Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, the production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry.
Speaker 1: This episode is coming out on May Feet. Happy may Day.
Speaker 1: Happy may Day. As a holiday, May Day has come
Speaker 1: to have two different and sometimes overlapping meetings. There's the
Speaker 1: one going back to medieval Europe. That's the holiday with
Speaker 1: the celebration of the return of spring, full of greenery
Speaker 1: and may poles in general merriment, and of course that
Speaker 1: has its roots and much earlier springtime and fertility festivities
Speaker 1: than in eighty nine. Socialist and communist organizations also selected
Speaker 1: May first as International Workers Day, also known as Labor Day,
Speaker 1: and over the next few decades May Day increasingly took
Speaker 1: on those connotations. So then in n Pope Pious the
Speaker 1: twelfth responded by naming May for also as the feast
Speaker 1: of Saint Joseph the Worker, so keeping that whole connotation
Speaker 1: connected to labor and also emphasizing a religious element over
Speaker 1: the connections to communism and socialism. Sometimes people look back
Speaker 1: in history and describe one particular May Day in fifteen
Speaker 1: seventeen as being a really early example of both of
Speaker 1: these meetings at the same time thanks to a riot
Speaker 1: that was primarily carried out by working people, those being
Speaker 1: apprentices and journeymen and other people in similar circumstances. But
Speaker 1: while this was an uprising of laborers, this incident, which
Speaker 1: is called the Evil may Day or Ill may Day Riot,
Speaker 1: was also rooted in immigration and xenophobia in Tutor London.
Speaker 1: Most of the workers who took part in this riot
Speaker 1: were apprenticed in London's guild system in the sixteenth century.
Speaker 1: Guilds formed the economic and political backbone of life in London.
Speaker 1: These organizations had started to form pretty organically the tenth
Speaker 1: and eleven centuries as more people moved into towns. People
Speaker 1: who worked in the same trade tended to live near
Speaker 1: each other, both supporting and learning from one another and
Speaker 1: keeping an eye on the competition. So these informal groups
Speaker 1: of working people gradually coalesced into more formal associations. Those
Speaker 1: evolved into guilds. Because some of the guilds started wearing
Speaker 1: livery to distinguish themselves from one another, they're also called
Speaker 1: livery companies and livery companies still exist today, but in
Speaker 1: sort of slightly different uh form and back in the
Speaker 1: medieval period, guilds trained new members through apprenticeships, and they
Speaker 1: set standards for their work and for the behavior of
Speaker 1: all their members, including things meant to protect all their
Speaker 1: trade secrets. Failure to live up to these standards could
Speaker 1: lead to a range of punishments, including physical punishments and fines,
Speaker 1: having your tools confiscated, or being completely expelled from the guild.
Speaker 1: Being expelled from the guild was extremely serious in London.
Speaker 1: To practice a trade, you had to have the freedom
Speaker 1: of the city, and that freedom was conferred by being
Speaker 1: in a guild, and the guilds effectively had a monopoly
Speaker 1: on their specific trade, so if you weren't in a
Speaker 1: guild anymore, you almost certainly lost your livelihood. Conversely, during
Speaker 1: their heyday, being in a guild also offered a person
Speaker 1: some protection, including being cared for in their later years.
Speaker 1: When we were on our tour last year and I
Speaker 1: got to go to the book Binders Museum, the docent
Speaker 1: who was taking me on a guided tour of it
Speaker 1: described the book Binders Guild as being like part professional organization,
Speaker 1: part organized crime. A lot of stuff that would not
Speaker 1: necessarily fly today in a professional organization, and then these
Speaker 1: guilds in London came to wield huge political power as well.
