FAMILY
Nicholas de Hales is traditionally associated with the Norfolk Hales family and, as L'Ascendance TERLINDEN-de POTESTA points out on Geneanet, his coat of arms were those of Sir Roger de Hales, founder of the Norfolk family.
NIcholas appears to be the son of Robert de Hales and born in the village of Hales, Norfolk, around 1300. Most genealogists have long accepted the idea that Kent's premiere Hales family descends from the more ancient Norfolk family. Nicholas left a clue as to the most likely possibilities for his father's name. Most families passed names down through the generations. Nicholas named his sons "Nicholas" and "Robert." There is only one Robert de Hales in Norfolk's Feet of Fines (real estate record) during this period and he made three purchases between 1294 and 1303.
Two of Robert's brothers were also involved. Considering Nicholas' family's future involvement with the Hospitallers, it seems significant that one of them was a clerk.
Proposed family:
Ralph de Hales and Demeta Clavor - Ralph was most likely one of Walter and Eleanor de Hales' younger sons. His probable offspring:
John de Hales, clericus
Henry de Hales
Robert de Hales - proposed father of Nicholas de Hales
THOMAS DE BROTHERTON
They were most likely closely related to Sir Roger de Hales, who inherited the manor of Lodden-Hales from his father Walter and held it through-out the first years of Nicholas' life. Roger died in 1313, leaving five underage children: Joan, Matilda, Edmund Alice and John.
They became wards of the Thomas de Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk (1300-38).
Brotherton was only slightly older than his wards and the story of his romance with the beautiful Alice de Hales is one of the most charming of this era. Brotherton's father was King Edward I. Alice was the daughter of an obscure county squire. Most historians believe Brotherton had to wait until he came to his majority, in 1319/20, before marrying her.
Their union was highly advantageous to Alice's family. John Hales, who succeeded to Lodden Hales, had one of the most powerful men in England as a brother-in-law. Brotherton became one of Edward III's principal advisors. He commanded the right wing of the English army at the Battle of Halidon Hill on 19 July 1333.
PRIOR OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOSPITAL OF ST JOHN IN JERUSALEM
Nicholas de Hales was contemporary to these events. He is allegedly the same Nicholas de Hales who become Prior of the Church of the Hospital of St. John at Clerkenewell a decade later. This was the order's #2 position in England, filled by men with highly placed connections. Being Alice de Hales' cousin, he would have had those connections.
As a Hospitaller, Nicholas would have been required to take vows of chastity and poverty.
He witnessed the "Deed of covenant by Philip de Thame, Prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, and brethren of the same to establish a chantry in the church of St. John de Clerkenewell for the benefit of William de Langeford, (fn. 15) under the supervision of the Mayor and Commonalty, to whom the said William had granted an annual charge of half a mark on certain tenements which he had by grant of John de Oxenford, situate between Westsmethefeld and Cockeslane, in the parish of St. Sepulchre. Witnesses, Nicholas de Hales, Prior of the aforesaid church, Brothers William Brix, Ralph Basset, John de Byndesbroke, Robert Cort, Robert de Somerdeby, John Larcher, and others, brethren and seculars in the Chapter. Dated in the Chapter at Clerkenwell Tuesday after the Feast of St. Barnabas [11 June], 10 Edward III. [A.D. 1336].
On page 101 of Prior Phillip de Thame's report of the Knights Hospitallers of England for AD 1338, he cites Nicholas de Hales as prior of the Church in the priory of Clerkenwell
On page 299 of the same report, it says "Nicholas de Hales has a pension of 2 1/2 marks per annum ... from the general treasurey of the Hospitallers.
"Letter from Geoffrey de Wychingham, the Mayor, under the mayoralty seal, to Nicholas de Hales, Prior of the Church of the Hospital of St. John at Clerkenewell, nominating John de Wroxtone to the perpetual chantry then vacant in the saidchurch, the presentation to which fell to the said Mayor, and asking the said Prior to admit the said chaplain and provide him with food, stipend, &c., according to the terms of the covenant made with the City by Philip de Thame, a former Prior, and Brethren of the Hospital under their seal Dated 12 Sept., A.D. 1347.Letters patent by the above Nicholas de Hales admitting the above chaplain to the perpetual chantry founded by Sir William de Langeford (fn. 2) in the church of the said Priory. Dated at Clerkenewelle, 16 Sept., A.D. 1347." - Aug 1347 -', Calendar of letter-books of the city of London: F: 1337-1352 (1904), pp. 167-78 Folio cxli b.
