John of Cambridge

Also known as: sir Iohn of Cambridge · Family: Saint Edmunds Abbey · Role: prior · First appears: Richard II 17

Life events

• c. 1381 · John of Cambridge is captured while fleeing and beheaded.(Richard II 17 · 📍 Mildenhale)
  • “Also sir Iohn of Cambridge the prior of saint Edmundsburie, as he would haue fled from them, was taken not far from Mildenhale, and likewise beheaded”

Richard II 17

• friends with John Cavendish (The narrative explicitly identifies an old friendship between the chief justice and the prior.) “they slue, and beheded sir Iohn Cauendish lord chiefe iustice of England, and set his head vpon the pillorie in the market place in S. Edmundsburie. Also sir Iohn of Cambridge the prior of saint Edmundsburie, as he would haue fled from them, was taken not far from Mildenhale, and likewise beheaded, his bodie being left naked in the open field, and no man presuming to burie it, during the space of fiue daies, for feare of the cruell commons. His head was set vpon a pole, and caried before Iohn Wraw and other of those wicked people; the which comming to Burie, and entring the towne in maner of a procession, when they came into the market place where the pillorie stood, as it were in token of the old friendship betwixt the lord chiefe iustice, and the said prior, they made sport with their heads, making them sometime as it were to kisse, other whiles to sound in either others eare.”
• enemies with John Wraw (John Wraw was among the rebels who carried the beheaded prior's head.) “Also sir Iohn of Cambridge the prior of saint Edmundsburie, as he would haue fled from them, was taken not far from Mildenhale, and likewise beheaded, his bodie being left naked in the open field, and no man presuming to burie it, during the space of fiue daies, for feare of the cruell commons. His head was set vpon a pole, and caried before Iohn Wraw and other of those wicked people;”

Also listed in Other Figures — Minor Figures

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Extracted from the original text of Holinshed's Chronicles — the reigns Shakespeare dramatized. Made with Rho MD.