Jack Cade - Aftermath

Aftermath

The Jack Cade Rebellion was quieted and dismissed shortly after Cade’s death, but the feeling of rebellion in England did not die down so easily. It inspired ideas of revolt in many other counties in England besides Kent. Many of Cade’s followers from the county of Sussex, such as the yeomen brothers John and William Merfold, organized their own rebellion against King Henry VI. Unlike Jack Cade’s revolt, however, the men in Sussex took Cade’s ideas a step further by making much more radical and aggressive demands of reform. Their animosity could have arisen from the King's reneging on his proclamation of pardon for Jack Cade.

The suspicion that the King wanted all followers of Cade dead was one factor inspiring rebels to take a more drastic view of the reformation of English rule. An indictment following the rebellion stated that the men of Sussex planned to kill the King and all his Lords, replacing them with twelve of the rioters’ own men. These revolts, organized by the young Sussex men, rallied smaller numbers of followers than that of the Cade rebellion. But they demonstrated longstanding class animosity among both labourers and artisans, and perhaps gave some an excuse to loot for their own personal gain.

The unlawful behavior of these later rebels can be seen as having been directly inspired by Jack Cade: he participated in similar behaviors during the initial riot. These minor revolts did produce a number of deaths and caused a shifting atmosphere of peace and then rebellion in England for years after the initial Jack Cade Rebellion. Also, the larger battles over the crown of England, known as the Wars of the Roses, were clearly inspired by views of Cade’s rebels, especially since one of the requests in Cade’s manifesto, the Requests by the Captain of the Great Assembly of Kent, outright informs the King that the mass of rebels and followers wished for the Duke of York to be returned from exile and to take the place of the corrupt Dukes under King Henry VI’s rule.