"Letter from Geoffrey de Wychingham, the Mayor, underthe mayoralty seal, to Nicholas de Hales, Prior of the Church of the Hospital of St. John at Clerkenewell, nominating John de Wroxtone to the perpetual chantry then vacant in the saidchurch, the presentation to which fell to the said Mayor, and asking the said Prior to admit the said chaplain and provide him with food, stipend, &c., according to the terms of the covenant made with the City by Philip de Thame, a former Prior, and Brethren of the Hospital under their seal Dated 12 Sept., A.D. 1347.Letters patent by the above Nicholas de Hales admitting the above chaplain to the perpetual chantry founded by Sir William de Langeford (fn. 2) in the church of the said Priory. Dated at Clerkenewelle, 16 Sept., A.D. 1347." - Aug 1347 -', Calendar of letter-books of the city of London: F: 1337-1352 (1904), pp. 167-78 Folio cxli b.
ESTATES IN KENT
This was also the era in which Nicholas de Hales is said to have acquired lands in Kent.
Hasted wrote that Nicholas de Hales, Prior of the church of Clerkenwell, was granted High Halden in the parish of Burham, in Larkfield Hundred:
"Leonard de Tibert, prior general of the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England, in the 7th year of king Edward III (1334). with the consent of his chapter, granted the appropriation of this church, with all its appurtenances, excepting the advowson and presentation of the vicarage, and all the lands and tenements belonging to the hospital in this parish, to Nicholas de Hales, prior of the church of Clerkenwell, in London, to hold freely for ever."
Thus he was the Nicholas in the Hale -who the Lay sudsidy of 1334 shows owning land in Larkfield Hundred (3s) and may also be the Nicholas atte Hale who owned property in Bleangate Hundred (3s 4d)
The Hales family is best remembered for their seat at High Halden. According to Hasted, "The family of Hales was originally seated at Hales-place, in Halden, whence they were usually called at-Hale. Nicholas at-Hale, or Hales, lived there at the latter end of the reign of Edward III. and left two sons, Sir Robert Hales, prior of the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, and lord treasurer; and Sir Nicholas de Hales, who succeeded to his father's estates in this county."
He added: "HALES-PLACE is an ancient well-timbered mansion, situated about a mile eastward from the church, and is eminent for having been the original seat of the family of Hales, in this county. Nicholas Hales was resident here in the reign of Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377).
Nicholas had two sons:
Nicholas de Hales inherited Hales Place
Robert de Hales (see below)
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CHAUCERS KNIGHT
Robert de Hales something of an enigma, being both John Ball’s infamous “Hobbe the Robber” and the reputed model for Chaucer’s ideal knight. To modern eyes, even his order is shrouded in contradictions. The Hospitallers were originally a monastic order dedicated to caring for pilgrims in the Holy Land. Even in Hales’ day “hospitality (was regarded) as 'one of the most eminent acts of piety and humanity' and … if a sick person presented himself at one of their houses he was to be put to bed and be received charitably with the best the house could provide.” Their transformation into an order of “god’s warriors” began with an undertaking to clear the Jerusalem road of bandits. St. Bernard of Clairvaux provided the moral justification for more active fighting when he argued that killing pagans was eliminating evil. (Knights who died in Christ’s service were consequently to be regarded as martyrs.) Muslims learned to fear and loath the Hospitallers in a manner we reserve for terrorists and the previous generation viewed the Waffen SS. Chaucer observed an entirely different aspect:
“A knight there was, and he a worthy man,
Who, from the moment that he first began
To ride about the world, loved chivalry,
Truth, honour, freedom and all courtesy.
Full worthy was he in his liege-lord's war,
And therein had he ridden (none more far)
As well in Christendom as heathenesse,
And honoured everywhere for worthiness.”
Hales’ exploits began around 1343, when he followed his father into the order of the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. He would have left to serve his noviate on Rhodes, and passed Spain along the way. Hales would already have known that the last remnant of a Berber dynasty called Belmarie (Belmarin or Banu Merin) was holding Algerciras against a Castilian army. The siege went on for twenty months! It is especially remembered for the Moor’s introduction of canon to European warfare, which would have impressed itself upon a young mind. For, like many knights in similar circumstances, Hales may have stopped to lend his fellow Christians a hand. Thus Chaucer wrote:
“In far Granada at the siege was he
Of Algeciras, and in Belmarie.”
