Around 1316 Archbishop Simon Sudbury was born at Sudbury, Suffolk.
On 22nd October 1361 Archbishop Simon Sudbury was appointed Bishop of London.
In May 1375 Archbishop Simon Sudbury was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.
On 16th July 1377 King Richard II of England was crowned II King of England at Westminster Abbey by Archbishop Simon Sudbury.
Richard Fitzalan 9th Earl of Surrey 4th or 11th Earl of Arundel carried the Crown.
Guichard d'Angle 1st Earl Huntingdon was created 1st Earl Huntingdon for life.
John Mowbray 1st Earl Nottingham was created 1st Earl Nottingham.
Edward 2nd Duke of York 1st Duke Albemarle and Robert Harrington 3rd Baron Harington were knighted.
Roger Scales 4th Baron Scales attended.
In January 1380 Archbishop Simon Sudbury was appointed Lord Chancellor.
On 11th June 1381 King Richard II of England held council with his mother Joan "Fair Maid of Kent" Princess Wales, Thomas Beauchamp 12th Earl Warwick, William Montagu 2nd Earl Salisbury, Richard Fitzalan 9th Earl of Surrey 4th or 11th Earl of Arundel, Archbishop Simon Sudbury and Robert Hales at the Tower of London.
On 14th June 1381 the rebels gained access to the Tower of London capturing Joan "Fair Maid of Kent" Princess Wales, the future King Henry IV of England, Joan Holland Duchess York and Archbishop Simon Sudbury.
Archbishop Simon Sudbury was beheaded at Tower Hill. He was buried at Canterbury Cathedral.
Lord Treasurer Robert Hales, who had only been appointed on the 1st February 1381, was beheaded at Tower Hill.
Westminster Chronicle. In the same year, on the day before [12th June 1381] the Ides of June, a very great multitude of country people from Essex and Kent alike was assembled. Those from Kent, running through many parts of Kent like rabid dogs, razed the houses and manors of very many people to the ground, beheaded several men, and forced all those they met, who were not of their disturbance, to adhere to them and to bind themselves by oath with them in defence of King Richard. They claimed that they would defend the king and the welfare of the kingdom against his traitors. And so, as their crowd grew, they raged far and wide. They asserted that Master Simon of Sudbury, then archbishop and also chancellor of England, was a traitor and most worthy of death. Therefore, going down to his manor of Lambeth, they burned in the fire books, vestments, cloths, and many other things left there. They broke open barrels filled with wine and drank from them and poured onto the ground what wine had been left. They smashed all the kitchen vessels by striking them against one another, and, as they committed these acts, applauding as though over some praiseworthy deed, they cried out, "A revel, a revel!" These things were done on the day before the Ides of June, namely the day of Basilides and Quirinus [12th June 1381], which day was then the vigil of Corpus Christi. Meanwhile the archbishop, fearing that he would be seized by the hands of those seeking him, fled into the royal palace, and then to the king in the Tower of London.
Eodem anno pridie Idus Junii coadunata fuit maxima multitudo ruralium Estsexiæ pariter et Cantiæ ; et hi quidem qui de Cantia per plures partes Cantiæ, uti rabidissimi canes discurrentes plurimorum domos et maneria solotenus diruerunt, nonnullos decapitaverunt et quosque sibi occurrentes, qui de eorum conturbine non fuerant, ut eis adhærerent et cum eis in defensionem regis Ricardi interposito juramento constringebant, prætendentes se defensuros regem et regni commoditatem contra suos traditores. Quare concrescente eorum turba longe lateque debacchabantur ; magistrum Simonem de Sudbury, tunc archiepiscopum pariter et Angliæ cancellarium, proditorem esse asserentes et morte dignissimum ; unde ad manerium suum de Lambhuth descendentes libros vestes mappas et plura alia inibi relicta igne combusserunt ; dolia vino referta confregerunt et hauserunt et quod vini fuerat relictum in terram effuderunt singula coquinæ vasa adinvicem collidentes fregerunt et ista perpetrantes velut de re laudabili plaudentes "A Revell A Revell" exclamaverunt. Acta sunt hæc pridie idus Junii die videlicet Basilidis et Cirini quæ dies tunc erat vigilia Corporis Christi. Interea archiepiscopus manibus se quærentium comprehendi timens in regium fugit palatium, deinde ad regem in turrim Londoniæ.
Chronicle of Adam of Usk [~1352-1430]. 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, 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 [12th June 1381] of Corpus Christi, in the year of Our Lord 1381 struck off the heads2 of Simon Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, then the king's chancellor, sir Robert Hales, 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.
Note 1. Wat Tyler is quite lost sight of. Knighton (Rolls series, ij. 137), in like manner, confuses the two men: "their leader, by his proper name Wat Tyler, but now, with his name changed, he was called Jack Straw."
Note 2. Archbishop Simon of Sudbury was beheaded on 14th June 1381.
Patent Rolls. 15th June 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, called the 'Sauveye,' and the priory in Clerkenwelle of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England, and killed Simon, archbishop of Canterbury and chancellor, and Robert de Hales, prior of the said Hospital. By К. June 15. London.
After 14th June 1381 Archbishop Simon Sudbury's head was kept at St Gregory's Church, Sudbury.