Evil May Day or Ill May Day is the name of a riot that took
place in 1517 as a protest against foreigners living in London. Apprentices
attacked foreign residents. Some of the rioters were later hanged although King
Henry VIII granted a pardon for the remainder following public pleadings from his
wife, Catherine of Aragon.
Causes
In the early part of the reign of King Henry VIII, Londoners
came to resent the presence of foreigners arriving from the continent, especially
immigrant Flemish workers and the wealthy foreign merchants and bankers of
Lombard Street.
According to the chronicler Edward Hall (c. 1498–1547), a
fortnight before the riot an inflammatory xenophobic speech was made on Easter
Tuesday by a Dr. Bell at St. Paul's Cross at the instigation of John Lincoln, a
broker. Bell called on all "Englishmen to cherish and defend themselves
and to hurt and grieve aliens for the commonweal". Over the following two weeks, there were
sporadic attacks on foreigners and rumors abounded that "on May Day next
the city would rebel and slay all aliens".
The mayor and aldermen, afraid of any possible disturbances,
announced at 8:30 pm 30 April that there would be a 9:00 pm curfew that night.
John Mundy, a local alderman, traveling through Cheapside on his way home that
night, saw a group of young men after the curfew. Mundy ordered the men to
remove themselves from the streets to which one replied: "Why?" Mundy
replied: "Thou shalt know" and grabbed his arm to arrest him. The
man's friends defended him and Mundy fled "in great danger".
The riot
Within a few hours, approximately a thousand young male
apprentices had congregated in Cheapside. The mob freed several prisoners who
were locked up for attacking foreigners and proceeded to St Martin le Grand, a
liberty north of St Paul's Cathedral where numerous foreigners lived. Here they
were met by the under-sheriff of London, Thomas More, who attempted in vain to
persuade them to return to their homes. As soon as more had calmed them,
however, the inhabitants of St Martin started to throw stones, bricks, bats and
boiling water from their windows, some of which fell on an official who
screamed: "Down with them!"
This sparked panic in the mob and they looted foreigners'
houses there and elsewhere in the city, although no one was killed. The Duke of Norfolk entered the city with his
private army of 1300 retainers to suppress the riots. By 3 am the riot had died down, and three
hundred people arrested were pardoned. However, thirteen of the rioters were
convicted of treason and executed on 4 May and Lincoln was executed three days
later. This account by Hall is mirrored by a letter to the Venetian doge written
five days after the riot. While the mob
were on the rampage, Sir Richard Cholmeley, the Lieutenant of the Tower of
London furiously ordered the firing of some of the Tower's artillery at the
city, drawing the ire of the city elders.
In other versions, the rioters closed the city gates to
prevent the King's guard from being reinforced and then temporarily took
control over the city. King Henry was woken up in the middle of the night at
his residence in Richmond and was told of the mayhem ensuing in the capital.
Then forces under the command of the Duke of Norfolk (or the Earl of Shrewsbury
and Duke of Suffolk) and his son the Earl of Surrey finally arrived in the city
and seized prisoners.
The aftermath
By 5 May there were over five thousand troops in London. When the prisoners had an audience with King
Henry in Westminster Hall, the nobility then got on its knees to plead for a
pardon for the prisoners. Henry announced the pardon after his wife, Catherine
of Aragon, appealed before him to spare the lives of the rebels for the sake of
their wives and children. At this the prisoners "took the halters from
their necks and dance.
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