Jack Cade’s Rebellion
In 1450 Jack Cade and his rebels, angry at forced labour and high taxes, marched on London from Kent, destroying churches and killing clerics. Winchester Palace had been restored, so they looted it and freed all the prisoners from The Clink.





Cade reached the London Stone and declared himself Lord Mayor. At first Londoners welcomed the rebels, but they were sickened by the looting and violence (Cade’s men beheaded Lord Saye and Sir Ames Cromer, stuck the heads on pikes and made them kiss at street corners). The new Bishop of Winchester, Waynflete, promised leniency, but the real Lord Mayor routed the rebels with ruthless efficiency and locked many of them in The Clink - before the bishop sat in judgement upon them. Cade was caught by the new Sheriff of Kent, Alexander Iden and hanged, drawn and quartered. So many rebels were executed that they outnumbered the spikes on London Bridge.

Winchester Palace was rebuilt once more, now including a new, two-storey prison for men on the site of what is now The Clink Prison Museum. Over the remaining war tom years of the 15th century, it cannot have been any¬thing but busy, though records of prisoners, and the treatment they received, remain elusive.