Speaker 1: By fifteen fifteen, there were forty eight of them and
Speaker 1: they had been arranged into a hierarchy based in the
Speaker 1: on their wealth and their importance. This hierarchy was developed
Speaker 1: by London's aldermen to try to put a stop to
Speaker 1: ongoing rivalries and jockeying for power among the guilds. There
Speaker 1: was a lot of fighting a disagreement among them all,
Speaker 1: and creating this hierarchy was meant to put a stop
Speaker 1: to that. About twenty years after the events were talking
Speaker 1: about today, the twelve highest ranking guilds became known as
Speaker 1: the twelve grade Companies, and they had even more political
Speaker 1: power than all of the others. The guilds essentially governed
Speaker 1: their members through strict enforcement of their own rules and policies,
Speaker 1: and they were also a major part of governing the
Speaker 1: city itself. London's freemen elected aldermen from each of the
Speaker 1: city's wards, and the livery companies also elected the Lord Mayor,
Speaker 1: who was second only to the monarch in the context
Speaker 1: of the city's affairs. So by the sixteenth century, the
Speaker 1: guilds were essentially running the city government of London, although
Speaker 1: not everyone was in a guild by any stretch, and
Speaker 1: guilds weren't the only source of social or political power.
Speaker 1: For example, most guilds didn't admit women, so women weren't
Speaker 1: really part of this process, although women frequently worked with
Speaker 1: their husbands or their male relatives who were guild members.
Speaker 1: And then there was also this overlapping system of parishes
Speaker 1: with parish priests and other clergy who were also a
Speaker 1: critical part of the social framework and sort of keeping
Speaker 1: the standards of society going. There were also a couple
Speaker 1: of huge exceptions to the guild's political power in London.
Speaker 1: One was the monarch. Even though London was self governing,
Speaker 1: the monarchs still had the power to make decisions that
Speaker 1: affected the city or to overrule decisions that were made
Speaker 1: by the city government or the individual guilds. The other exception,
Speaker 1: which connected back to the monarch, was the existence of liberties.
Speaker 1: Starting in the medieval period, monarchs had designated various entities
Speaker 1: as liberties, and then a liberty existed outside the city's jurisdiction.
Speaker 1: In some cases, it wasn't really even under the jurisdiction
Speaker 1: of the monarch. Most of these liberties were affiliated with
Speaker 1: the church and so they were under ecclesiastical control, but
Speaker 1: some were more affiliated with a specific lord and under
Speaker 1: his control. Since liberties were essentially their own jurisdiction, they
Speaker 1: got to set their own rules about who could live there,
Speaker 1: what trades they could practice, and how they could run
Speaker 1: their Businesses and monasteries, churches, nobles and anyone else with
Speaker 1: status as a liberty had plenty of incentives to basically
Speaker 1: create their own market. An obvious incentive was money. If
Speaker 1: a liberty was effectively establishing its own marketplace that was
Speaker 1: free from the restrictions of the city and the guilds,
Speaker 1: that could be really lucrative. And then another incentive was
Speaker 1: the types of goods that were available. Artisans from elsewhere
Speaker 1: in Europe were often making goods or using materials and
Speaker 1: techniques that weren't otherwise available in England, So if a
Speaker 1: liberty was giving sanctuary to foreign artisans, it was getting
Speaker 1: access to different types of goods and different styles of workmanship,
Speaker 1: many of which were in very high demand from the
Speaker 1: country's wealthiest residents, and the monarch had plenty of incentive
Speaker 1: to not just allow this, but to encourage it. One
Speaker 1: of the monarch's sources of income was customs duties from
Speaker 1: trade with other countries, so it was in the monarch's
Speaker 1: financial interests to encourage these trading relationships. Plus, the monarch
Speaker 1: and the nobility really liked luxury goods like silk and
Speaker 1: spices that just weren't made locally in England. Cutting back
Speaker 1: on imports from other countries meant losing access to these things.
