July 11, 1450 Jack Cade and a peasant rebellion

1450 Jack Cade, leader of a peasant rebellion was killed near Lewes, England, and his head left on a pike on London Bridge (along with those of other leaders of the rebellion).

Jack Cade (possibly named John Mortimer) was the leader of a popular revolt in late medieval Europe in the 1450 Kent rebellion which took place in the time of England's King Henry VI. Cade and his 20,000 comrades had issued The Complaint of the Poor Commons of Kent, a manifesto listing grievances against the government.

Cade appears as a character William Shakespeare's play Henry VI, Part 2. It is one of Cade's followers, in discussion with Cade himself, who has the well-known line, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers".

Related: Wat Tyler's Rebellion, 1381    Ket's Rebellion, 1549    More