Wat Tyler

“ Nicholas! we have had a long search. Hah!" as he glanced on the monk, "have the knaves chained you. Bear him forth, men of Kent—Wat Tyler himself will strike off those irons."
The monk was then conducted to the outer door of the prison. It would be in vain to paint the frantic joy of those without. Deafening shouts of "The prophet is free!" passed from mouth to mouth, and then came the rush to obtain a prayer or benediction.
"Back, men of Kent—back," vociferated Tyler;—and then arose the long wild shout as Tyler freed the monk from the last link of his bonds. ”

“ Be content with saving your own head."
"Then, my lord archbishop," said Oakley, rising, "if a hair of that monk's head is touched, I will not answer for the result. Wat Tyler, my lords, is a man of desperate purpose. He has sworn before the multitude, that, if the prophet is not freed before the twenty-four hours, the heads of all these noble peers around me shall answer for it.—Nay more——"
"Hold, kern," interrupted Richard fiercely; "we despise the threat."
"But, my liege," persisted Jack Straw, "let the council consider the danger of the delay. ”

“ Master Wat Tyler, a robber of Kent, became master, and guided the mob to havoc. Prelate and lawyer, friar and publican were not enough to still their lust of blood. They fell upon the weakest quarter of the city, where the Flemings dwelt, and made a ghastly butchery. Night and day they thronged the streets with foul wet trophies of death. Master Wat Tyler and his friends fed fat of luxury and pride, and boasted themselves the rulers of the land. Father John and Gamelyn, who had called up a devil they could in no wise lay, preached and intrigued in passionate impotence. ”

“ Some of ye do know the truth already, and some do not: but, however, I'll now tell ye, that because in a quarrel I happened to kill one of Lord de Boteler's retainers, I came here to Maidstone and took the name of poor old Wat Tyler, my mother's brother—peace to his soul! and made the folks believe that I was a sort of a runaway son."
"And if you had never known me," said Holgrave, starting up and grasping Turner's hand, "you need not have changed your name: but you are an honest man, let you be called what you may—and Stephen Holgrave will never forget what you have done for him and his." ”

“ Kirkby advanced a few paces, but a glance from Sudbury seemed to unnerve him, and he stood for a moment irresolute.
"There, chicken-hearted carle!" cried the smith, felling Kirkby to the ground with his mailed hand—"there, dog!—Wat Tyler must be obeyed! And now, Simon Sudbury, take off that blessed mitre, which ill befits thee, and come forth; for, by my faith and the blessed St. Nicholas! in one hour hence, thy head shall be stuck on London bridge, wrapped up in the hood of thy own mantle!" And with this, Tyler placed his foot on the first step of the altar. ”

“ John Wraw, of Suffolk, and William Grindcobbe, of St. Albans, come to him for advice; and it is not till Tyler moves on London with his army that the rising becomes national. He is plainly marked out as a great leader of masses of men. Skilful, courageous, humane, Wat Tyler is proved to be; firm, clear-headed, downright in manner, and yet large-hearted, jovial and brotherly—equally at home with king or beggar. There is nothing of the fanatical doctrinaire about this first great leader of the English people. ”

“ Sir Robert Knowles and his men at arms had orders to follow at some distance, but on no account to show themselves until there might be occasion. After surveying the formidable array, which stretched far away into the fields, and listening to De Boteler's remarks on their clever arrangement, either for attack or defence,—
"By my faith! my lord," said Richard eagerly, "these knaves will not be trifled with; but lo! who have we here?" as he perceived a single horseman gallop forward from the centre.
"My liege," said Newton, as the horseman neared the royal train, "that man is Wat Tyler." ”

“ When they approached the rioters, the king checked his horse, and made a sign that he would speak with them. Wat the Tyler at once rode forward, telling his followers to stand fast until he gave the signal.
"The insolent varlet!" Sir Ralph muttered, grasping the hilt of his sword; "see, he lifts not his cap to the king, but rides up as if he were his equal!"
The Tyler, indeed, rode up until his horse's head touched the flank of the king's horse, and he and Richard were knee to knee. Nothing could exceed the insolence of his demeanour.
"King," he said, "do you see all these men here?" ”

