[73] “A young man of a godly nature and right pregnant of wit.”—Holinshed. Shakspeare’s farcical account of the rising in King Henry VI., Part II., is, of course, entirely misleading.—See the author’s True Story of Jack Cade.
[74] See the letter of John Payn in the Paston Letters. But Payn wrote fifteen years afterwards, and seems to have been a person of no very scrupulous honesty.
[75] A special act of parliament was passed in 1452 to cancel all that Cade had accomplished.
[76] Cocke was a well-known supporter of Henry VI. and a man of note. He was sheriff of London 1453, alderman in 1456, and mayor and M.P. 1462–3. Knighted by Henry in 1465, he fell from his high estate when Edward IV. was king, and languished in prison on a charge of high treason, only escaping with his life on payment of £8,000.
[77] “What answer to this demand was returned I find not, but like it is the same was granted and performed; for I find not the said captain and Kentishmen at their being in the city to have hurt any stranger.”—Stow.
[78] When, by order of the Privy Council, the Exchequer seized all Cade’s goods, these jewels were sold with the rest. They fetched £114, and a payment of £86 7s. was subsequently made to the Duke of York. So the crown made some profit on the transaction, but Malpas was unrecompensed.—See Devon’s Exchequer Rolls.
[79] “Whereof he lost the people’s favour and hearts. For it was to be thought if he had not executed that robbery he might have gone far and brought his purpose to good effect.”—Fabyan.
[80] This church has long been pulled down. It was absorbed into St. Saviour’s parish the following year. St. Margaret’s Hill is now part of High Street, Borough, and the present St. George’s Church stands near the site of old St. Margaret’s Church.
[81] Acts of Privy Council, 1451.
[82] “In the interests of truth, I must declare at the outset that I cannot find the very slightest foundation for the assertion of Stapleton, copied by Cresacre More and many others, that in the course of time their friendship cooled. Abundant proofs of the contrary will appear.”—Rev. T. E. Bridgett, Life and Writings of Sir Thomas More.