He would have found more opportunities to fight infidels in the Eastern Mediterranean. A squadron of 6 Hospitaller galleys helped the Cypriots and Venetians to destroy 50 enemy vessels off Smyrna in 1344. They disembarked and promptly overran the town. This victory was offset the following January, when the Turks eradicated an army venturing into the interior. (The Italians and Cypriots lost interest in the campaign and control of Smyrna passed to the Hospitallers.) Two years later the Hospitallers destroyed 100 Turkish ships off Imbros.
Though we don’t know if Hales took part in these actions, he saw “much service with the Order at Rhodes.” He would have been one of the 25 knights required, along with an equal number of crossbowmen, to serve onboard a galley. Their normal duties consisted of protecting Christian merchant convoys and harassed Moslem shipping. Hales would also have taken his turn standing guard along the English Langue’s 450-yard-long sector of the wall at Rhodes.
He also periodically returned to England and, as High Halden is close to the coast, may have entertained his brother’s family with stories of the wars. Robert’s first known appointments were commander of Slebeche (the order’s primary holding in Western Wales) and Sandford-on-Thames (in Oxfordshire). He was given control of Beverley, in Yorkshire, during 1358 - the year he became “bailiff of Egle” (one of the principal English speaking officials on Rhodes).
If it weren’t for Chaucer, we’d have no reason to believe Hales helped capture the Turkish port of “Satalye” (Adalia). There was no fighting. The Hospitaller’s Grand Master dispatched 4 galleys to join king Peter I of Cyprus. With such an army perched before their walls, the Moors realised the hopelessness of their situation and opened their gates on August 24th 1361.
The sack of Alexandria
Chaucer describes the greatest of Hales’ exploits in two verses:
“At Alexandria, he, when it was won;
Full oft the table's roster he'd begun”
Desmond Seward called him “the hero of Alexandria.” He was Father d’Airasca’s chief lieutenant in the hundred knight contingent dispatched to join Peter of Cyprus’ campaign.
They rowed through heavy swells, for five days, before arriving before Alexandria on October 9th. The prospect before them was daunting. Though most of the Mameluke army was away, the port possessed high walls and 20,000 men to defend them. The Crusading army was less than half that number, but made up for their deficiency by skill and experience.
The battle began in the Old Harbour. Some of the Muslims rushed into the shallows as the first galley neared the beach. The principal chronicler of this war was Guillaume de Machaut, who glorified his countrymen’s exploits. Thus we know the names of the principal French knights. The Hospitaller’s account was more laconic and we have to discern the “feats of valour” Hales performed from Machaut’s epic.
“There was another harbour on the left
Near Alexandria, to it God brought
the Admiral of Rhodes together with
the brothers of the Hospital, strong knights
light footed, active, powerful, everyone
They dressed their horse, got them off the boats
and came ashore in order unopposed.
Then they formed up their squadron, sharp swords drawn
and rode. No one drew reins until they reached
the open ground where so much bloodshed lay
“Kill! kill! You filthy race,” they shouted out
“You’re dead!
The Saracens were close hemmed in
they saw this, turned, and ran.”
The Crusaders assailed Alexandria’s walls. They were repeatedly driven back by a torrent of arrows, catapult stones and burning naphtha. Finally King Peter:
“turned round
and asked the brothers of the Hospital
riding close ranked beside him
“Well my lords
How does it look to you?” Each agreed...”
So with the help of Fathers Hales and d’Airasca, the king rallied his army. As they pressed forward, a sailor discovered the canal bringing fresh water inside the city. All organized resistance collapsed after the Crusaders entered the city.
Then a slaughter, equal to any individual act of genocide from the past century, began. Twenty thousand people were killed during the next 24 hours. The Crusaders paid no attention to age, sex or religion. Coptic Christians, women and children received the same death as Muslim warriors. When the Crusading ships departed they carried 5,000 slaves and so much plunder they were in danger of sinking.