Speaker 1: They were not excited about that idea at all. So
Speaker 1: this interconnected world of guilds and liberties and the monarchy
Speaker 1: bread a lot of frustration and resentment among working people
Speaker 1: in sixteenth century London. By then London had a population
Speaker 1: of roughly fifty thousand people, although I saw some estimates
Speaker 1: as high as a hundred thousand when I was working
Speaker 1: on this. Between one thousand and fifteen hundred of them,
Speaker 1: or between two and three percent, were immigrants, or in
Speaker 1: the language of the time, aliens or strangers. These immigrants
Speaker 1: had come to London for a variety of reasons, and
Speaker 1: we're all across the economic spectrum. Some were regular artisans
Speaker 1: and craftspeople who were fleeing war or other violence. London
Speaker 1: was also becoming wealthier, which made it more attractive to
Speaker 1: people who thought they might have a better life in
Speaker 1: another country. The most prosperous immigrants were often in England
Speaker 1: at the invitation of the king, or were acting as
Speaker 1: representative of a wealthy family or business headquartered somewhere else
Speaker 1: in Europe. Speaking in very broad strokes, so we're talking
Speaker 1: about trends here and not every individual immigrant. Flemish and
Speaker 1: Dutch immigrants were often working in cloth related industries, especially
Speaker 1: related to fine wool and weaving. French and German immigrants
Speaker 1: included artisans along with wealthier merchants. Italian immigrants were often
Speaker 1: associated with banking. London's Lombard Street, with all of its
Speaker 1: banks and merchant houses, was named for the Lombardy region
Speaker 1: of northern Italy, where all of those bankers and merchants
Speaker 1: were from, or most of them were from. There was
Speaker 1: also a small community of Africans and people of African descent,
Speaker 1: many of whom were working as musicians or other entertainers,
Speaker 1: although the riot that we're talking about today does not
Speaker 1: seem to have been focused on them at all. And
Speaker 1: of course, among all of these nationalities there were also
Speaker 1: people who weren't working any particular craft or trade. There
Speaker 1: were diplomats and courtiers and other wealthier people. By the
Speaker 1: fifteen teens, many English workers thought there were too many
Speaker 1: strangers in London, that the city was literally being overrun,
Speaker 1: and English artisans and craftspeople were being crowded out by
Speaker 1: foreign competition. This perception was exacerbated by the fact that
Speaker 1: immigrants tended to be clustered into very specific parts of
Speaker 1: the city, into sanctuaries or the estates of wealthy people
Speaker 1: from their native country. They also made up a large
Speaker 1: portion of several industry ease. For example, about half of
Speaker 1: London's Tanners and Cooper's were immigrants. So people were making
Speaker 1: a lot of the same arguments that you hear today
Speaker 1: against immigration. But at the same time, a much bigger
Speaker 1: source of competition for jobs was migration from within England,
Speaker 1: not from elsewhere. These were from rural areas and smaller
Speaker 1: towns into London. Rural poverty was a huge problem due
Speaker 1: to agricultural changes, including the enclosure movement, and this led
Speaker 1: people to move into cities, especially into London, trying to
Speaker 1: find work. About five per cent of England's population lived
Speaker 1: in London, but about fifteen percent of England's population lived
Speaker 1: in London at some point in their lives, so while
Speaker 1: unemployment was a real problem, immigrants were really not the
Speaker 1: cause of this problem, and the apprentices were particularly disgruntled.
Speaker 1: At this point in English history, apprenticeships were prestigious, but
Speaker 1: they were also very difficult. Most apprentices were in their
Speaker 1: teens and their lives were strictly managed by the master
Speaker 1: of the guild. So these young men, whose lives were
Speaker 1: very tightly controlled, thought they were preparing for work in
Speaker 1: an economy that was inherently stacked against them. In April
Speaker 1: of fifteen sixteen, flyers were posted all around London about
Speaker 1: how strangers in the wool trade we're getting rich off
Speaker 1: the King's favor while English people suffered. King Henry the
Speaker 1: Eighth ordered the handwriting of every apprentice to be compared
Speaker 1: to these notices to try to figure out who had
Speaker 1: done it. This came to a head just over a
Speaker 1: year later, and we're going to talk about that after
Speaker 1: we first have a little sponsor break. In the spring
Speaker 1: of fifteen seventeen, English craftsmen living in London were fed up,
Speaker 1: and the words of chronicler Edward Hall quote, the multitude
Speaker 1: of strangers was so great about London that the poor
Speaker 1: English artificers could scarce any living and most of all,
Speaker 1: the strangers were so proud that they disdained, mocked, and
Speaker 1: oppressed the Englishman, which was the beginning of the grudge.
Speaker 1: To particular foreigners had drawn a lot of the city's ire.
Speaker 1: One was John Mautie of France, who was a royal secretary.
