The frightened nobles had
regained their courage, and six thousand knights were soon at the
service of the king, pressing him to let them end the rebellion with
sword and spear.
He refused. His word had been passed, and he would live to it--at least,
until the danger was passed. The peasants still in London received their
charters of freedom and dispersed to their homes. The city was freed of
the low-born multitude who had held it in mortal terror.
Yet all was not over. Many of the peasants were still in arms. Those of
St. Albans were emulated by those of St. Edmondsbury, where fifty
thousand men broke their way into the abbey precincts, and forced the
monks to grant a charter of freedom to the town. In Norwich a dyer,
Littester by name, calling himself the King of the Commons, forced the
nobles captured by his followers to act as his meat-tasters, and serve
him on their knees during his repasts. His reign did not last long. The
Bishop of Norwich, with a following of knights and men-at-arms, fell on
his camp and made short work of his majesty.
The king, soon forgetting his pledges, led an army of forty thousand men
through Kent and Essex, and ruthlessly executed the peasant leaders.
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