ed an insurrection. The apprentices, and others of the
poorer sort, in London, began by breaking open the prisons, where some
persons were confined for insulting foreigners. They next proceeded
to the house of Meutas, a Frenchman, much hated by them; where they
committed great disorders; killed some of his servants; and plundered
his goods. The mayor could not appease them; nor Sir Thomas More, late
under sheriff, though much respected in the city. They also threatened
Cardinal Wolsey with some insult; and he thought it necessary to fortify
his house, and put himself on his guard. Tired at last with these
disorders, they dispersed themselves; and the earls of Shrewsbury and
Surrey seized some of them. A proclamation was issued, that women should
not meet together to babble and talk, and that all men should keep their
wives in their houses. Next day the duke of Norfolk came into the city,
at the head of thirteen hundred armed men, and made inquiry into the
tumult. Bele and Lincoln, and several others, were sent to the Tower,
and condemned for treason. Lincoln and thirteen more were executed. The
other criminals, to the number of four hundred, were brought before the
king with ropes about their necks, fell upon their knees, and cried for
mercy. Henry knew at that time how to pardon; he dismissed them without
further punishment.[*]

So great was the number of foreign artisans in the city, that at least
fifteen thousand Flemings alone were at one time obliged to leave it, by
an order of council, when Henry became jealous of their favor for Queen
Catharine.[**] Henry himself confesses, in an edict of the star chamber,
printed among the statutes, that the foreigners starved the natives, and
obliged them from idleness to have recourse to theft, murder, and other
enormities.[***] He also asserts, that the vast multitude of foreigners
raised the price of grain and bread.[****] And to prevent an increase of
the evil, all foreign artificers were prohibited from having above two
foreigners in their house, either journeymen or apprentices. A like
jealousy arose against the foreign merchants; and to appease it, a law
was enacted obliging all denizens to pay the duties imposed upon aliens.
The parliament had done better to have encouraged foreign merchants and
artisans to come over in greater numbers to England; which might have
excited the emulation of the natives, and have improved their skill. The
prisoners in the kingdom for debts