Speaker 1: He maintained an estate called green Gate, where his position
Speaker 1: allowed him to offer sanctuary to other people from France,
Speaker 1: and it was commonly believed that the immigrants at green
Speaker 1: Gate included lots of pickpockets and unlicensed wool carters. It's
Speaker 1: not clear at all how much of this was accurate
Speaker 1: and how much was just rumor about this prominent french
Speaker 1: Man and the people that he was sheltering, but the
Speaker 1: people of London definitely believed it and took it as
Speaker 1: a sign of everything that was wrong with immigrants. The
Speaker 1: other was Italian merchant Francesco de Barti. De Party imported
Speaker 1: fine fabrics into England, and he exported English wool back
Speaker 1: to Italy. One of his customers was King Henry the
Speaker 1: Eighth himself, and the King was fond enough of Party
Speaker 1: that he granted him a license to import his fabric
Speaker 1: without having to pay customs on it, which people thought
Speaker 1: was really unfair. On top of that, he had, according
Speaker 1: to accounts of the time, enticed an englishman's wife to
Speaker 1: come and live with him and to bring all of
Speaker 1: the households gold and silver with her. Her husband had
Speaker 1: filed a lawsuit against Devarty, leading Debarti to insult him
Speaker 1: in court before filing a suit of his own. Devarti's
Speaker 1: suit alleged that the woman's husband owed him money for
Speaker 1: the cost of her lodging. Again, it's not totally clear
Speaker 1: how much of this was true, but once again people
Speaker 1: believed it, and it speaks to the whole idea that
Speaker 1: immigrants were disdaining and mocking the English. Yeah, a lot
Speaker 1: of the things that people were upset about in terms
Speaker 1: of specific foreigners in London sounds like tabloid fodder that
Speaker 1: may or may not have been true, but people were
Speaker 1: definitely riled up about it. So printing was still a
Speaker 1: fairly new innovation in English in fifteen seventeen. William Caxton
Speaker 1: is believed to be the person who introduced movable type
Speaker 1: into England. About forty years before that, a little less
Speaker 1: than forty years so printing still wasn't widely available for
Speaker 1: everyday use, and that's why those bills that were posted
Speaker 1: around town in fifteen sixteen had been handwritten. Plus the
Speaker 1: vast majority of people couldn't read, so if somebody had
Speaker 1: a message to get out, they weren't printing flyers and
Speaker 1: and widely distributing them. As what happened later on in history,
Speaker 1: the best way to do it was really to speak somewhere,
Speaker 1: or to get somebody else, preferably somebody who had an
Speaker 1: audience to do it for them. So one common tactic
Speaker 1: was to get members of the clergy to speak from
Speaker 1: the pulpit about the issue. A broker called John Lincoln
Speaker 1: was one of the people trying to convince the English
Speaker 1: clergy to speak out against immigrants. First, he approached a
Speaker 1: man named doctor Standish, who was scheduled to give an
Speaker 1: Easter sermon in fifteen seventeen. Standish, however, had the favor
Speaker 1: of many members of the aristocracy who were wealthier and
Speaker 1: more powerful and not so opposed to England's immigrant population,
Speaker 1: so Standish refused. He might have also thought this was
Speaker 1: a bad idea, so Lincoln went to another man, Dr Bell,
Speaker 1: sometimes spelled Dr Beale, and he was cannon at St
Speaker 1: Mary without Bishop's Gate, and this was more commonly known
Speaker 1: as St Mary's Spittle because of a hospital there. So
Speaker 1: Dr Bell was to give a public sermon at St
Speaker 1: mary Spittle on April fourteenth, and that was the Tuesday
Speaker 1: of Easter Week, and unlike Dr Standish, Doctor Bell was
Speaker 1: persuaded to make his sermon that day on the subject
Speaker 1: of England's immigrant population. On the fourteen Doctor Bell began
Speaker 1: his sermon by reading a bill or petition that someone else,
Speaker 1: presumably Lincoln, had written. It read quote, to all you,
Speaker 1: the worshipful lords and masters of this city, that will
Speaker 1: take compassion over the poor people your neighbors, and also
Speaker 1: of the great importable hurts, losses, and hindrances, whereof preceding
Speaker 1: the extreme poverty to all the King's subjects that inhabit
Speaker 1: within this city and suburbs of the same. For so
Speaker 1: it is that the aliens and strangers eat the bread
Speaker 1: from the poor fatherless children, and take the living from
Speaker 1: all the artificers, and the intercourse from all merchants, whereby
Speaker 1: poverty is so much increased that every man bewaileth the
Speaker 1: misery of other for craftsmen be brought to beggary, and
Speaker 1: merchants to neediness. And then Belle's own sermon began, quote,
Speaker 1: this land was given to Englishmen, and as birds would
Speaker 1: defend their nests, so ought Englishmen to cherish and defend themselves,
Speaker 1: and to hurt and grieve aliens for the common wheal.
