entishmen still however lay unbroken in Southwark, while Bishop Waynflete
conferred with Cade on behalf of the Council. Their "Complaint" was
received, pardons were granted to all who had joined in the rising, and
the insurgents dispersed quietly to their homes. Cade had striven in vain
to retain them in arms; on their dispersion he formed a new force by
throwing open the gaols, and carried off the booty he had won to
Rochester. Here however his men quarrelled over the plunder; his force
broke up, and Cade himself was slain by Iden, the Sheriff of Kent, as he
fled into Sussex.

[Sidenote: York and the Beauforts]

Kent remained restless through the year, and a rising in Wiltshire showed
the growing and widespread trouble of the time. The "Complaint" indeed had
only been received to be laid aside. No attempt was made to redress the
grievances which it stated or to reform the government. On the contrary
the main object of popular hate, the Duke of Somerset, was at once
recalled from Normandy to take his place at the head of the royal Council.
York on the other hand, whose recall had been pressed in the "Complaint,"
was looked upon as an open foe. "Strange language," indeed, had long
before the Kentish rising been uttered about the Duke. Men had threatened
that he "should be fetched with many thousands," and the expectation of
his coming to reform the government became so general that orders were
given to close the western ports against his landing. If we believe the
Duke himself, he was forced to move at last by efforts to indict him as a
traitor in Ireland itself. Crossing at Michaelmas to Wales in spite of the
efforts to arrest him, he gathered four thousand men on his estates and
marched upon London. No serious effort was made to prevent his approach to
the king; and Henry found himself helpless to resist his demand of a
Parliament and of the admission of new councillors to the royal
council-board. Parliament met in November, and a bitter strife between
York and Somerset ended in the arrest of the latter. A demand which at
once followed shows the importance of his fall. Henry the Sixth still
remained childless; and Young, a member for Bristol, proposed in the
Commons that the Duke of York should be declared heir to the throne. But
the blow was averted by repeated prorogations, and Henry's sympathies were
shown by the committal of Young to the Tower, by the release of Somerset,
and by his promotion to the captaincy of