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In England from Wicliffe to Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

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pursuers. The brave old man was not <strong>to</strong> be taken<br />

without resistance. <strong>In</strong> the scuffle his leg was<br />

broken, and, thus maimed, he was laid upon a<br />

home-litter, carried <strong>to</strong> London, and consigned <strong>to</strong><br />

his former abode in the Tower. The Parliament<br />

happened <strong>to</strong> be at that time sitting in London, and<br />

its records tell us the sequel. "On Tuesday, the 14th<br />

day of December (1417), and the 29th day of said<br />

Parliament, Sir John Oldcastle, of Cowling, in the<br />

county of Kent, knight [Lord Cobham], being<br />

outlawed (as is before mentioned) in the King's<br />

Bench, and excommunicated before by the<br />

Archbishop of Canterbury for heresy, was brought<br />

before the Lords, and having heard his said<br />

convictions, answered not there<strong>to</strong> in his excuse.<br />

Upon which record and process it was judged that<br />

he should be taken, as a trai<strong>to</strong>r <strong>to</strong> the king and the<br />

realm; that he should be carried <strong>to</strong> the Tower of<br />

London, and <strong>from</strong> thence down through London,<br />

un<strong>to</strong> the new gallows in St. Giles without Temple<br />

Bar, and there be hanged, and burned hanging."<br />

When the day came for the execution of this<br />

sentence, Lord Cobham was brought out, his hands<br />

104

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