THE EVIL DEEDS THAT THESE COMMONS OF ENGLAND DID TO THE KING’S OFFICERS, AND HOW THEY SENT A KNIGHT TO SPEAK WITH THE KING

The Monday before the feast of Corpus Christi the year of our Lord God a thousand three hundred and eighty-one these people issued out of their houses to come to London to speak with the king to be made free, for they would have had no bondman in England.  And so first they came to Saint Thomas of Canterbury, and there John Ball had thought to have found the bishop of Canterbury, but he was at London with the king.  When Wat Tyler and Jack Straw entered into Canterbury, all the common people made great feast, for all the town was of their assent; and there they took counsel to go to London to the king, and to send some of their company over the river of Thames into Essex, into Sussex and into the counties of Stafford and Bedford, to speak to the people that they should all come to the farther side of London and thereby to close London round about, so that the king should not stop their passages, and that they should all meet together on Corpus Christi day.  They that were at Canterbury entered into Saint Thomas’ church and did there much hurt, and robbed and brake up the bishop’s chamber, and in robbing and bearing out their pillage they said:  ’Ah, this chancellor of England hath had a good market to get together all this riches:  he shall give us now account of the revenues of England and of the great profits that he hath gathered sith the king’s coronation.’  When they had this Monday thus broken the abbey of Saint Vincent, they departed in the morning and all the people of Canterbury with them, and so took the way to Rochester and sent their people to the villages about.  And in their going they beat down and robbed houses of advocates and procurers of the king’s court and of the archbishop, and had mercy of none.  And when they were come to Rochester, they had there good cheer; for the people of that town tarried for them, for they were of the same sect, and then they went to the castle there and took the knight that had the rule thereof, he was called sir John Newton, and they said to him:  ’Sir, it behoveth you to go with us and you shall be our sovereign captain and to do that we will have you,’ The knight excused himself honestly and shewed them divers considerations and excuses, but all availed him nothing, for they said unto him:  ’Sir John, if ye do not as we will have you, ye are but dead,’ The knight, seeing these people in that fury and ready to slay him, he then doubted death and agreed to them, and so they took him with them against his inward will; and in like wise did they of other counties in England, as Essex, Sussex, Stafford, Bedford and Warwick, even to Lincoln; for they brought the knights and gentlemen into such obeisance, that they caused them to go with them, whether they would or not, as the lord Moylays, a great baron, sir Stephen of Hales and sir Thomas of Cosington and other.