On June 27th every year we commemorate the leaders of the AD1497 commotion, when the Cornish marched to London and met terrible vengeance at the hands of King Henry Tudor. This year we wanted to remember there were more Cornish leaders in AD1497. We wanted to get a very short biography of some of these, translate it into Cornish, and present them in our facebook event.
We think other leaders’ names appear on the bill of attainder when King Henry seized their property in January 1504.[1] This reads, in part:
Be it also remembered that a bill containing the text of an act for the conviction and attainder of various persons, with a certain schedule and certain provisos attached to it, was presented before the lord king in the present parliament, in the tenor which follows.
John Trevysall of St Madron in the county of Cornwall, gentleman, William Antron, of Antron in the same county, gentleman, Ralph Retallak of St Columb in the same county, yeoman, Richard Burlas of St Wenn in the same county, yeoman, Thomas Polgrene of Polgrene in the same county, yeoman, John Rosewarne of Rosewarne in the same county, yeoman, John Alyn of Stoke Climsland in the same county, yeoman, William Hamme of Stoke Climsland in the same county, yeoman, [and other names from outside Cornwall] with the support of various other wicked subjects, and traitorously prompted, incited and led by them, assembled in a great number and multitude, plotting the death and destruction both of the king our sovereign lord and of all the nobility of this land, and the overthrow of his same realm, at a place called Blackheath, in the parish of Greenwich, in the county of Kent, on 22 June, in the twelfth year of his most noble reign [1497], then and there intending to put their most traitorous and malicious purpose into execution, drew themselves up in battle array in the field in arms, levied and declared war, contrary to the duty of their allegiance, and gave battle against our said sovereign lord, where, by the favour and permission of Almighty God, they were challenged, vanquished, scattered and overcome by the king’s royal host, summoned there by his grace at his great and excessive expense, and several were put to death.
With lots of clauses, the bill received assent “The king wills it” in January 1504, although some families named were later to obtain pardons from King Henry. Many of these people are very poorly known, but they too deserve “a name perpetual, and a fame permanent and immortal’.”
With the current pandemic, researchers were limited to what they could only find online. What follows is the results. This is what they could find out in the limited time available and we would like to thank everyone involved for their help in researching, translating, and making short films in Cornish about these leaders of the Cornish!
[1] https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/parliament-rolls-medieval/january-1504?fbclid=IwAR0dH5eorM4A5jEebdS67UK9dUqrnFnk_wZwtrDF5dMh3s0hxQCal3pyTSo