and articulate expression to those grievances than the followers of Tyler were able to do.

It will be observed that in carrying out my plan I have passed lightly over some of the most eminent popular leaders. My object in this has been, as I hinted above, to call attention to those leaders and movements which had been unduly neglected by the students of English history.

That I have intended no disrespect in this to men so deservedly honoured as De Montfort and Grostête, will be clear from the allusions. which I shall make to them in the introductory chapter to Wat Tyler. But I have wished to show that their work, important as it was, ought not so entirely to have overshadowed the humbler efforts of later patriots as it has done.

With regard to the first of the objects which I have mentioned as aimed at by the present work, it may, perhaps, strike my readers that, in writing the life of Langton, I have indulged in details which put his position and personality in a clearer light than I have been able to do those of the other three. This is, of course, unavoidable, since Langton was in his own day

an honoured and successful leader, while Tyler, Oldcastle, and Cade were defeated rebels, whose early life there were no admiring followers to study and describe. Still, I have endeavoured

in each case to lay as much stress as possible on the effect produced upon the movement by the personality of the chief leader.

PREFACE.

IN considering the need for the present biography, it is of course necessary to say a word on the existing lives of Langton. Of these, Dr. Hook's is probably the best known; but it seemed to be, first of all, too slight a sketch for the purpose I aimed at; and, secondly, I thought that there were some people who might read a life of Langton in a series of 'Lives of Popular Leaders,' who might not read it in a series of 'Lives of Archbishops of Canterbury.' The socalled life of Langton which is published among Dr. Newman's 'Lives of the Saints,' is really a mere pamphlet in defence of the Papal power of interdict and excommunication in the thirteenth century; and though Langton's name is certainly mentioned several times in the course of it, I do not think that the learned writer seems to

care very much about giving his readers a clear idea of Langton's character and work.

I have heard that there is a third life of Langton, written by Mr. Martin Tupper, but this I have not seen. I think it probable, however, from the little I have read of Mr. Tupper's works, that his conception of Langton would be sufficiently different from mine to allow of room for both.

It only remains, before concluding my Preface, to give my thanks to the friends who have helped me in writing the present biography.

To Mr. William Langton, of Manchester, I am indebted for calling my attention to the sources from which I have derived the specially biographical notices in the early part of my second chapter. For help given in the other part of my work I am indebted principally to the most generous and unwearying kindness of Mr. Luard, the Registrar of Cambridge University, and of Professor Stubbs, of Oxford. To Professor Brewer, of King's College and the Rolls Office, my thanks are also due for many useful and important hints. To Mr. Raine, of York, I am specially indebted for calling my attention to the transcripts of

the Vatican MSS. in the British Museum, and for information about York.

Mr. Cox, of the Bodleian, and Mr. Bradshaw, of the Cambridge Library, I must also thank for that kind help which so many students have experienced. Also I must thank the President of Trinity College, Oxford, for kindly allowing me to see the MSS. in that college.

Lastly, but by no means least, I must thank very kind, though now unfortunately absent, friend Mr. Charles Pearson, the author of the 'History of England in the Early and Middle Ages,' for many hints given while he was still in England; and, further, to express the hope that wherever I have ventured to differ in this book from the conclusions arrived at in his history, I have always mentioned him with the respect due to a most generous friend and a profound historian.