I pardon you everything you have done up to now, as long as you follow my banners and return to your homes according to the terms I have laid down."
They all responded, "Yes."
Thus the common people departed and returned to
London. That Friday the
king employed thirty clerks to draw up a large number of letters to be sealed and delivered to these people. Those who received letters went back to their homes, but the real poison stayed behind in London:
Wat Tyler,
Jack Straw and
John Ball. They said that, even though those folk were satisfied, they would not leave like this, and more than thirty thousand people agreed with them. So they stayed in
London and did not push for letters or seals from the
king, but instead turned all their attentions to throwing the city into such turmoil that rich men and lords might be slain and their houses ransacked and looted. The
Londoners could see this coming, so kept themselves at home well-provisioned and with their varlets and friends at hand, each according to his capability.
On that Friday when these people had been appeased and had returned to
London, where sealed letters had been delivered to them and they had departed as soon as they received them and returned to their towns,
king Richard went to the
Royal where the
Queen's Wardrobe was located, whither the
princess, his mother, had retreated in abject terror. He comforted her in the best way he knew how and remained with her there that night.
[75rb] I should also like to recount to you an episode which occurred outside the city of
Norwich involving these odious people and a captain of theirs called
Geoffrey Lister, who was from
Stafford. 2
SHF 2-221 syncOn the feast of Corpus Christi, the same day that these wicked people entered
London and burned the
Savoy Palace and the church and house of the
Knight's Hospitaller, and broke into the king's prison of
Newgate, releasing all the prisoners, and caused all the chaos that you have heard about, there assembled and gathered men from the aforementioned counties; primarily from
Stafford,
King's Lynn,
Cambridge,
Bedford and
Yarmouth.
They came to
London to join their companions, for they had resolved so to do, and their captain was this scoundrel called
Lister. On their way they made a stop outside
Norwich, and as they travelled they compelled everyone to join them so that no peasant was left behind. I will tell you for what reason they stopped outside
Norwich. The governor of the town there was a knight called
Sir Robert Salle. He was no nobleman, yet he had the grace and skill, and the reputation of being an astute and valiant man-at-arms, and for his courage
king Edward had made him a knight, and his physique made him the handsomest and strongest man in all
England.
Lister and his band determined that they would bring this knight with them and make him their commander-in-chief, so that they would be all the more dreaded and beloved. So they sent a message to him that he should come and speak with them in the fields or they would attack the city and burn it.
pb 75 v