Speaker 1: He went on to say that quote by God's law,
Speaker 1: it was lawful to fight for their country. And ever
Speaker 1: he suddenly moved the people to rebel against the strangers
Speaker 1: and break the king's peace. About a week after this
Speaker 1: very inflammatory sermon, words started to spread that the much
Speaker 1: hated Francesco de Bardie had once again been mocking english people,
Speaker 1: and this time boasting that he could treat the mayor's
Speaker 1: wife the same way that he had the other english
Speaker 1: woman we talked about earlier in the story. Then on April,
Speaker 1: a group of apprentices attacked several foreigners and threw them
Speaker 1: into a canal. Those apprentices were arrested and sent to
Speaker 1: Newgate prison. Rumors started to spread that there would be
Speaker 1: a general uprising of apprentices against foreigners on the May
Speaker 1: Day Holiday, which was in fifteen seventeen, a public holiday
Speaker 1: celebrated with feasting, jousting, and plays featuring Robin Hood so
Speaker 1: fairly early in the reign of King Henry the Eighth.
Speaker 1: He had ascended to the throne in fifteen o nine,
Speaker 1: and in fifteen seventeen he was twenty five years old.
Speaker 1: He had been spending most of his time as monarch
Speaker 1: traveling from one of his estates to the next, feasting
Speaker 1: and carousing, while leaving most of the actual ruling to
Speaker 1: his advisors. At first, these had generally been advisors to
Speaker 1: his late father, but by the time the events we're
Speaker 1: talking about today rolled around, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of
Speaker 1: York and Lord Chancellor of England, had become one of
Speaker 1: the most powerful men in the country and the sort
Speaker 1: of top guy of Henry the eighth. Wolsey heard about
Speaker 1: the rumored uprising and summoned the Lord Mayor of London
Speaker 1: and the city's alderman on April twenty ninth. They talked
Speaker 1: over several options for keeping order, including stationing members of
Speaker 1: the City Watch around the parts of the city that
Speaker 1: seemed to be the most at risk, but calling out
Speaker 1: the Watch seemed like it might incite violence rather than
Speaker 1: deter it. So they ultimately decided on a curfew to
Speaker 1: begin at nine pm on the twenty nine and end
Speaker 1: at seven am on May Day. They made this decision
Speaker 1: though at about eight thirty pm on the twenty ninth. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: neither Wolsey, the Lord mayor or anyone else really made
Speaker 1: many preparations for preventing or responding to this rumored uprising. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's They basically called for a curfew with about half
Speaker 1: an our notice and no good way to thread the word.
Speaker 1: What were you guys talking about before? I mean, it's
Speaker 1: a great question, uh. Alderman John Mandy returned to his
Speaker 1: word after this meeting and found some apprentices in the
Speaker 1: street playing at fencing. He told them to get inside,
Speaker 1: and they refused and turned on him, which sparked several
Speaker 1: hours of violence. Most of the participants were apprentices or journeymen.
Speaker 1: Some were watermen who worked on London's waterways. A few
Speaker 1: women were involved as well, along with a few members
Speaker 1: of the clergy. First, the rioters descended on Newgate Prison
Speaker 1: to free the men who had been jailed for attacking
Speaker 1: foreigners the day before, and then they started moving through London,
Speaker 1: attacking and looting foreign owned businesses and destroying their wares.