“ Accordingly at Maidstone, on June 7th, Wat Tyler is chosen captain of the host; and proof is quickly given that the rising is not for mob rule or general anarchy, but to redress positive and intolerable wrongs. (Five Tylers are mentioned in the records of the Peasant Revolt: Wat Tyler, of Maidstone; John Tyler, of Dartford, who slays the tax-collector, and is not heard of again; Walter Tyler, of Essex; and two Tylers of the City of London—William, of Stone Street, and Simon, of Cripplegate.) ”

“ Richard on this occasion behaved boldly and with much presence of mind, acquiring by his courage and readiness a command over the angry rebels, which resulted in their dispersion. The Wat Tyler rebellion appears to have manifested a more radically democratic state of thinking and feeling among the common people than existed again in England before the seventeenth century. John Ball, a priest, and others who were associated with Wat Tyler in the leadership, preached doctrines of social equality that would nearly have satisfied a Jacobin of the French Revolution. ”

“ Following the stream of time, we arrive next at a travestie of the insurrection, in the reign of Richard II., in which Wat Tyler was the prime mover. Tyler deserves celebration in the history of burlesque as the hero of the only work of this kind produced by Mr. George Augustus Sala. This well-known littérateur came out as a writer of travestie at the Gaiety in 1869, but has not been tempted to repeat the achievement. The fact is to be regretted, for [Pg 108] his "Wat Tyler, M.P." had many strokes of wit and satire. Wat, being named Tyler, naturally became, in a piece of this genre, a hatter. ”

“ TYLER, John (1790–1862) , tenth president of the United States, was accustomed with pride, but with the support of conjecture rather than evidence, to claim relationship with Wat Tyler of the reign of Richard II. The earliest of his American ancestors was Henry Tyler, a reputed native of Shropshire, England, who in 1652 settled at Middle Plantation, Va., on the outskirts of what is now the city of Williamsburg. ”

“ A few days afterwards, the king, with his officers, met Wat Tyler, and a great many of the people who had joined him, in Smithfield, and spoke to him about the complaints the people had made. The Mayor of London, who was near them, fancied Wat Tyler was going to stab the king, so he rode up to him and killed him.
Wat Tyler’s friends now thought it best to make peace with the king; so for this time the civil war was stopped.
Death of Wat Tyler.
I have told you this story, to show you what [Pg 105] mischief is done by cruelty and injustice. ”

“ That done, we will go straight to London and demand from the king himself a charter granting the four points we demand. Wat the Tyler has been chosen our leader. He has struck the first blow, and as a man of courage and energy there is no fear of his betraying us, seeing that he has already put his head into a noose. Now shout for the charter, for the king, and for the commons of England. ”

“ If Wat Tyler died as a man should for the cause he loves, few of those who trampled on the cause of170 the peasants were to know the paths of peace in later years.
Richard died in prison at the hands of Henry Bolingbroke, John of Gaunt’s son, whom Tyler had let depart in safety when the Savoy was in flames. The Earls of Suffolk and Warwick died exiled fugitives. The Earl of Salisbury, fleeing from Henry V., was hanged in the streets of Cirencester. Chief Justice Tressilian was hanged for a traitor in 1387, and Sir Simon Burley was beheaded. ”

“ Many causes had been at work, not in England only, but throughout Europe, to excite discontent among the labouring classes. The severity and rough inquisitorial spirit with which the present impost was collected was beyond what they could bear. In Essex, under Jack Straw, at Dartford, under Wat Tyler, whose daughter had been subjected to insult, and at Gravesend, where Sir Simon Burley had laid claim to a labourer as his villein, insurrections broke out. Wat Tyler was chosen for the general leader, accompanied by John Ball, the popular itinerant preacher. ”

“ In 1381 the memorable meeting between King Richard and the Kentish rebels took place in Smithfield, when their leader, Wat Tyler, was [241] stabbed by Lord Mayor Walworth, and when the boy king, by a bold and masterly act, appeased the mob, who were preparing to avenge the death of their captain. Speed informs us that Walworth, after the fall of Tyler, rushed into the City and returned accompanied by Sir Robert Knowles and a thousand citizens in armour, when he "commanded the head of Wat Tyler to be chopt of from his dead carcase and borne before him on a speare to the king." ”

