John Wraw

Also known as: Iohn Wraw · Family: Commons rebels · Role: priest and agitator · First appears: Richard II 17

Life events

• c. 1381 · John Wraw assembles fifty thousand men to stir rebellion in Suffolk.(Richard II 17 · 📍 Suffolke)
  • With: Wat Tyler
  • “in Suffolke there were got togither to the number of fiftie thousand men, by the setting on of Iohn Wraw, a naughtie lewd priest, that had beene first among the Essexmen at London, and was sent downe in all post hast from Wat Tiler, to stir the commons in those parts to commit the like mischéefe as he had séene begun about London.”

Richard II 17

• with Wat Tyler (Wat Tyler sent John Wraw to incite the commons.) “For euen the selfe same saturdaie after Corpus Christi day, in Suffolke there were got togither to the number of fiftie thousand men, by the setting on of Iohn Wraw, a naughtie lewd priest, that had beene first among the Essexmen at London, and was sent downe in all post hast from Wat Tiler, to stir the commons in those parts to commit the like mischéefe as he had séene begun about London.”
• enemies with John Cavendish (John Wraw instigated the rebels who executed John Cavendish.) “by the setting on of Iohn Wraw, a naughtie lewd priest, that had beene first among the Essexmen at London, and was sent downe in all post hast from Wat Tiler, to stir the commons in those parts to commit the like mischéefe as he had séene begun about London. These fellowes therfore, after they were assembled togither, fell to the destroieng of the manors and houses of men of law, & such lawiers as they caught, they slue, and beheded sir Iohn Cauendish lord chiefe iustice of England”
• enemies with John of Cambridge (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;”

⭐ Constellation map → · 📖 Read the original → · 🗂 Character index → · 🕰 Chronicle → · 📍 Places →

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