169 JACK CADE AT LONDON STONE John Clark SummAry In view of recent press and public interest in the once famous London Stone, now no more than a small block of limestone behind a grille in the wall of an ofice building near Cannon Street station in the City of London, this paper summarises the scantily-documented history of the Stone from the irst record of it in about 1100. Speculation about its origin and purpose began at least as early as the 16th century, and, without proposing any new hypothesis, we revisit some of those early conjectures and their modern counterparts. As witness that London Stone once symbolised London itself, and that possession of it was thought to grant power over the City, most writers have cited the action of Jack Cade, leader of the rebels against Henry VI’s corrupt government in 1450, in striking it with his sword and claiming to be ‘Lord of London’. However, near-contemporary accounts of the few days during which the rebels effectively controlled London are confused and inconsistent. There is no clear evidence as to how Cade intended his action to be understood, nor how either his followers or the people of London interpreted it. The incident cannot be used to prove that London Stone had a special signiicance or ceremonial function in medieval London. INTrODuCTION In July 1450 the Kentish rebel leader Jack Cade struck his sword on London Stone in Candlewick Street (now Cannon Street) in the City of Lon- don, and claimed to be ‘Lord of London’. The purpose of this paper is to consider the near- contemporary accounts of that incident, and attempt to interpret its signiicance for the history of one of London’s most obscure monuments. Before doing so we shall need to clarify some of that dubious and much romanticised history. London Stone is not a novel concern for the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, for in 1869 a special committee of the Society was formed to discuss the welfare of the Stone with the Rector and Churchwardens of St Swithin’s church, then its guardians. And in the following year John Edward Price (at that time the Society’s Director of Evening Meetings) included in a monograph (published by the Society) on the Roman mosaic pavement recently discovered in Bucklersbury, a discussion of the course of the adjacent Walbrook, together with information on ‘that famous monument of ancient London, “London Stone”’ (Price 1870, 55—65). He drew, he tells us, on ‘materials […] collected by my esteemed friend Mr. W. H. Overall, F.S.A. [the Guildhall Librarian]’ (ibid, 55), and this work is a valuable contribution to the subject. First referred to by name at the beginning of the 12th century, as we shall see, London Stone is represented today by no more than a small rectangular block of oolitic limestone, about 21 inches wide, 17 inches high, and 12 inches front to back. 1 It is set behind an iron grille within a decorative stone casing built into the outside wall of a building (No. 111) on the north side of Cannon Street (formerly Candlewick Street) in the City of London, nearly opposite Cannon Street station (Fig 1). A bronze plaque on the sloping top of the casing, dating from 1962, proclaims: LONDON STONE This is a fragment of the original piece of limestone once securely ixed in the ground now fronting Cannon Street Station. Removed in 1742 to the north side of the street, in 1798 it was built into the south wall of the Church of St. Swithun London Stone which stood here until demolished in 1962. Its origin and purpose are unknown but in 1188 there was a reference to Henry, son of Eylwin de Lundenstane, subsequently Lord Mayor of London. The Stone is also viewable inside the building