Ill May Day

Evil May Day or Ill May Day is the name of a riot which took place in 1517 as a protest against foreigners living in London. Apprentices attacked foreign residents. Some of the rioters were later hanged although King Henry VIII granted a pardon for the remainder following public pleadings from his wife, Catherine of Aragon.

In the early part of the reign of King Henry VIII, Londoners came to resent the presence of foreigners arriving from the continent, especially immigrant Flemish workers and the wealthy foreign merchants and bankers of Lombard Street.

According to the chronicler Edward Hall (c. 1498–1547), a fortnight before the riot an inflammatory xenophobic speech was made on Easter Tuesday by a Dr Bell at St. Paul's Cross at the instigation of John Lincoln, a broker. Bell called on all "Englishmen to cherish and defend themselves, and to hurt and grieve aliens for the common weal". Over the following two weeks there were sporadic attacks on foreigners and rumors abounded that "on May Day next the city would rebel and slay all aliens".

The mayor and aldermen, afraid of any possible disturbances, announced on 8:30 pm 30 April that there would be a 9:00 pm curfew that night. John Mundy, a local alderman, travelling through Cheapside on his way home that night, saw a group of young men after the curfew. Mundy ordered the men to remove themselves from the streets to which one replied: "Why?" Mundy replied: "Thou shalt know" and grabbed his arm to arrest him. The man's friends defended him and Mundy fled "in great danger".

Within a few hours approximately a thousand young male apprentices had congregated in Cheapside. The mob freed several prisoners who were locked up for attacking foreigners and proceeded to St Martin le Grand, a privileged liberty north of St Paul's Cathedral where numerous foreigners lived. Here they were met by the under-sheriff of London, Thomas More, who attempted in vain to persuade them to return to their homes. As soon as More had calmed them, however, the inhabitants of St Martin started to throw stones, bricks, bats and boiling water from their windows, some of which fell on an official who screamed: "Down with them!"

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