Now we shall return to the commoners of
England and how they persevered.
SHF 2-217 sync
How the common people of England entered London and of the great evil and misdeeds they committed, and of the death of the archbishop of Canterbury and many others.
On the feast of Corpus Christi,
king Richard heard mass in the
Tower of London and afterwards boarded his barge, accompanied by the
earl of Salisbury, the
earl of Warwick, and the
earl of Suffolk and several knights. They crossed the
Thames to the banks of
Rotherhithe, a royal manor, where there were over ten thousand men assembled who had come down from the mount to speak with the
king, and when they saw the king's barge they began to shout out so lustily that it seemed as if all the demons of hell had turned up. They had brought
Sir John Newton with them, whom they would have slain had the
king failed to appear.
Seeing the people in such a frenzy, the
king was advised not to land but to have the barge sailed back and forth on the water. Then the
king addressed them,
"What do you want sirs? Tell me. I have come here to speak with you."
Those who heard him responded in unison, "We wish for you to come to shore and we will readily show you what we require."
Then the
earl of Salisbury replied on the king's behalf, saying, "Sirs, you are not in a fit state for the
king to speak with you now."
After these words, nothing further was said. The
king was counselled to withdraw, and he returned to the
fortress of London from where he had set off.
When these people saw they would gain nothing more, they fair boiled with rage and returned to the mount where the greater part of their number were. They told them the response they had received and how the
king had gone back to the
Tower of London.
Then they cried out as one man, "Let us go at once to
London!" They all set out on the road and descended on
London, wrecking and battering abbeys and the residences of lawyers and courtiers, and reached the suburbs of
London which are large and fair. There they destroyed many fine houses; in particular, they broke into the king's prison called the
Marshalsea, and all the prisoners within were set free. They caused a great deal of damage in these suburbs, and threatened the
Londoners at the entrance to the bridge for having closed the bridge gates. They said they would raze their suburbs and conquer
London by storm, burning and destroying it. The common people of
London, many of whom were of their way of thinking, gathered together and asked,
"Why should these good people not be admitted to the city?
pb 73 v