REBELS 29 



rabble. The king, with his cousin Henry, Earl of 

 Derby ; the xlrchbishop of Canterbury, and a hundred 

 knights and sergeants were retired for safety to the 

 Tower, whence they issued by boat to receive the 

 petitions of the insurgents. Ten thousand of them 

 waited at Rotherhithe, and by their fierce yells and 

 threatening appearance so terrified the king's attend- 

 ants that, instead of permitting him to land, they took 

 advantage of the tide, and returned. This behaviour 

 disappointed Tyler, who saw no hope of concessions 

 from the king's advisers. He and his men burst into 

 London, and, joined by the discontented host from 

 Essex and Hertfordshire, under the leadership of one 

 John Rakestraw (who has come down to us through the 

 ages as Jack Straw, and whose camping-ground on 

 Hampstead Heath bears to this da}^ the old inn known 

 as " Jack Straw's Castle "), plundered the town, 

 burning the Palace of the Savoy and all the buildings 

 and records of the Temple. Fear eventually led the 

 Court party to grant the four chief demands of the 

 people ; the abolition of slavery ; the reduction of the 

 rent of land to fourpence an acre ; free liberty of buying 

 and selling in all fairs and markets ; and a general 

 pardon for past offences. Had Tyler and Rakestraw 

 been content with these concessions, it is probable 

 that all would have been well ; but their ambition 

 had grown with success, and they trusted to further 

 violence for greater advantage. Rushing into the 

 Tower at the head of four hundred men, they murdered 

 there the Archbishop of Canterbury and five others, 

 and, retaining no less than twenty thousand followers 

 in the City, intercepted the king as he rode out the 

 following morning attended onl}^ by sixty horsemen. 

 With boorish insolence, Tyler lay hold of the king's 

 bridle, when AValworth, Lord Mayor of London, 

 stabbed him in the throat. Falling from his horse, 

 the rebel leader was despatched by an esquire. The 

 courage and tact of the young king are historical, 

 and the way in which he quelled the hostility of the 



