Crime -- Great Britain; Criminals -- Great Britain; Executions and executioners; Tyburn gallows (London, England)
The good man of the Cocke in Cheap at the little conduit was murdered in
the night time by a thiefe that came in at a gutter window, as it was
knowne long after by the same thiefe, when he was at the gallowes to
be hanged for felonie, but his wife was burnt therefore, and three of
his men drawne to Tiburne, and there hanged wrongfully. One of the old
chroniclers, after telling the story, adds, “and that was ruth.” What
more can be said in presence of such a calamity?
=1388.= The struggle for power under the rule of the boy-king, Richard
II., ended in the utter rout of one of the two factions. “Appealed of
treason” by their successful rivals, the archbishop of York, the duke
of Ireland, and the duke of Suffolk, sought safety in flight. Let Stow
tell the fate of chief justice Tresilian, of Nicholas Brembre, the City
chief of the vanquished faction, and of others of less note. The end of
Tresilian has a curious resemblance to that, three hundred years later,
of another great lawyer, lord chancellor Jeffreys. Each had conducted
a bloody judicial campaign. After the suppression of the revolt of the
peasants, Tresilian had sentenced to death John Ball, and, as averred by
an old chronicler, had condemned every one brought before him, whether
guilty or not. Tresilian, like Jeffreys, was captured in a disguise.
Here, indeed, the parallel ends. Jeffreys died a prisoner in the Tower,
and thus escaped the doom of Tresilian. This is Stow’s narrative:—
The foresaid Lords being fled as is aforesaide, Robert Trisilian a
Cornishman, Lord chiefe Justice to the King, had hid himselfe in an
Apothecaries house in the Sanctuary neere to the gate of Westminster,
where he might see the Lords going to the Parliament, and comming forth
thereby to learne what was done, for all his life time he did all things
closely, but now his craft being espied was turned to great folly. For
on Wednesday the seuenteenth of February he was betraied of his owne
seruant, & about eleuen of the clocke beforenoone, being taken by the
Duke of Glocester, and in the Parliament presented, so that the same day
in the after noone hee was drawne to Tyborne from the Tower of London
through the Citie, & there had his throat cut and his bodie was buried in
the gray Friers Church at London. This man had disfigured himselfe, as if
he had beene a poore weake man, in a frize coat, all old & torne, and
had artificially made himselfe a long beard, such as they called a Paris
beard, and had defiled his face, to the end hee might not bee knowen but
by his speach. On the morrow, was executed sir Nicholas Brembar, who had
done many oppressions, & caused seditions in the Citie, of whom it was
saide, yᵗ whilest he was in full authoritie of Maioralitie, hee caused
a common payre of Stockes in euery ward, and a common Axe to be made
to behead all such as should bee against him, and it was further said,
that hee had indited 8000. & more of the best and greatest of the Citie,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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