1. |
Pestilence
01:24
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2. |
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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!
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3. |
Le Blakheth
09:51
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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!
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4. |
The Boy King
08:50
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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
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5. |
Vengeance I & II
09:25
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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’
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Sacred Son London, UK
Created in the ligature of a third-life crisis sat at my dining room table in my dressing gown, the scent of the flower 'gypsophilia paniculata' in my nostrils.
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