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Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, Raphael Holinshed

"Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series)"


Now let us speak of the commons of England and how they persevered.


HOW THE COMMONS OF ENGLAND ENTERED INTO LONDON, AND OF THE GREAT EVIL
THAT THEY DID, AND OF THE DEATH OF THE BISHOP OF CANTERBURY AND DIVERS
OTHER

In the morning on Corpus Christi day king Richard heard mass in the
Tower of London, and all his lords, and then he took his barge with
the earl of Salisbury, the earl of Warwick, the earl of Oxford and
certain knights, and so rowed down along the Thames to Rotherhithe,
whereas was descended down the hill a ten thousand men to see the king
and to speak with him. And when they saw the king's barge coming, they
began to shout, and made such a cry, as though all the devils of hell
had been among them. And they had brought with them sir John Newton to
the intent that, if the king had not come, they would have stricken
him all to pieces, and so they had promised him. And when the king and
his lords saw the demeanour of the people, the best assured of them
were in dread; and so the king was counselled by his barons not to
take any landing there, but so rowed up and down the river.


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