Sir Robert de Hales’ prowess resulted in his being awarded the “Commandery of Grace” immediately upon returning to Rhodes. He remained in the Mediterranean while King Peter’s “Crusade” continued, but disappears into the nameless uniformity of his order. Was he one of the Hospitallers whose charge restored the line at Tripoli, after the Genoese and Venetians were driven from the field? Did he serve on the joint Hospitaller/Cypriot fleet that was nearly overwhelmed off Tyre? Their ships were lashed together to form a battlefield, which made them vulnerable to enemy naphta. Only the knights once more surged forward to victory!
Yet the Crusade was faltering. The Venetians, whose primary concern was trade, were the first to desert. Then the king of Cyprus was assassinated by one of his own nobles. Chaucer describes the deed:
“O noble Peter, Cyprus' lord and king,
Which Alexander won by mastery,
To many a heathen ruin did'st thou bring;
For this thy lords had so much jealousy,
That, for no crime save thy high chivalry,
All in thy bed they slew thee on a morrow.
And thus does Fortune's wheel turn treacherously
And out of happiness bring men to sorrow.”
Prior Robert Hales
Sir Robert Hales returned to England, in 1371, as Prior over the British Isles. That automatically made him Leader of the House of Lords! Though not permitted to “own” property, he could use” it and we find his name attached to several real estate transactions. The peasants would later claim Hales renovated the manor of Highbury until it seemed “like another paradise.” He probably met Geoffrey Chaucer, then a royal attendant, around that time.
In 1372 Robert Hales became the Lord/Grand Prior of the Knights Hospitallers of England.
His order’s Grand Master, Robert de Juilly, embroiled him in an international dispute by appointed a Frenchman Prior of Scotland. King Edward III perceived this as a threat to English interests! Hales added it was a violation of his authority and immediately cut off the annual revenues sent to Malta! (The king rewarded him with the title “Admiral of the Western Fleet.) The affair escalated until the Pope threatened to excommunicate England. That cooled Hales’ ardour and he persuaded his monarch to accept the Frenchman’s appointment.
'Writ to the Mayor, Recorder, and Aldermen, bidding them stay proceedings taken against Robert de Hales, Prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, and John Almayn, one of his brethren, for preventing the carrying of victuals, &c., through "Templegate" to "Tempelbrygge" by the riverside, and to appear before the King's Council at Westminster one month after Easter [2 April]. Witness the King at Westminster, 10 March, 48 Edward III. [A.D. 1373-4]. (fn. 8") ....
Writ to the Mayor, Recorder, and Aldermen reciting that the Prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England had represented to Parliament that Hugh le Despenser the younger had obtained possession of the Prior's Manor of the New Temple, which had become forfeited to the King at the fall of the said Hugh; that the said Hugh had occupied cloisters and other places within the said manor, contrary to the liberty and canons of the Church; that the King had restored these premises to the Temple Church and had caused them to be surrendered to the said Prior and his brethren, and had afterwards sold the residue of the said manor to the said Prior, to hold the same, in conjunction with the cloister and other sacred places, at a rent reserved, as in certain letters patent more fully is contained. And whereas the King now understood that Thomas Duke, a tenant of a certain house in the parish of St. Dunstan, near "Templebarre," let to him for a term of years by John Rothynge, "vineter," claimed to enjoy a right of way for transport of victuals, fuel, &c., from Fletestrete to the bridge called "Templebrigge" on the riverside, and had suffered damage by being prevented from enjoying the right by Robert Hales, Prior of the said Hospital, and John Almayn, one of his brethren, and that the Mayor, &c., had thereupon summoned the said Prior to appear to answer the charge and in default had imposed a fine, the said Mayor, &c., are commanded to suspend all further proceedings as likely to be prejudicial to the rights of the Crown. Witness the King at Westminster, 6 June, 48 Edward III. [A.D. 1374]. (fn. 15) - London, Calendar of Letter-Books, Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London: G, 1352-1374 Folios cccxi - cccxx:
Re the Hospital of the Cross near WInchester - "Serious disputes arose with respect to this hospital during the next episcopacy (Richard of Ilchester, 1174-88), between the bishop and the Hospitallers. At length, on 10 April, 1185, the Order formally gave up the management to the diocesan, (fn. 3) by which agreement the bishop undertook to provide daily for 200 men instead of the original 100. The chartulary shows however that the Order of Hospitallers did their best to recover the management, and actually obtained two papal awards in their favour of the years 1187 and 1189. In 1197, Pope Celestine III. commissioned the Bishops of London and Lincoln and the abbot of Reading to settle the dispute, and they gave their award in favour of the bishop. Nevertheless, only two years later King John again confirmed the hospital to the Hospitallers. (fn. 4)
