CAPTAIN HANS-FRANCIS HASTINGS--CLAIMING TO BE EARL OF HUNTINGDON, REBOK--THE COUNTERFEIT VOLDEMAR, ELECTOR OF BRANDENBURG, ARNOLD DU TILH--THE PRETENDED MARTIN GUERRE, PIERRE MEGE--THE FICTITIOUS DE CAILLE, MICHAEL FEYDY--THE SHAM CLAUDE DE VERRE, THE BANBURY PEERAGE CASE, JAMES PERCY--THE SO-CALLED EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND, THE DOUGLAS PEERAGE CASE, ALEXANDER HUMPHREYS--THE PRETENDED EARL OF STIRLING, THE SO-CALLED HEIRS OF THE STUARTS, JOHN HATFIELD--THE SHAM HONOURABLE ALEXANDER HOPE, HERVAGAULT--_SOI-DISANT_ LOUIS XVII. OF FRANCE, MATURIN BRUNEAU--_SOI-DISANT_ LOUIS XVII. OF FRANCE, NAUeNDORFF--_SOI-DISANT_ LOUIS XVII. OF FRANCE, AUGUSTUS MEVES--_SOI-DISANT_ LOUIS XVII. OF FRANCE, RICHEMONT--_SOI-DISANT_ LOUIS XVII. OF FRANCE, THE REV. ELEAZAR WILLIAMS--_SOI-DISANT_ LOUIS XVII. OF FRANCE, THOMAS PROVIS CALLING HIMSELF SIR RICHARD HUGH SMYTH, LAVINIA JANNETTA HORTON RYVES--THE PRETENDED PRINCESS OF CUMBERLAND, WILLIAM GEORGE HOWARD--THE PRETENDED EARL OF WICKLOW, AMELIA RADCLIFFE--THE SO-CALLED COUNTESS OF DERWENTWATER, ARTHUR ORTON--WHO CLAIMED TO BE SIR ROGER CHARLES DOUGHTY TICHBORNE, BART., JACK CADE--THE PRETENDED MORTIMER. Henry VI. was one of the most unpopular of our English monarchs. During his reign the nobles were awed by his austerity towards some members of their own high estate, and divided between the claims of Lancaster and York; and the peasantry, who cared little for the claims of the rival Roses, were maddened by the extortions and indignities to which they were subjected. The feebleness and corruption of the Government, and the disasters in France, combined with the murder of the Duke of Suffolk, added to the general discontent; and the result was, that in the year 1450 the country was ripe for revolution. In June of that year, and immediately after the death of Suffolk, a body of 20,000 of the men of Kent; assembled on Blackheath, under the leadership of a reputed Irishman, calling himself John Cade, but who is said in reality to have been an English physician named Aylmere. This person, whatever his real cognomen, assumed the name of Mortimer (with manifest allusion to the claims of the House of Mortimer to the succession), and forwarded two papers to the king, entitled "The Complaint of the Commons of Kent," and "The Requests of the Captain of the Great Assembly in Kent." Henry replied by despatching a small force against the rioters. Cade unhesitatingly gave battle to the royal troops, and having defeated them and killed their leader, Sir Humphrey Stafford, at Seven Oaks, advanced towards London. Still preserving an appearance of moderation, he forwarded to the court a plausible list of grievances, asserting that when these were