Politicians lynched by the London mob

Politicians are more unpopular today than ever. But in the past in London they stood a very real risk of being lynched by the mob. There was surprisingly little deference shown towards the powerful and wealthy when they angered the people.

Victim of the London mob

One of the many politicians to be lynched was Walter Stapleton, Lord Treasurer of England, who came to a sticky end around 1326. Not only was he in charge of the country’s finances, Walter was a leading adviser to King Edward II and – typical of the Middle Ages – also the Bishop of Exeter. Men of the cloth often held top political positions. It wasn’t seen as unusual or ungodly. However, the conduct of King Edward II was seen as less than godly – with accusations of sodomy and vice swirling around him.

Edward’s own queen launched a rebellion to overthrow her husband the king in alliance with her lover. Londoners came out in the queen’s support. The king fled towards Wales while his Lord High Treasurer, the unfortunate Walter, tried to lock the gates of the city to stop Queen Isabella getting in.

However, he’d misjudged the mood of London very badly.

The hapless politician galloped as fast as he could towards St Paul’s cathedral to plead for sanctuary but was intercepted by the mob. They pulled Walter from his horse, stripped his clothes (worth a pretty penny I’m sure) and dragged him naked to the stone cross that once stood in Cheapside. There, they proclaimed him a traitor and cut off his head – putting it on a pole and processing around with it. The same fate befell his servants whose headless bodies were tossed on a heap of rubbish by the river.

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Poll tax leads to politicians being lynched

Over fifty years later, a similar gory end came to Simon Sudbury, the Lord Chancellor of England. Like Walter, Simon held some ecclesiastical positions as well as being a politician. He was both Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury – so a top nob in medieval society. But the London mob soon cut him down to size – literally.

Regrettably, Sudbury supported the introduction of a poll tax. The peasants hated it. They marched on the capital and surrounded the Tower of London where Simon was holed up with the Lord Treasurer Sir Robert Hales. Eventually, the two men were handed over to the mob and beheaded. Apparently, it took something like eight blows to take Simon’s head off. His skull can still be seen in the church of St Gregory in the town of Sudbury, Suffolk today.

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Lord Eldon confronts the London mob

Londoners have frequently rioted and attacked top politicians with no regard to their rank or position. During the 1780 anti-Catholic “Gordon Riots”, the house of Lord Mansfield was thoroughly plundered. In March 1815, Lord Eldon – the Lord Chancellor – confronted a mob that had first broken the windows of his home and then forced an entry and began throwing his furniture into the street. Eldon sneaked away to rustle up some soldiers then returned at their head with a shotgun in his hand! He was not going to end up being yet another lynched politician.

Eldon was hated by the city populace as he’d managed to oppose just about every progressive measure you could imagine including the abolition of slavery and attempts to secure affordable bread for the poor (the Corn Laws). He managed to evict the rioters from his house and capture two of them. But contemporary newspaper accounts reveal that the pavement was strewn with chair legs and other objects. This was a terrible humiliation.

But it wasn’t a one-off that day. Elsewhere in London that same day, the home of another government minister – Frederick Robinson – was invaded by the mob, which ripped up paintings and destroyed furniture. A newspaper report on the day stated that “glasses, tables, chairs, bedsteads, bedding, china, books, and papers of ever description, were all sacrificed to the ravages of the mob”. They then moved on to the London homes of Lord Darnley, Lord Hardwicke, and Lord Ellenborough. Luckily for their lordships, attempts to break into their places of residence were thwarted.

The ransacking of these homes was not unprecedented. Around this time, Lord Wellington – hero of Waterloo – was assailed in his carriage by Londoners – as was King George III and King George IV. So if politicians think they’ve got it tough today – pick up a history book. They’re getting off lightly in our times – with just a few hostile tweets. In the past they were lynched – their lives cruelly cut short.