"The decision however of the papal commissioners was upheld, and in 1204 the Bishop of Winchester appointed a master, which right has since been maintained by the bishops down to the present day. The Hospitallers nevertheless clung to the muniments and records until 1379, when the energetic Bishop Wykeham obtained them from Prior Robert Hales. The prolonged dispute as to the valuable patronage of this hospital had seriously impeded the intentions of the founder, and delayed its completion. The great church was not finished until the year 1255, when special appeals were made for assistance. (fn. 5)" - Victoria County History - Hampshire, A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 2 Hospitals: St Cross, near Winchester
Robert de Hales was one of the Hospitallers that escorted Pope Gregory Xi from Avignon to Vivita Vecchio in 1377
The Abortive Mediterranean Campaign of 1377
Juilly decided to unite his order for another campaign. The Turks were once again threatening the Eastern Mediteranean. He wasn’t sure if they would strike at Smyrna or Rhodes, but resolved to gather a thousand troops. So Hales led 38 English knights, and an equal number of servants, forth around the time his nephew Thomas de Hales was collecting taxes in High Halden. They met Juilly, and the contingents of two other priors, in Marseilles. This little army embarked in nine galleys.
They attacked the Turkish possessions in Greece. The aging Grand Master was the first man up the ladder at Patros. He slew the Turkish governor with his sword! Juilly was less fortunate when they attacked Corinth. He was taken prisoner and the rest of the Hospitallers driven back. That’s when Hales and the other two priors showed the chivalric side of their nature. They offered themselves as captives, if the Turks would free Juilly. The Grand Master squashed the deal, refusing to be released under such terms. He protested that while his life was nearly over and they still had many years ahead of them. So the three priors led their little army on to Rhodes alone.
NAVAL CAMPAIGN OF 1377
Sir Robert Hales was back in England that November, and appointed Admiral of the West from 24 November 1376 – 24 November 1377. Hales embarked upon a naval enterprise with the late king Edward III’s brother Thomas of Woodstock. Their fleet was caught, in the Channel, by a violent squall and driven back to land with heavy losses. The two set sail again, but soon returned with nothing accomplished. It was, as far as I know, Hales’ only action in the French War.
THE POLL TAX
Fourteen-year-old Richard II must have been impressed with this middle aged Crusader, who he made Lord Treasurer of England on February 1st 1381. The young king granted “the said Robert and his brethren that they and their successors shall have the chattels of all their men and tenants, felons and fugitive in the form above: and that they shall have all fines for trespasses, concealment and other offences.”
Sir Robert Hales and Archbishop Simon Sudbury, who held the offices of Lord Treasurer and Lord Chancellor respectively, usually acted together in the events that followed. One chronicler called them the two “morning stars of the kingdom.” They supported (prince) John of Gaunt’s proposal that the graduated scale of past levies be abandoned and everyone – “male or female ... artificers, labourers, servants and other lay persons” When the first reports of the people’s anger arrived, Hales and Sudbury urged the king to ignore “such bare-legged ruffians” and “swore they would seek out the traitors to the king and carry way their heads.”
This was a grave mistake, for while a shilling was insignificant to the lords, some peasant families could only raise it by selling all their possessions. In vain did Wycliffe protest that “Lords do wrong to poor men by unreasonable taxes... the poor perish from hunger and thirst and cold... In this manner, the lords eat and drink poor men's flesh and blood”.
THE PEASANT REBELLION
Sir Robert Hales was shown the intensity of the mob’s hatred when Jack Straw’s led an army of peasants from Essex to his order’s Highbury manor:
“On ... Thursday 13 June, which was the feast of Corpus Christi with the Dominical Letter F, the said commons of Essex went in the morning to Highbury, two leagues north of London and a very fine manor of the Master of the Hospital of St John of Clerkenwell. They set it on fire to the great damage and loss of the Hospitallers of St John. Some of these commons returned to London, but others stayed out in the open fields all night.”
