Biography of Robert Hales 1325-1381
Around 1325 Robert Hales was born at Hales Place, High Halden.
On 01 Feb 1381 Robert Hales (age 56) was appointed Lord High Treasurer.
On 11 Jun 1381 King Richard II of England (age 14) held council with his mother Joan "Fair Maid of Kent" Princess Wales (age 52), Thomas Beauchamp 12th Earl Warwick (age 43), William Montagu 2nd Earl Salisbury (age 52), Richard Fitzalan 9th Earl Surrey 11th Earl Arundel (age 35), Archbishop Simon Sudbury (age 65) and Robert Hales (age 56) at the Tower of London [Map].
The Chronicle of Adam of Usk. 12 Jun 1381. During this king Richard’s reign great things were looked for. But he being of tender years, others, who had the care of him and his kingdom, did not cease to inflict on the land acts of wantonness, extortions, and unbearable wrongs. Whence sprang that unnatural deed, when the commons of the land, and specially those of Kent and Essex [Peasants' Revolt], under their wretched leader Jack Straw1, declaring that they could no longer bear such wrongs, and above all wrongs of taxes and subsidies, rose in overwhelming numbers against the lords and the king’s officers, and, marching to London on the eve of Corpus Christi (12th June), in the year of Our Lord 1381 struck off the heads of Simon Sudbury (age 65), archbishop of Canterbury, then the king’s chancellor, sir Robert Hales (age 56), the treasurer, and many others, hard by the Tower of London. And on the places where these lords were beheaded there are set up to this day two marble crosses, a lasting memorial of so monstrous a deed.
Wat Tyler is quite lost sight of. Knighton (Rolls series, ij. 137), in like manner, confuses the two men: "ductor eorum proprio nomine Watte Tyler, sed jam nomine mutato vocatus est Jakke Strawe."
On 14 Jun 1381 the mob gained access to the Tower of London [Map] capturing Joan "Fair Maid of Kent" Princess Wales (age 52), the future King Henry IV of England (age 14), Joan Holland Duchess York (age 1) and Archbishop Simon Sudbury (age 65).
Archbishop Simon Sudbury (age 65) was beheaded at Tower Hill [Map]. He was buried at Canterbury Cathedral [Map].
Lord Treasurer Robert Hales (age 56), who had only been appointed on the 1st February 1381, was beheaded at Tower Hill [Map].
Calendars. 15 Jun 1381. Commission of oyer and terminer to William Walleworth, mayor of London, Robert Bealknapp, Robert Knolles, Nicholas Brembre, John Philipot, Robert Launde, and William Cheyne, on information that great crowds of labourers and others have collected together, especially in the counties of Essex, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Middlesex, compelled their betters to go with them, killed many of the king's lieges, and burned many houses, entered the city of London, and burned the house of the king's uncle John, duke of Lancaster (age 41), called the 'Sauveye [Map],' and the priory in Clerkenwelle of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England, and killed Simon, archbishop of Canterbury (deceased) and chancellor, and Robert de Hales (deceased), prior of the said Hospital. By К. June 15. London.