1. PESTILENCE

(Instrumental)


2. THE FOUL DETH OF ENGELOND

Lord!
Author of the Light
Father, be our shepherd
I beg, have mercy on us

Serfdom
Injustice endures
I plough the field, harvest the corn
For naught; no silver crossed my palm

Toiling without recompense
Until the worksmen succumb to pestilence
Wealthy is he who shan’t serve
Unless he receives the bounty he deserves

Though a royal command was decreed
The workers knew they had what landowners need
Lower orders unite to compress
Estates of society built to oppress

Battles won
Heavy is the cost
That knights and landholders must pay
Their bounties lost

Unjust
Make these farmhands pay
For far too long they take the spoils
This ends today

But ’twas not enough and the crown is pitiful
Too great a burden for a child’s shoulders to bear

A country on its knees
The king, a child, can do naught to redress

Invasion from the North
Tension fuelling rumours of mass violence

Mutinous garrisons
Arrears to pay, armies are deserting

Proposals to levy
villeins, rustics, ones of modest standing

Unjust!

The regent-elect
A tyrant, an autocrat

Peace secured in the north
The Duke returns to the child King’s counsel

Implicit treachery
Leaders of men lost their jurisdiction

Farcical governance
A tax on those who can least incur it

Landowners determined
to shift the cost, the burden on to others

Go forth and take from the hand of the strapped

The day will come when we shall hold the whip

Through the murk and stench of death the archdeacon appears
Commands them to settle their debts and make good the arrears
And thus the fuse had now been lit, the seeds were sewn, and soon there will be war
Justice of the peace spoke thus with a forked tongue:

‘Now atone for these lies and hand over your debts’

Chaos, disorder spread like a fire
Farm tools in their hands
You’ll swear by their oath

Nobles in their ranks
Three heads on poles
Heed the dire warning:
The revolt is born!


3. LE BLAKHETH

How dissent has swept the lands
Like a scourge; a plague of heresy
No legions to halt the tide
Outside rings the promise of vengeance

The castle fell by nightfall
The captives were freed and unshackled
And swore the oath of loyalty
To the cause of true moral justice:

‘Death to the sycophants
We shan’t abide their servile deeds’

So they marched on Blackheath
The air alive with frenzy, passion, turmoil, wrath
The King true to his word granted counsel at sunrise
Our quest is fulfilled

Fervour and piety swelled through Blackheath
On this hallowed feast day of Corpus Christi
Rustics had risen and were determined to see the preacher deliver his sermon

Bellowed he: ‘When Adam delved and Eve span’
The crowd replied ‘Who, then, was the gentleman?’
Serfdom had never been ordained by God
And lords should be rightly uncovered as corruptors

The great lords of the realm were mere weeds to be plucked out, cut down, trampled, burnt
The Royal Barge approached and with it would come justice, freedom, mercy, hope

Armed with rusting swords and bows old and worn
The true commons kept to the oath they had sworn
Their demands received with astonishment by the young King
Back to the tower he went

Incensed, the rebels had violence in mind
To London they marched and with haste did they find
The New Temple that they sacked and plundered
Before carrying their blood lust towards their main prize

Now the Duke whom the rebels had apportioned the blame
Looked on as his beloved Savoy was engulfed in flame
One pilferer caught with silver hidden up his sleeve
Was thrown onto the fire - a lesson for would-be thieves

From atop the tower the boy king watched on in pain
Unbeknownst to him this was the turning point of his reign
Now the counsel of the king were waiting at the door
To petition this fearful child to bring about the conclusion of war

Eighteen men
Traitors
Beheaded for their crimes

Their houses burnt down
The nobles watched, despaired

This pardon from our King is a scorn
Heads will roll!


4. THE BOY KING

Slay these villeins
They are poorly armed and full of wine
Overnight raid presents a gamble, a groundless risk

The king met them again to hear them, their demands fair
Granting their calls
He then foolishly offered them more:

Five heads on pikes!

The crown feeble and depleted
Powerless to halt the massacre
Foreign men killed for no good reason
Wealth provides no shield from the peril

Five heads on pikes!

Hallowed walls will grant no solace

Word had spread of their vile intentions

Capital would be burnt to the ground

One bishop; the rest executed

Dawn at Smithfield
Home to mirth, bloodshed
Now the king met
the Kentish general

His demands were the fantasy of a mad man
An insult to the king
The fatal blow dealt to the general
The king lead the rebels far away

He placed the general’s head on wretched display
The rebellion reduced to embers

Their resolve and will to fight died
The king’s men made knights of the realm


5. VENGEANCE I & II

These were sights ghastly to a king of fourteen
Those men who rebelled dragged to the pillory

The Plantagenet vindictiveness in effect
Bishop of the East, take up arms, enforce peace

‘Keep, defend, protect’

Flemish widows exact vengeance

Through the heartlands the bishop rides

As the new era dawned of a hostile king
Cruel obsessive vengeance swept through the land

The revolt splintering
Go seek out the king,
Lobby for a pardon
Manumission

The Bishop of the East intercepted them
Knew of their transgressions
Nailed up their heads

Then lead his meagre band towards his home town
Bugles rang out, he seized his lance and charged

King of the Commons was hung as a traitor
Bowels removed and then burned
Then beheaded

His body in four parts sent across the land
A severe lesson for would-be false kings

His summer of blood

‘The truth I have divulg’d
Now doom’d to expire for
Shall survive, emanate,
Will blaze with fine splendour’