As peasant bands from Kent and Essex descended upon London,
Mayor Walworth suggested they fight. There were only 50 to 80 knights on hand, but Archbishop Sudbury was afraid of raising London’s militia. How could they be sure it wouldn’t join with the rebels? The earl of Salisbury, who had proven his valour at Poitiers and “a hundred” lesser battlefields, urged caution: “Sir, if you can appease them by fair words, it will be so much the better; for should we begin what we cannot go through, it will be all over with us and our heirs, and England will be a desert.”
The principal peasant leader, Wat Tyler, dispatched John Newton, the former constable of Rochester castle, with a message. He informed the council that the peasants “profess loyalty to the king. They want a chance to lay before him the grievances they hold against his councillors and ministers of state. Even against other members of the Royal family. All these, they hold, have been mismanaging the land.”
Fourteen-year-old Richard II agreed to speak with them. Sudbury and Hales accompanied him down the Thames, in a royal barge, the next morning. There was no communication. The peasants made such a clamour of demands that all attempts to converse proved futile. Richard II moved to disembark, before his two councillors persuaded him it would be “great folly to go to the commons for they were unreasonable men who did not know how to behave.”
The Peasants enter London
The mob began shouting, "Let us go straight to London!" They set out at once, destroying monasteries and the houses of lawyers and courtiers along the route. “In the suburbs of London, which are very handsome and extensive, they pulled down many fine houses: they demolished also the king’s prison, called the Marshalsea, and set at liberty all who were confined in it.”
Mayor Walworth left a detachment of militia to defend London Bridge. They raised the drawbridge, then changed their minds when the peasants:
“ ... began to threaten the Londoners because they had closed its gates. They said they would set fire to all the suburbs and then take London by storm, burning and destroying it. The common people of London, many of whom were on their side, assembled together and said: "Why not let those good people come into the town? They are our own people and they are doing all this to help us." So the gates had to be opened and all those famished men entered the town and rushed into the houses which had stocks of provisions.”
Tyler forbid individual acts of murder or and robbery, but dispatched his troops on specific missions. The contents of the state archives went up in smoke. John of Gaunt’s mistress was permitted to leave, while the treasures were taken from his palace were confiscated. One of the rebels attempted to steal a silver goblet and was promptly drowned by his fellows. (The contingent from Rochester absconded with £1,000 from the Duke’s strongbox!) Another group of greedy peasants perished in the wine cellar after throwing three barrels into the fire. They were eager to melt down the “gold” inside, but it turned out to be gunpowder!
The first conference with the king
The situation was grave. Thousands of revolting peasants and militia were coursing through the city streets. Varying accounts give different sequences of events, so we can’t be sure if Hales watched from the tower as the Hospital of Clerkenwell and all his order’s houses in London went up in smoke.
Richard II “called all the lords about him into a chamber, and asked their counsel as to what should be done in such a crisis. But none of them could or would give him any counsel; and so the young king said that he would order the mayor of the city to command the sheriff and aldermen to have it cried within their wards that everyone between the age of fifteen and sixty, on pain of life and limb, should go next morning (which was Friday) to Mile End, and meet him there at seven of the bell. He did this in order that all the commons who were stationed around the Tower would be persuaded to abandon the siege, and come to Mile End.”
He rode out with a small party, on the morning of Friday June 14th and was immediately surrounded by groping peasants. Arriving at the appointed spot, Richard II thrust himself into their midst saying: “My good people, I am your king and your lord, what is it you want?”
Those nearest him replied, “We wish you to make us free forever. We wish to be no longer be called slaves, nor held in bondage.”
The young king readily agreed to this, and most of the peasant’s other terms. Serfdom and obligations to perform unpaid labour were abolished. The peasants would assume the status of tenants, and pay four pence an acre in annual rents for their lands. All restrictions on buying and selling were removed, and everyone who participated in the rebellion was forgiven.
The king replied “I grant you your wish: now return to your homes, and let two or three from each village be left behind, to whom I will order letters to be given with my seal, fully granted on every demand you have made.”
Half of the peasants dispersed after that meeting. Richard employed thirty secretaries, so that they could take back the promises he had made. He also gave his banner to contingents from each county: Kent, Essex, Sussex, Bedford, Suffolk, Cambridge, Stafford and Lincoln.