Speaker 1: Much of the riot was focused on Cheapside, which was
Speaker 1: home to numerous markets and businesses. Its name comes from
Speaker 1: an old English word which is spelled c e A
Speaker 1: p a n and it meant to buy, and many
Speaker 1: of its streets are named for the things that you
Speaker 1: could buy there and immigrants homes were attacked as well,
Speaker 1: including the homes of Francisco de Bardi and John Maute.
Speaker 1: Sir Thomas Moore, author of Utopia, was one of London's
Speaker 1: under sheriffs at this point, and he confronted the crowd
Speaker 1: outside of St Martin's Le Grand, which was a liberty
Speaker 1: sheltering a whole lot of immigrants. He tried to encourage
Speaker 1: them to disperse. At first it seemed like he might
Speaker 1: be successful, but then the residents of the liberty started
Speaker 1: fighting back against this assembled crowd, throwing things like stones
Speaker 1: and hot water at them that reignited the violence. The
Speaker 1: crowd also attacked an area in Aldgate that was home
Speaker 1: to a number of foreign shoemakers and their shops. They
Speaker 1: broke into the stores and they threw the shoes and
Speaker 1: boots out into the street. While the riot was going on,
Speaker 1: the official response was basically non existent. Sir Richard Chumley,
Speaker 1: Lieutenant of the Tower, apparently fired some artillery into the city,
Speaker 1: something that he was heavily criticized for doing, but which
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to have seriously injured or killed anyone. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: not much effort was made to stop the violence or
Speaker 1: to protect people in property. About one thousand people participated
Speaker 1: in this rioting, which finally wound down at about three am.
Speaker 1: Then at about five am, the Duke of Norfolk dispatched
Speaker 1: more than one thousand armed retainers to restore order. Even
Speaker 1: though the violence had pretty much petered out by this point,
Speaker 1: the Duke and his men took most of the credit
Speaker 1: for it, especially in people's letters back home, like if
Speaker 1: you're an Italian merchant representing your your Italian merchant house,
Speaker 1: you're writing your letter back to the Home Office. Like
Speaker 1: there was like oh, and then this Duke came totally
Speaker 1: put everything back in order to save the day. Henry
Speaker 1: the eighth was furious about how all this was handled.
Speaker 1: So we will get to the aftermath and his response
Speaker 1: after another quick sponsor break. The official response to the
Speaker 1: evil made a was extreme, especially considering that there was
Speaker 1: no loss of life that we know of, and none
Speaker 1: mentioned in any accounts of the day. First, hundreds of
Speaker 1: people were arrested. Some of them were as the youngest
Speaker 1: thirteen years old. Two d seventy eight people were charged
Speaker 1: with treason. The treason charge came because, in a general sense,
Speaker 1: the people who were attacked were under the protection of
Speaker 1: the king, but more specifically, it was considered treason if
Speaker 1: an English citizen attacked a citizen of any nation that
Speaker 1: had a treaty in place with England. King Henry the
Speaker 1: eighth had signed a treaty with Charles, Prince of Spain,
Speaker 1: Archduke of Austria and Duke of Burgundy and Robin on
Speaker 1: February third, fifteen sixteen. A couple of years after these events,
Speaker 1: Charles would become Holy Roman Emperor Charles the fifth. The
Speaker 1: Netherlands was part of the Spanish Habsburg Empire, so the
Speaker 1: English attack on dutchmigrants fit this definition of treason. A
Speaker 1: Court of Oyer and Terminer was established to investigate this
Speaker 1: incident and to try the people who were accused. On
Speaker 1: May fourth, the alleged ring leaders were paraded through the
Speaker 1: streets of London with nooses around their next past gallows
Speaker 1: that had been built for the occasion. Thirteen people from
Speaker 1: that first group were convicted and hanged. The next day,
Speaker 1: six of them were also drawn and quartered, and their
Speaker 1: bodies were left hanging for days afterward. John Lincoln was
Speaker 1: tried with a separate group. On May seven. He was hanged,
Speaker 1: but the others who were convicted were reprieved at the
Speaker 1: last minute at the gallows. Dr Bell and other clergy
Speaker 1: who were involved were imprisoned in the Tower of London.
Speaker 1: On May eleventh, the Mayor, the Alderman, and the Recorder
Speaker 1: of London went to the King to appeal for mercy
Speaker 1: for the now roughly four hundred people who were jailed
Speaker 1: for taking part of this riot, including eleven women. The
Speaker 1: general public was way more sympathetic to the rioters than
Speaker 1: to the emigrants whose homes and businesses had been had
Speaker 1: been destroyed, so to most people in London these hangings
Speaker 1: seemed truly extreme. But even though the King had already
Speaker 1: decided to pardon everyone else, he couldn't just let them
Speaker 1: all go because that would seem weak, so he took
Speaker 1: care of things with a huge spectacle. On May two,
Speaker 1: those four hundred or so people were paraded through the
Speaker 1: streets again with nooses around their necks to Westminster. Once
Speaker 1: they got there, they were made to beg for the
Speaker 1: King's forgiveness. The Queen Catherine of Aragon was there and
Speaker 1: appealed to the King to grant them all clemency. In
Speaker 1: some accounts, the King's sisters, Margaret, Queen of Scotland and Mary,
Speaker 1: Queen of France, were also part of this whole event,
Speaker 1: and the King then pardoned them all. They also heard
Speaker 1: a long address from Cardinal Wolsey, who told them quote
Speaker 1: to lead good lives and comply with the royal will,
Speaker 1: which was that strangers should be well treated in this country.
Speaker 1: Almost immediately after this, and epidemic of sweating sickness broke
Speaker 1: out in London, and then there was an outbreak of plague,
Speaker 1: but neither of these things overshadowed the May Day Riot.
Speaker 1: It became the subject of ballads and plays, many of
Speaker 1: which made it sound like a blood bath rather than
Speaker 1: a property riot. In the decades after the riot, all
Speaker 1: the issues that had contributed to it continued to influence
Speaker 1: life in London. The city's population grew dramatically during the
Speaker 1: later Tutor era, especially as the Protestant Reformation and Catholic
Speaker 1: counter Reformation led to warfare and displacement. Elsewhere in Europe,
Speaker 1: the apprentice system started to break down in the seventeenth century,
Speaker 1: and a series of poor laws criminalized unemployment and poverty,
Speaker 1: which became rampant in the face of all of this
Speaker 1: social and economic change. These changes were underway when the
Speaker 1: play The Book of Sir Thomas Moore was written, which
Speaker 1: was about seventy or eighty years after the riots. The
Speaker 1: plays authorship isn't entirely clear, but the depiction of more
Speaker 1: Speech at St Martin's is widely attributed to William Shakespeare,
Speaker 1: and a copy of that speech is the only known
Speaker 1: script in Shakespeare's handwriting that exists today. This play probably
Speaker 1: wasn't performed during the Elizabethan era when it was written,
Speaker 1: thanks to the influence of royal censor Edmund Tilney, and
Speaker 1: then in more recent years, the speech has been commonly
Speaker 1: used in the context of refugee and immigrant rights. In
Speaker 1: the play, more Speech to the Rioters goes this way,
Speaker 1: You'll put down strangers, kill them, cut their throats, possess
Speaker 1: their houses, and lead the majesty of law in lamb
Speaker 1: to slip him like a hound. Alas alas say now
Speaker 1: the king and he is Clement. If the offender Mourne
Speaker 1: should so much come too short of your great trespass
Speaker 1: as but to banish you, whither would you go? What country,
Speaker 1: by the nature of your error should give you harbor?
Speaker 1: Go you to France or Flanders, to any German province,
Speaker 1: Spain or Portugal, nay, anywhere that not adheres to England.
Speaker 1: Why you must needs be strangers? Would you be pleased
Speaker 1: to find a nation of such barbarous temper that breaking
Speaker 1: out in hideous violence would not afford you an abode
Speaker 1: on earth? Wet, they're detested, knives against your throats, spurn
Speaker 1: you like dogs, and like as if that God owed
Speaker 1: not nor made not you, not that the elements were
Speaker 1: not all appropriate to your comforts, but chartered unto them,
Speaker 1: What would you think to be used? Thus, this is
Speaker 1: the stranger's case, and this your mountainous in humanity. Rioting
Speaker 1: by apprentices also became something of a tradition in early
Speaker 1: modern London, and we are going to revisit that in
Speaker 1: our next Saturday Classic. Do you have a riotous piece
Speaker 1: of listener mail? I do have some listener mail it's
Speaker 1: it's not riot, it is it is, uh, just a
Speaker 1: little bit of knowledge about something tangentially related to the
Speaker 1: podcast you pass around. This email is from Jack X,
Speaker 1: and Jack says, Hi, Tracy and Holly. I'm a longtime listener,
Speaker 1: first time writer, and I wanted to tell you that
Speaker 1: I really love your show. It's my constant companion on
Speaker 1: my work commute in and out of New York City
Speaker 1: every day, and I've learned so much. I'm sure you're
Speaker 1: getting spammed right now by everyone who saw the commercial
Speaker 1: during Monday's Game of Thrones series premiere, But just in
Speaker 1: case it was missed, I'm writing to tell you about
Speaker 1: Gentleman Jack, a new HBO drama series about Ann Lister.
Speaker 1: As soon as I saw the name, I immediately squealed
Speaker 1: like a history fan girl and decided to write in.
Speaker 1: And story is fascinating to me. A series of coded
Speaker 1: messages forbidden love and subverting social norms is a sure
Speaker 1: fire intrigue if there ever was one. While I'm sure
Speaker 1: HBO will also take plenty of liberties, it's nice to
Speaker 1: see stories like this getting a chance to be told
Speaker 1: in the mainstream. They eight part HBO drama is in
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty two West Yorkshire, England, and starts with Anne's
Speaker 1: work to revitalize her inherited home of Shibden Hall. Premieres
Speaker 1: next Monday, April. I will most certainly be adding this
Speaker 1: to my watch list. Thank you both for such a
Speaker 1: great podcast, and I hope you have a great time
Speaker 1: in Paris despite the unfortunate events of yesterday's fire, which
Speaker 1: is utterly devastating. I was just there in the fall
Speaker 1: of eighteen and I teared up when I saw footage
Speaker 1: of the flames. Thank you again, Jack's thank you for
Speaker 1: this email. Jack's I definitely did see the Enlist commercial
Speaker 1: while watching Game of Thrones. By the time today's episode
Speaker 1: comes out, it's gonna be well beyond April. So back
Speaker 1: when I was researching the episode about and Lister, at
Speaker 1: that point the show had been announced as something called
Speaker 1: Shipden Hall, and in my research I had found sort
Speaker 1: of the announcement of you know, new TV series about
Speaker 1: an list called Shipden Hall to go into production, and
Speaker 1: then I couldn't find anything else about Shipden Hall when
Speaker 1: it was time to actually you know, record the episode,
Speaker 1: so I didn't really mention it. I don't think in
Speaker 1: the episode itself, and it was because by that point
Speaker 1: it had been renamed Gentleman Jack Um, so I was
Speaker 1: pleasantly surprised to learn that it wasn't one of those
Speaker 1: shows that sort of gets announced and then never quite
Speaker 1: makes it to people's TV screens. Since it is on HBO,
Speaker 1: I am imagining that it will be very adult, just
Speaker 1: in case you're thinking of checking it out, But I
Speaker 1: definitely am going to do that because I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1: So thank you again, Jack's for sending this note so
Speaker 1: could pass it on to other people who might be
Speaker 1: interested and don't watch Game of Thrones or the other
Speaker 1: stuff on HBO or where they're probably advertising this. Uh
Speaker 1: if you would like to write to us about this
Speaker 1: or any other podcast or history podcast at how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. And we are also all over social
Speaker 1: media at miss in History. That's where you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
Speaker 1: and Instagram. You can come to our website we just
Speaker 1: missed in History dot com. You'll find the show notes
Speaker 1: for all the episodes Holly and I have worked on
Speaker 1: together and the ones for today's episode. You can read
Speaker 1: the primary sources that we read from and marvel at
Speaker 1: their ingenious spelling but his spelling was not remotely standardized
Speaker 1: at this point in English history. You can also subscribe
Speaker 1: to our show on Apple podcast, I heart radio app,
Speaker 1: and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Stuff You Missed
Speaker 1: in History Class is a production of I Heart Radio's
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.