a close when it was possible 

 for kings to issue prescriptions for the seizing of 

 artisans to be set to work on the building of royal 

 palaces and castles ; documents couched in this wise : 

 '' To our trusty and well-beloved Richard, Earl of 

 Essex : Know ye that it is our pleasure that you do 

 take and seize as many masons, carpenters, braziers, 

 and all kinds of artificers necessary to the reparation 

 of our Castle of Windsor, and that this shall be your 

 warrant for detaining them so long as may be necessary 

 to the completion of the work." 



With grievances old and new, it wanted but little 

 to set the home counties in revolt, and so we find 

 the cause of the Dartford tiler to have been Avarml}^ 

 taken up, not only throughout his native Kent, 

 but also, across the river, in Essex. The tiler's 

 neighbours swore they would protect him from 

 punishment, and, marching to Maidstone, appointed 

 him leader of the commons in Kent. The Canterbury 

 citizens, less enthusiastic, were overawed by the 

 number of the rebels, and several of them slain ; five 

 hundred joining in the march to London, while a 

 dissolute itinerant priest, that famous demagogue 

 John Ball, was enlarged from prison and appointed 

 preacher to the throng, rousing them to iury by the 

 rough eloquence and apt illustration with which he 

 enlarged upon his text — 



When Adam delved, and Eve span, 

 Who was then the gentleman ? 



From Blackheath to London marched this great 



