CADE, JACK, a historical character, leader of an insurrection which broke out in Kent, June, 1450. Little is known of his personal history, further than that he was an Irishman, and an illegitimate relation of the duke of Iork, and hence called himself Mortimer. With 15,000 or 20,000 armed men of Kent, C. marched on London, and encamped at Blackheath, whence he kept up a correspondence with the citizens, many of whom were favorable to his enterprise. The court sent to inquire why the good men of Kent had left their homes; C., in a paper entitled "The Complaint of the Commons of Kent," replied that the people were robbed of their goods for the king's use; that mean and corrupt persons, who plundered and oppressed the commons, filled the high offices at court; that it was "noised that the king's lands in France had been aliened;" that misgovernment had banished justice and prosperity from the land; and that the men of Kent were especially ill-treated and overtaxed, and that the free election of knights of their shire had been hindered. In another paper, called "The Requests by the Captain of the Great Assembly in Kent," C. demanded that the king should resume the grants of the crown, which he complained the creatures about the royal person fat tened on, the king thus being compelled to live on taxation; that the false progeny of the duke of Suffolk should be dismissed; and that the duke of York and others should be restored to favor, and a number of persons punished. The court sent its answer in
the form of an army, before which C. retreated to Sevenoaks, where he awaited the attack of a detachment, which he defeated. The royal now objected to fight against their countrymen; the court made some concessions, and C. entered London on the 3d July. For two days, he maintained the strictest order; but he forced the mayor and judges to passjudgment upon lord Say, one of the king's hated favorites, whose head C.'s men immediately cut off in Cheapside. On the third day, some houses were plundered, the leader himself, it is said, setting the example. C., who at night lodged his army in the borough, got news that the citizens intended to prevent his entrance into the city on the morrow, and in the night lie made an attack on the bridge, but was defeated. A promise of pardon now sowed dissension among his followers, who dis persed, and a price was set upon C.'s head. lie attempted to reach the Sussex coast, but was followed by an esquire, named Alexander Idea, who fought and killed him, July 11. His head was stuck upon London bridge, as a terror to traitors.