Jack Straw would later admit that this didn’t please the rebel commanders:
“ ... our plan was to kill all the knights, esquires and other gentlemen ... Then we would have taken the king around with us from place to place in the full sight of all; so that when everybody, and especially the common people, saw him, they would willingly have joined us and our band - for it would have seemed to them that the king was the author of our turbulence. And when we had assembled an enormous crowd of common people throughout the country, we would suddenly have murdered all those lords who could have opposed or resisted us. First, and above all, we would have proceeded to the destruction of the Hospitallers. Then we would have killed the king and driven out of the land all possessioners, bishops, monks, canons and rectors of churches. Only the Mendicants were to survive and they would have sufficed for the celebration of the sacraments and the conferment of orders throughout the land."
"Since there would be no one left who was senior, stronger or more knowledgeable than ourselves, we would have founded laws at our own pleasure by which all subjects would be ruled. Moreover, we would have created kings, Walter Tyler in Kent and one each in other counties, and appointed them. Because this design of ours was hindered by the archbishop, our greatest hatred was directed against him and we longed to kill him as quickly as possible.”
The execution of Hales and the Archbishop
The young king’s choice of Mile End for the conference grew out of a desire “to free the archbishop and the others from the mouths of the wolves.” While he was absent, “the archbishop of Canterbury and the others who were in the Tower… (were supposed) to go down to the little water-gate, and take a boat and save themselves. And the archbishop proceeded to do this; but a wicked woman raised a cry against him, and he had to turn back to the Tower, to his own confusion”
The refugees were joined by some of “the knights who should have gone with the king (but) completely lost their courage and showed, sad to say, no spirit whatsoever; they seemed to be struck by womanly fears and dared not leave but stayed within the Tower.”
So the Archbishop “sung his mass devoutly in the Tower, and confessed the prior of the Hospital of Clerkenwell and others; and then he heard two or three masses and chanted the Commendatio, and the Placebo and Dirige, and the Seven Psalms, and the Litany; and when he was at the words 'Omnes sancti orate pro nobis', the commons entered and dragged him out of the chapel of the Tower, and struck and hustled him roughly as they did also the others who were with him, and led them to Tower Hill.”
Henry Knighton’s account disagrees regarding the use of blows:
“ the wretched sons who remained near the Tower drew forth the archbishop and his said companions and summoned them to their deaths - A without the use of any aggression or force, sword or arrow but only by means of threatening words and disorderly shouts.”
Sudbury responded “Behold the Archbishop whom ye seek. No traitor, no plunderer of the Commons, he.”
There is no record of Hales speaking with his captors. The former “hero of Alexandria” was only about 56, and could presumably have killed several peasants before they overpowered him. He instead imitated Christ’s behaviour before the crucifixion and “voluntarily and without protesting, offered ... (himself like a lamb) to the shearer: barefooted, with ... (his) head uncovered and ...(his belt) laid aside ... (he) went freely to ... (his death) as if ... (he) were a murderer or ... (thief) and deserved this fate.”
Sudbury was the first to lay his head upon a block. The inexperienced executioner merely slashed his neck with the first blow. The Archbishop lost some fingers, as he instinctively shielded his neck from the second. Six more strikes were needed before the deed was accomplished.
Hales was next, followed by some of the others from the tower. Knighton declares “And so - alas and for sorrow! - the two morning-stars of the kingdom, the worthy with the unworthy and seven in all, were executed on Tower Feu before the king returned” from his conference at Mile End.
Then the peasants “took the heads of the archbishop and of the others and put them on wooden poles, and carried them before them in procession through all the city as far as the shrine of Westminster Abbey, to the contempt of themselves, of God and of Holy Church: for which reason vengeance descended on them shortly afterwards. Then they returned to London Bridge and set the head of the archbishop above the gate, with the heads of eight others they had executed.”
Knighton claims that it was then, and not when the king’s followers watched from the tower, that most of the Hospitaller’s possessions were destroyed:
“When they had committed these and other injuries, the rebels returned to the New Temple which belonged to the prior of Clerkenwell and threw down many houses there. They broke the chests they found in the church or the apprentices' rooms; and also tore up with their axes all the church books, charters and records discovered in the apprentices' chests and then burnt them. ...On that same day the commons marched to Clerkenwell where, apart from the church, they left little of the prior's mansion undestroyed. They also completely destroyed the manor of Highbury two leagues out of London which the said Robert de Hales prior had recently and skilfully rebuilt like another paradise ...”