Jack Cade Memorial
| Browse information by: Location Makers General Information Classification Object Parts Object Condition History References Photographs |  Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright for Photograph: Creative Commons |
Location
| Street: | B2096 |
| Town: | Cade Street |
| Parish: | Heathfield & Waldron |
| Council: | Wealden District Council |
| County: | East Sussex |
| Postcode: | TN21 |
| Location on Google Map | |
| Location note: | Next to Cade Cottage, north side of road, on top of a bank with retaining wall. |
| In the AZ book: | East Sussex |
| Page: | 77 |
| Grid reference: | J2 |
| The A-Z books used are A-Z East Sussex and A-Z West Sussex (Editions 1A 2005). Geographers' A-Z Map Company Ltd. Sevenoaks. | |
| OS Reference: | TQ607209 |
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Makers
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General Information
| Commissioned by: | Frances Newbery |
| Construction period: | between 1791 and 1819 |
| Work is: | Extant |
| Object listing: | Grade II: of special interest warranting every effort to preserve them |
| Description: | Square stone plinth set on a retaining wall at the roadside with carved inscription to the front. |
| Inscription: | NEAR THIS SPOT WAS SLAIN THE NOTORIOUS REBEL JACK CADE BY ALEXANDER IDEN ESQ. SHERIFF OF KENT A.D. 1450 HIS BODY WAS CARRIED TO LONDON HIS HEAD FIXED UPON LONDON BRIDGE This is the Success of all Rebels and this Fortune chanceth ever to Traitors. On a modern metal plaque affixed to the retaining wall below: NEAR THIS SPOT WAS SLAIN THE NOTORIOUS REBEL JACK CADE BY ALEXANDER IDEN, SHERIFF OF KENT. A.D. 1450. HIS BODY WAS CARRIED TO LONDON AND HIS HEAD FIXED UPON LONDON BRIDGE. THIS IS THE SUCCESS OF ALL REBELS, AND THIS FORTUNE CHANCETH EVER TO TRAITORS. |
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Classification
| Categories: | Roadside / Wayside, Commemorative |
| Object type1: | Shaft |
| Object type2: | Marker |
| Object subtype1: | Commemorative stone |
| Subject type1: | Non-figurative |
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Object Parts
| Part 1: | Monument |
| Material: | Stone |
| Height (cm): | 250 |
| Width (cm): | 150 |
| Depth (cm): | 150 |
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Object Condition
| Overall condition: | Fair |
| Risk assessment: | No known risk |
| Condition 1 of type: | Surface |
| Condition 1: | Corrosion, deterioration |
| Condition 2: | Bird guano |
| Condition 3: | Abrasions, cracks, splits |
| Condition 4: | Biological growth |
| More details: | General weather wearing and surface corrosion. Inscription quite heavily eroded but just about legible. |
| Date of on-site inspection: | 13/08/2007 |
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History
| History: | 'Jack Cade gave his name to the rebellion of 1450, leading an army of insurgents to London, seizing the Tower of London and beheading the Treasurer, Lord Saye.'
('Curiosities of East Sussex') 'John (or Jack) Cade was probably born between 1420 and 1430, since he is described as young when he played so prominent a part in one of the greatest insurrections that England has witnessed… To carry out a political design on the part of the Yorkists, under the pretext that the government of Henry the sixth was oppressive to the common people, Cade assumed the name of Mortimer, claiming descent from the Earl of March (which would make him a kinsman of the Duke of York), and put himself at the head of the populace of Kent in opposition to royal authority. Naturally ambitious and daring, he seems nevertheless to have been to a very great extent the tool of the Yorkist party; to emply the quaint expression of Holinshed, ''this captain was not only suborned by teachers but also enforced by privy school-masters''. How he encamped on Blackheath with his Kentish army - how he defeated the Royal forces at Sevenoaks - how he beheaded the Lord Say and Sele in Cheapside, and proclaimed himself master of London - and how he was finally routed by the King's forces and put to death by Alexander Iden - are things so well known that further reference to them is unnecessary, except as to the locality of his death. When Cade found that his cause was desperate, and that a reward of one thousand marks had been offered for his apprehension, he galloped off in the direction of the coast, in the hope of escaping to the continent. He was hotly pursued by Alexander Iden, a gentleman of Sussex extraction, but resident in Westwell in Kent, who at length slew him and obtained the reward. The chronicles do not agree as to the place where this event occurred; some say in Kent, at a village near Hothfield, apparently on the strength of Cade's captaincy of the Kentish men and his death at the hands of the Kentish squire; and Shakespeare, on their authority, lays the death scene in a garden in Kent. Others with more probability declare that it took place in Sussex… That Jack Cade should have sought refuge from his pursuers among the woods and secluded nooks of his native Weald it is reasonable to suppose, and the traditions of the district fully support such an opinion. On the latter authority he is said to have concealed himself at the farm-house of Newick, in the northern part of the parish of Heathfield, then a small moated mansion, which was afterwards called, in an allusion to the event, ''Cade's Castle''…the road leading from Heathfield Common to that house was called ''Iden's Gate'', or way, probably indicating the route taken by the Kentish squire when in search of the rebel, though the actual place of his death is fixed in another part of the parish, at 'Cade' Street. He was playing at bowls - so goes the tradition - in the garden of an ale-house there, when he was pierced with an arrow from Mr. Iden's well-strung bow. On the opposite side of the road the late Mr. Francis Newbery, the eminent druggist of St. Paul's Churchyard, then owner of Heathfield Park, erected a monumental stone to commemorate the event…' (Worthies of Sussex) CADE By my valour, the most complete champion that ever I heard! Steel, if thou turn the edge, or cut not out the burly-boned clown in chines of beef ere thou sleep in thy sheath, I beseech God on my knees thou mayst be turned to hobnails. Here they fight. CADE falls O, I am slain! famine and no other hath slain me: let ten thousand devils come against me, and give me but the ten meals I have lost, and I'll defy them all. Wither, garden; and be henceforth a burying-place to all that do dwell in this house, because the unconquered soul of Cade is fled. IDEN Is't Cade that I have slain, that monstrous traitor? Sword, I will hollow thee for this thy deed, And hang thee o'er my tomb when I am dead: Ne'er shall this blood be wiped from thy point; But thou shalt wear it as a herald's coat, To emblaze the honour that thy master got. CADE Iden, farewell, and be proud of thy victory. Tell Kent from me, she hath lost her best man, and exhort all the world to be cowards; for I, that never feared any, am vanquished by famine, not by valour. Dies IDEN How much thou wrong'st me, heaven be my judge. Die, damned wretch, the curse of her that bare thee; And as I thrust thy body in with my sword, So wish I, I might thrust thy soul to hell. Hence will I drag thee headlong by the heels Unto a dunghill which shall be thy grave, And there cut off thy most ungracious head; Which I will bear in triumph to the king, Leaving thy trunk for crows to feed upon. Exit (William Shakespeare, Henry VI Part II, Act IV, scene X. Kent. IDEN's garden.) |
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References
| Source 1 : | |
| Title: | 'Curiosities of East Sussex: A County Guide to the Unusual' |
| Type: | Book |
| Author: | Arscott, David. |
| Page: | 40 |
| Publisher: | S.B. Publications. Market Drayton. |
| Source 2 : | |
| Title: | 'The Worthies of Sussex' |
| Type: | Book |
| Author: | Lower, Mark Anthony. |
| Page: | 55-57 |
| Publisher: | Printed for subscribers only by G.P. Bacon, Lewes. |
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Photographs
Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |  Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |
 Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |  Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |
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