[1] “Now is Mortimer lord of this city, and here, sitting upon London Stone, I charge and command that, at the city’s cost, this conduit runs nothing but claret wine this first year of our reign; and now it shall be treason for any man to call me other than Lord Mortimer.”  —­Shakerspeare’s “Henry VI,” Part II, Act IV, scene vi. 
   It is noticeable that the great dramatist expresses no sympathy in
this play with the cause of the people.  In fact he ridicules Cade and his movement.  In the same spirit he does not mention the Great Charter in his “King John,” while in his “Richard II” he passes over Wat Tyler without a word.  Perhaps the explanation may be found in the fact that Shakespeare lived in an age when England was threatened by both open and secret enemies.  The need of his time was a strong, steady hand at the helm; it was no season for reform or change of any sort; on this account he may have thought it his duty to be silent in regard to democratic risings and demands in the past (S313, note 2).

299.  Wars of the Roses, 1455-1485.

The real significance of Cade’s insurrection is that it showed the widespread feeling of discontent caused by misgovernment, and that it served as an introduction to the long and dreary period of civil strife known as the Wars of the Roses.

So long as the English nobles had France for a fighting ground, French cities to plunder, and French captives to hold for heavy ransoms, they were content to let matters go on quietly at home.  But that day was over.  Through the bad management, if not through the positive treachery, of Edmund, Duke of Somerset, the French conquests had been lost.  Henry VI, a weak king, at times insane, sat on the English throne (S295), while Richard, Duke of York, a really able man and a descendant of the Mortimers (see table, p. 161), was, as many believed, unlawfully excluded from it.

This fact in itself would have furnished a plausible pretext for hostilities, even as far back as Cade’s rising.  But the birth of a son[2] to Henry (1453) probably gave the signal for the outbreak, since it cut off all hopes which Richard’s friends may have had of his peaceful succession.

[2] Prince Edward.  See Genealogical Table, p. 161, under Henry VI.

300.  The Scene in the Temple Garden.

Shakespeare represents the smoldering feud between the rival houses of Lancaster and York (both of whom it should be remembered were descendants of Edward III)[1] as breaking into an angry quarrel in the Temple Garden, London, when Richard, Duke of York, says: 

“Let him that is a true-born gentleman,
And stands upon the honor of his birth,
If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,
From off this brier pluck a white rose with me."[2]

To this challenge John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset,[3] a descendant of the house of Lancaster, who has just accused Richard of being the dishonored son of a traitor, replies: