Thomas Cheyne, the ‘Hermit Bluebeard’, Hanged Drawn and Quartered

On 9 February 1450 Thomas Cheyne was hanged, drawn and quartered.  Cheyne, or Hermit Bluebeard as he called himself, was from Kent. In 1449 and 1450, the region’s people were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the Government.  

Henry VI‘s government faced many problems in early 1450. Taxes were an issue. The Wars with France had ravaged the local economy and spent the lives of many local men, and there was a sense of injustice around how local administration was managed. These problems were exacerbated by problems exporting cloth to the continent: the risk of shipping being attacked was high and so the number of voyages dropped. 

The economic problems caused unrest. At Parliamentary level it had seen the arrest of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, who would be sentenced to exile, then murdered later in the year. 1450 had already seen the assassination of Bishop Adam Moleyns by a mob in Portsmouth. London was tense. On 29 January a yeoman called Nicholas Jakes had led a protest in the capital. It was short-lived and Jakes was hanged, drawn and quartered for his rabble rousing.

The murders, failed uprisings elsewhere, and Parliamentary actions against men such as the unpopular Duke of Suffolk did not stop further protests. Thomas Cheyne, whose brother was an influential Lollard, chose to act. In late January Cheyne made a rallying call for the men of Kent to revolt against the ‘evil counsel’ of the Duke of Suffolk, Bishop of Salisbury, and Lord Saye.  

Several hundred men gathered and were joined by other as they were joined by others as they marched on Canterbury. Here, they were riotous, attacking St. Radegund’s abbey hospice. The uprising was short-lived though as Cheyne was apprehended near Canterbury.  

He was quickly tried and found guilty of treason and on 9 February executed in brutal fashion. He was taken to Tyburn, where he was hanged, drawn and quartered. His head was then placed on a spike on London Bridge and his quarters sent to Norwich and two ports.   

If this was intended to scare the population into quiet compliance, it did not work. Soon after the same area rose again under the leadership of Jack Cade. 

Murder, Riots and Revolt in 1450

9 January 1450 – Adam Moleyns Bishop of Chichester murdered at Portsmouth.

26 January  – Thomas Cheyne leads a revolt in Kent. It lasts until Cheyne’s capture on 31 January.

29 January 1450 – Nicholas Jakes, Yeoman, executed for treasonable language and inciting riot.

9 February 1450 – Thomas Cheyne, also known as Hermit Bluebeard, hanged drawn and quartered for leading a revolt.

March 1450 – John Frammesley hanged, drawn and quartered for chanting ‘By this toun, by this
toun, for this array the kyng shall lose his Croune’.

2 May 1450 – William de la Pole Duke of Suffolk murdered at sea off the coast near Dover.

June – July 1450 – Cade Rebellion

29 June 1450 – Bishop William of Salisbury murdered by a mob.

4 July 1450 – James Fiennes executed by order of a Commission set out by Jack Cade.

3 or 4 July 1450 – William Crowmer, sheriff of Kent and William Bailly executed by order of Jack Cade.

5 July 1450 – Thomas Mayn executed by Cade rebels in London.

5 July 1450 – Robert Russell attacked and beheaded by a mob on the Isle of Wight.

10 July 1450 – Robert Spenser spoke out in support of Jack Cade. Later hanged and quartered for this action.

12 July 1450 – Jack Cade died of injuries sustained whilst being captured. Corpse later ritually executed in London.

4 August 1450 – John Squyer a parson, killed by a mob in Suffolk.

Autumn 1450 – William Parmynter, a rebel leader executed in Kent. Date uncertain.

9 September 1450 – John Smyth, a Rector, murdered by a mob in Essex.

22 September 1450 – William Tresham, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, murdered in the South East (presumably Kent).

Links

Robin Hood Legends – The Many Robin Hoods

Jack Cade Story – 26 January 1450

Today in London Rebel History – 29 January 1450

Historical Memoranda of John Stowe: On Cade’s rebellion (1450). in Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles with Historical Memoranda by John Stowe, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1880), British History Online