“ I am a peasant maid only, cried Calote, but I say poor folk is not yet a fellowship. They dream of vengeance. More than they love one another they hate the nobles and bailiffs and the men-of-law, and—
And all them that have brought us to this pass, said Wat Tyler fiercely.
John Ball turned to look at him, and there fell silence.
When the priest spoke again he spoke to Wat, and said: 'T would seem the maid saith soth. Then, turning back to Calote, the smile went out of his eyes: I am not so patient as thy father, he exclaimed, I am not content to prophesy only; there 's some men must do deeds. ”

“ It is an open secret that he will probably be made Lord Coulton when the readjustment of the colonial affairs of the Empire takes him to London. He will be influential there; he has the silent, conservative air of ponderous authority that England trusts. And Lady Tyler is a poised, gracious, and charming person who will be popular socially. She, of course, is of no importance to the Empire. She still looks at Wat worshipfully, without any suspicion that it was she who made him—not the slightest.
I do not know how much of the old Wat is left in him. His silence covers him. ”

“ Besides, it was said that Wat Tyler and a mad priest of Kent were for doing away with all nobles, and for making all men equal, and caution was necessary in dealing with men who held such strange opinions. ”

“ How can the gentry show that they are greater lords than we? Yet they make us labour for their pleasure.' It was this feeling that produced the insurrection of Wat Tyler, which broke out in June 1381. Ball was at that time lodged in the archbishop's prison at Maidstone, to which he had been committed probably about the end of April, as on the 26th of that month the archbishop issued a writ to his commissary to denounce him as an excommunicate (Wilkins, iii. 152) . Formerly, it seems, he had been excommunicated by Archbishop Islip, and the sentence had never been annulled ”

“ A great shout arose, and as the king rode off, most of the country people followed him. A great mob, however, still remained. These consisted principally of Wat the Tyler's following, who had ever been in the front in the doings that had taken place, together with the released malefactors and the town rabble. A few minutes after the king and his followers had left, there was a movement forward, and a moment later, with loud shouts, they began to pour across the drawbridge.
"What madness is this?" Edgar exclaimed. "There are twelve hundred men there, and yet no bow is bent. ”

“ The knight is likewise slow, Calote. He believeth not on the Vision. I shall be dead afore that time cometh,—and thou.
Yet there be them that say the hour is not far distant when the people shall rise and rule, she persisted. Wat Tyler ever threateneth the wrath of the people. He saith the land is full of villeins that have run from the manors, for that the Statute maketh them to labour for slave wage. He saith the people will make themselves free. John Ball goeth about to hearten men to rise against oppression. ”

“ A Story of Wat Tyler's Rising. With 8 full-page Illustrations by W. H. Margetson. 12mo, $1.50.
The story of Wat Tyler's Rebellion is but little known, but the hero of this story passes through that perilous time and takes part in the civil war in Flanders which followed soon after. Although young he is thrown into many exciting and dangerous adventures, through which he passes with great coolness and much credit.
BY G. A. HENTY
"No country nor epoch of history is there which Mr. ”

“ The party separated at Dartford, and, taking two post-chaises at the “Bull,” drove to London, the Pastor “stunned,” as it were, by a constant rapid succession of interesting objects, arriving at Greenwich nearly in a state of stupefaction.
WAT TYLER
Dartford will ever live in history as being the starting-point of Wat the Tyler’s rebellion of 1381. Tradition places the scene of Wat’s murderous attack on the tax-gatherer opposite the “Bull,” where once was Dartford Green. ”

“ On a memorable Tuesday evening Wat had "stopped in" at the Janeses' on his way down-town with his friend Webb, to let Webb return to Miss Janes some music that he had borrowed. And, by a determining accident of fate, as they approached the lamplit veranda of the Janes cottage, Alicia Janes was sitting behind the vine-hung lattice, reading a magazine, while her mother played the piano.
Observe: There was no veranda on the Tyler "residence"; no one ever sat outdoors there; and no one ever played anything but dance-music on the Tyler piano. ”