Roses are Red?

A unprecedented occasion occurred at St John’s Subject in London on 28 February 1461 – assuming that an nameless chronicler writing within the late Fifteenth century is to be believed. An assembled crowd stood and listened to a listing of crimes and misdemeanours that the king, Henry VI, had dedicated towards the realm. When requested whether or not Henry ought to stay as king, the group emphatically cried ‘Nay’. When then requested if Edward, Earl of March, needs to be made king as an alternative, the assembled individuals cried ‘Yea’. The chronicler’s story might seem like direct democracy in motion, however that may be anachronistic: democracy was an alien idea in Fifteenth-century England and Edward was no revolutionary.