Background
The Hundred Years war required the government to raise funds for the war effort, by increasing taxes.  These taxes starting in the mid-thirteenth century and when King Henry VI’s government increased these taxes more, together with many corrupt local landowners requiring bribes, it set the seeds for the rebellion.  Henry VI was an unpopular king, imposing crippling taxes resulting in poverty for the people, while he was accused of extravagant living and corruption in his court.

Rebellion
John Mortimer aka Jack Cade was an Irishman living in Kent.  In the summer of 1450 he incited a large group of men to protest about laws, taxes and extortion of food and goods that affected everyone.  The rebels wanted justice and claimed that the king was not keeping to the solemn oaths he had sworn to abide by.  One demand was that Richard Plantagenet, the Duke of York, (whom Cade claimed as a Mortimer cousin) should be recalled from exile in Ireland and made king instead.  (Richard’s son Edward eventually overthrew King Henry VI and became King Edward IV.)

The men, mostly from Essex and Kent, set up camp on Blackheath outside London in protest at the levying by Parliament of a poll tax on all men – the third tax in four years.  (Cade Road is near the Heath and there is a sealed-up cave called Jack Cade’s Cavern on the edge where it has been suggested he carried out Pagan rituals before continuing onwards).

Unusually, Cade’s followers were not only peasants but also landowners and gentry, including one Thomas Kelsham.  Local notables who were part of the uprising included the clerks of Dallington and Wartling, the rector of Mayfield and even the Prior of St Pancras in Lewes.

The rebellion was widespread, and the men of Appledore and Frant were known to have been in the fighting.  Accounts vary as to the number of rebels but Cade assembled between 20,000 and 46,000 on Blackheath.

He eventually led the Kentish rebels across Deptford Bridge and into London.  They stopped at the London Stone, which Cade struck with his sword and declared himself Lord Mayor in the traditional manner (thereby also symbolically reclaiming the country for his Mortimer kin).  He lead them on to the Guildhall and then to the Tower to make the demands in full.  The Lord Treasurer Sir James Fiennes, and the Archbishop of Canterbury were beheaded and their heads placed on poles kissing each other.

The Royalist forces re-grouped and fought the rebels until both sides were exhausted.  A truce was called and Cade presented a long list of complaints, including the following:

Being assured by the Royalist leaders that his demands would be met and that the rebels would be pardoned, Cade handed over the list of rebels and the rebels went back to their fields, where the harvest was waiting.

Outcome
His army declining in size and the demands not having been agreed by either Parliament or the king, made Cade’s position insecure.  The king demanded his arrest and Cade fled to the Weald.  He was hunted down by the Sheriff of Kent, who caught up with Cade near Heathfield at a hamlet now called Cade Street.

Cade was injured and died on the way to London and his body was hung, drawn and quartered, his head fixed on a pole on London Bridge.

Although the rebels’ demands weren’t met, in general with the exception of the ring-leaders, the pardon was kept.  The ring-leaders were all killed and their dismembered bodies distributed around the country as a warning to other would-be rebels.  Cade’s rebellion contributed to the breakdown of royal authority that led to the ‘Wars of the Roses’.