Evil May Day 1517

A thousand or more angry demonstrators converged on the precinct of St Martin-le-Grand church, north of St Paul’s Cathedral, on the evening of 30 April 1517. They were united by their frustration at the large numbers of foreign residents in the City, which had swelled in recent years. St Martin’s was a ‘liberty’. In other words, an enclave under direct ecclesiastical authority and exempt from control by the Common Council of London. The City fathers, anticipating trouble, had imposed a curfew and arranged for street patrols to maintain law and order. Around 11pm an official posse, led by Thomas More, one of the two under-sheriffs, confronted the troublemakers at St Martin’s and tried to persuade them to disperse. When they replied that his writ did not run within the liberty, More ordered men on horseback to make a baton charge. It was not a wise move for someone whose supporters were heavily outnumbered. Within minutes, More and his escort were forced to make a hasty, ignominious retreat.