CADE, JACK ( -1450). The leader of an insurrection beginning in Kent. England. June, 1450. He was of Irish birth, and had served in the French wars. Assuming the name'of Morti mer, and claiming relationship with the Duke of York, Cade marched with 20,000 to 30,000 armed men on London, and encamped at Blackheath, whence he kept up a communication with the citizens, many of whom were in secret sympathy with the rising. The Court sent to inquire why the 'good non of Kent' had left their homes. Cade, in a paper entitled "The Complaint of the Commons of Kent," replied that the people were being 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 mis government had banished justice and prosperity from the land; that the men of Kent were (-spe cially ill-treated and overtaxed, and that the free election of knights of their shire had been hin dered. In another paper, called "The Requests by the Captain of the Great Assembly in Kent," Cade demanded that the King should resume the grants of the Crown, which lie complained the creatures about the royal person fattened on, while the King was compelled to lice on taxation; that the false progeny of the Duke of snirolk should be dismissed; and that the Duke of York and others should he restored to favor, and a number of persons punished. The Court sent its
in the form of an army, before which Cade retreated to Seven Oaks. where he awaited the attack of a detachment, which he defeated. The royal army refused to tight against their countrymen; the Court made some concessions, and Cade entered London on July 3. For two clays he maintained the strictest order; but he forced the Lord Mayor and the judges to pass judgment upon Lord Say, one of the King's most unpopular favorites, whose head Cade's men immediately cut off in Cheapside. On the third day some houses were plundered. the leader him self, it is said, setting the example. Cade, who at night lodged his army in the suburbs, received news that the citizens intended to prevent his entrance into the city on the next day, and in the night he made an attack on the bridge, hut was defeated. The promise of pardon sowed dis sension among his followers, who dispersed, and a price was set upon Cade's head. Be attempted to reach the Sussex coast, but was slain near Lewes by Men, the sheriff of Kent. on July 11.