Evil May Day
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Evil May Day or Ill May Day is the name of a riot which took place in 1517 as a protest against foreigners living in London.
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 the wealthy foreign merchants and bankers of Lombard Street.[1] 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 common weal".[2] Over the following two weeks there were sporadic attacks on foreigners and rumours abounded that "on May Day next the city would rebel and slay all aliens".[2]
The mayor and aldermen, afraid of any possible disturbances, announced on 8.30pm 30 April that there would be a 9.00pm curfew that night. John Mundy, a local alderman, travelling 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".[2]
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 privileged 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.[citation needed] By 3am 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.[3] 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.[1]
In a different version 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.[4] 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 danced and sang".[5]
Notes
- Citations
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Rappaport (2002), p. 15
- ↑ Rappaport (2002), p. 16
- ↑ Carolly Erickson, Great Harry: The Extravagant Life of Henry VIII (Robson Books, 2004), p. 148.
- ↑ Fergus Linnane, The Encyclopedia of London Crime (Sutton Publishing, 2005), p. 88.
- References
- Carolly Erickson, Great Harry: The Extravagant Life of Henry VIII (Robson Books, 2004), ISBN 1-86105-638-9.
- Fergus Linnane, The Encyclopedia of London Crime (Sutton Publishing, 2005), ISBN 0-7509-3303-8.
- Steve Rappaport, Worlds Within Worlds: Structures of Life in Sixteenth-Century London (Cambridge University Press, 2002)., ISBN 0-521-89221-X
- Jasper Ridley, Henry VIII (Penguin Classics, 2002), ISBN 0-14-139124-3.
External links
- ‘Evil May Day’: Re-examining the Race Riot of 1517, Graham Noble, History Review 2008 on History Today
