SIR THOMAS MORE _From the Drawing by Hans Holbein_ 193 SIR JOHN ELIOT _From a Steel Engraving by William Holl_ 245 JOHN PYM _From the Engraving by Jacob Houbraken_ 257 MAJOR CARTWRIGHT _From a Contemporary Drawing_ 307 PREFACE “_Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers who begat us._” The names of the seventeen men, here named “Leaders of the People,” are for the most part familiar in our mouths as household words. Those who triumphed, like Anselm and Stephen Langton; or whose cause triumphed, like Simon of Montfort, Eliot, Pym and Hampden, are beyond any loss of fame. Those who in high place quitted themselves like men and died game (if the phrase may be permitted), as did Thomas Becket and Sir Thomas More, have, for all time, deservedly their reward. The unsuccessful rebels, FitzOsbert (called Longbeard), Wat Tyler, Jack Cade and Robert Ket, are hard put to get rid of the obloquy heaped upon them by contemporary authority; while the later rebels, equally unsuccessful, Lilburne, Winstanley, Major Cartwright and Ernest Jones, relying on the pen rather than the sword, escaped the hangman, and in so doing narrowly escaped oblivion. Good Bishop Grosseteste, living out his long life, thwarted often, but unmartyred, enjoys the reputation commonly awarded to conscientious public servants who die in harness. On the whole, re-perusing the records of these seventeen men, who would altogether reverse the verdicts of time? The obloquy may be removed when the work of the rebels is fairly seen, and it may be judged that they deserved better of the State than appeared when they troubled its peace. The rebels of the pen, too, should be worthy of recollection in this age, for they wrought manfully with the weapon now at once so powerful and so popular. The greater men of our series stand out higher as the distance increases. So far readjusted, the awards of history may be accepted.