The Historical Literature of the Jack Cade Rebellion (review)

Alexander Kaufman's new text on the 1450 English uprising by Jack Cade and his followers is a focused analysis of the chronicles written in the fifteenth century which reported on this event. Kaufman's chief argument is that a divergent set of viewpoints can be located in the chronicles, rather than seeing them as reporting a 'single, unified grand narrative' (p. 1). To draw out and explain the diversity that infused chronicle accounts of the rebellion, Kaufman integrates theoretical explanations for the construction of narrative into his analysis.

A central feature of this text is Kaufman's sense of the literary quality of the chroniclers of the fifteenth century, and he stresses the literary and narrative sophistication of the chronicles and the capacity of the chroniclers to write interesting and exciting work. In staking this claim on the chroniclers' behalf, Kaufman pushes against what he views as the value judgements that informed many earlier scholarly assessments of fifteenth-century literature, which have tended to diminish or dismiss the literary capacity of the chroniclers. Kaufman's own sense of the chronicles' literary and dramatic quality is accounted for by him as a highly personal reaction to the drama which he found when reading the chronicles. To an extent, however, the theoretical insights which he applies in this text also demand him to make these claims; dealing as these theories do with questions of narrative and the construction of narrative threads, Kaufman is obliged to find in these works the signs of dramatic ability which his theory insists should be there.

The consideration of audience is also central to this text. Kaufman persuasively asserts the dramatic potential of the chroniclers' work by pointing to the readership of the chronicles, which comprised not only employers, but guild members and London's ruling elite. In this case, Kaufman's arguments for the chroniclers' need and capacity to produce dramatically interesting works is well founded.

A further strength of the book is Kaufman's sense of the wider context of the Wars of the Roses and the way the Cade Rebellion should be interpreted as part of this context. Kaufman shows a firm grasp of the sources for this broader context and makes a good case for reading the Cade Rebellion within this context.