Si est agarde q’ils soient Ajuggez Traitres, &, come Traitres & Tirantz atteintz, Traynez, Penduz, Decolez, & lour Corps Quartirez, & lour Chiefs mys sur le Pount de Loundres, & les Quarters mys a les Quatre Principals Villes du North (c’est assaver) a Everwyk, Noef Chastel sur Tyne, Kardoil, and Berewyk, de les y pendre haut par Cheines, en ensample & terrour des Traitres & Tirantz celles Parties. Tyburn is not mentioned.
1377. Sir John Menstreworth, accused of embezzling from the king large sums allotted to him for the pay of soldiers, fled to France.
About this time (April), writes the chronicler, was captured Sir John Menstreworth, a traitorous knight, who had fled to Pamplona, a city of Navarre. Brought to London, he was first drawn, then hanged: finally his body was divided into four quarters, which were sent to four principal cities of England; and his head was fixed on London Bridge, where it remained for a long time.[133]
1386. And that yere the goode man at the sygne at the Cocke in Chepe, at the Lyttyll Condyte, was mortheryd in hys bedde be nyght, and therefore hys wyffe was brente, and iiij of hys men were hangyd at Tyborne.[134]
The Grey Friars Chronicle says that three servants were drawn and hanged. This is the record of a terrible judicial error. The Chronicles tell the story, some under the year 1386, some under 1391. We may suppose that the dates are those respectively of the commission of the crime and the discovery of the real criminal. Stow thus tells the whole story in his “Summary,” ed. 1598:—
The good man of the Cocke in Cheap at the little conduit was murdered in the night time by a thiefe that came in at a gutter window, as it was knowne long after by the same thiefe, when he was at the gallowes to be hanged for felonie, but his wife was burnt therefore, and three of his men drawne to Tiburne, and there hanged wrongfully. One of the old chroniclers, after telling the story, adds, “and that was ruth.” What more can be said in presence of such a calamity?
1388. The struggle for power under the rule of the boy-king, Richard II., ended in the utter rout of one of the two factions. “Appealed of treason” by their successful rivals, the archbishop of York, the duke of Ireland, and the duke of Suffolk, sought safety in flight. Let Stow tell the fate of chief justice Tresilian, of Nicholas Brembre, the City chief of the vanquished faction, and of others of less note. The end of Tresilian has a curious resemblance to that, three hundred years later, of another great lawyer, lord chancellor Jeffreys. Each had conducted a bloody judicial campaign. After the suppression of the revolt of the peasants, Tresilian had sentenced to death John Ball, and, as averred by an old chronicler, had condemned every one brought before him, whether guilty or not. Tresilian, like Jeffreys, was captured in a disguise. Here, indeed, the parallel ends. Jeffreys died a prisoner in the Tower, and thus escaped the doom of Tresilian. This is Stow’s narrative:—
The foresaid Lords being fled as is aforesaide, Robert Trisilian a Cornishman, Lord chiefe Justice to the King, had hid himselfe in an Apothecaries house in the Sanctuary neere to the gate of Westminster, where he might see the Lords going to the Parliament, and comming forth thereby to learne what was done, for all his life time he did all things closely, but now his craft being espied was turned to great folly. For on Wednesday the seuenteenth of February he was betraied of his owne seruant, & about eleuen of the clocke beforenoone, being taken by the Duke of Glocester, and in the Parliament presented, so that the same day in the after noone hee was drawne to Tyborne from the Tower of London through the Citie, & there had his throat cut and his bodie was buried in the gray Friers Church at London. This man had disfigured himselfe, as if he had beene a poore weake man, in a frize coat, all old & torne, and had artificially made himselfe a long beard, such as they called a Paris beard, and had defiled his face, to the end hee might not bee knowen but by his speach. On the morrow, was executed sir Nicholas Brembar, who had done many oppressions, & caused seditions in the Citie, of whom it was saide, yᵗ whilest he was in full authoritie of Maioralitie, hee caused a common payre of Stockes in euery ward, and a common Axe to be made to behead all such as should bee against him, and it was further said, that hee had indited 8000. & more of the best and greatest of the Citie, but it was said that the said Nicholas was beheaded with the same Axe hee hadde prepared for other: this man if hee hadde liued, hadde beene created Duke of Troy, or of London by the name of Troy.
On the fourth of March Thomas Vske, Undershriue of London, & Iohn Blake Esquire, one of the kings household, were drawne from the Tower to Tyborne and there hanged and beheaded, the head of Thomas Vske was set vp ouer Newgate, to the opprobry of his parents, which inhabited thereby.
Also on the 12. of May … Sir Iohn Bernes knight of the kings Court a lustie young man, was in the same place [Tower hill] beheaded, sir Iohn Salisburie knight was drawne from the Tower to Tyborne and there hanged.