Today’s word of the day, thanks to Merriam-Webster, is modicum. Modicum is a noun that means a small amount, usually in the phrase “a modicum of…” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day).

According to etymology.com, the word entered the English language in the “late 15c., Scottish, from Latin modicum ‘a little,’ noun use of neuter of modicus ‘moderate, having a proper measure; ordinary, scanty, small, few,’ from modus ‘measure, extent, quantity; proper measure,’ from PIE root *med- ‘take appropriate measures’” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=modicum). So it looks like what we have is a loanword borrowed wholesale from the Latin.

The etymology entry then goes on to expand on the PIE root: “It might form all or part of: accommodate; accommodation; commode; commodious; commodity; empty; immoderate; immodest; Medea; medical; medicament; medicaster; medicate; medication; medicine; medico; medico-; meditate; meditation; Medusa; meet (adj.) ‘proper, fitting;’ mete (v.) ‘to allot;’ modal; mode; model; moderate; modern; modest; modicum; modify; modular; modulate; module; modulation; mold (n.1) ‘hollow shape;’ mood (n.2) ‘grammatical form indicating the function of a verb;’ must (v.); premeditate; premeditation; remedial; remediation; remedy.” That’s a pretty wide variety of words to all have possibly come from the one root. By the way, when I was growing up in the Lutheran Church, we used this adjective form of meet in the dialogue that precedes the Eucharistic prayer. The pastor would say, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God,” and the congregation would respond, “It is meet and right so to do.” Then the pastor would continue, “It is meet, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto Thee, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty, Everlasting God….” The use of the adjective form of meet has, however, been dropped from more recent versions of the liturgy.

The etymology then expands the list with even more possible descendants of the PIE root: “It might also be the source of: Sanskrit midiur ‘I judge, estimate;’ Avestan vi-mad- ‘physician;’ Greek mēdomai ‘be mindful of,’ medesthai ‘think about,’ medein ‘to rule,’ medon ‘ruler;’ Latin meditari ‘think or reflect on, consider,’ modus ‘measure, manner,’ modestus ‘moderate,’ modernus ‘modern,’ mederi ‘to heal, give medical attention to, cure;’ Irish miduir ‘judge;’ Welsh meddwl ‘mind, thinking;’ Gothic miton, Old English metan ‘to measure out.’” If you look at the Welsh word, you might wonder how the second syllable, “dwl,” has no vowel, but in Welsh, there are seven vowels: a, e, i, o, u, y, and w. Even in Englis the w is what linguists call a semivowel, a letter that has characteristics of both consonants and vowels.

On this date in in 1450, according to On This Day (https://www.onthisday.com/events/may/8) Jack Cade’s Rebellion began in Kent, England. We know very little about Jack Cade. Brittanica says that he was an Irishman living in Kent when he led a rebellion against King Henry VI (https://www.britannica.com/event/Cades-Rebellion). Britain Express says that he was a former soldier, which would not be surprising given the way England raised armies at the time (https://www.britainexpress.com/History/medieval/cade.htm).

The background for Cade’s Rebellion was the ongoing Cousins’ War in England that started around 1400 when Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV) deposed Richard II. Henry’s son, Henry V, became king and, based on the advice of his father, focused on conquering France, which he did. Unfortunately, he died young, at 35, from an illness that has not been precisely identified, having reigned for only nine years. He son, who became Henry VI, was just a baby, and child kings have almost always been problematic for England. Henry VI reigned from 1422 until 1460, and again from 1470 to 1471. Of course, the first fifteen years of his rule were conducted by a regency.

Henry V had signed the treaty of Troyes with his father-in-law, Charles VI, that would have made Henry king of France, but Charles outlived Henry V by a couple of months. The French decided that they would not honor the Treaty of Troyes, and by 1440, England had lost almost all of what Henry V had taken. That did not, however, deter Henry VI’s advisors from continuing the war, and the fighting in France cost England in lives and treasure. Treasure was obtained for the Crown through taxes, which were sometimes onerous.

It was the taxes, and the general perception of bad governance, that led to the rebellion. Of course, in this time, people were often reluctant to blame the king for any problems—they always said that he had bad or corrupt advisors, and if they could just get rid of the advisors, the king would do a better job.

So Jack Cade gathered an army of tradesmen and shop owners and, undoubtedly, some peasants, and marched on London. Kent is, depending on where you start from in Kent, maybe an hour and a half or two hours from London, by car. But Cade and his followers didn’t have cars, so it took them somewhat longer. Initially, the king gathered an army and went to meet the rebels where they had gathered at Blackheath (somewhat closer to London), but the rebels dispersed, perhaps not wanting to physically attack their king. A small contingent of the royal troops pursued the rebels, who then reassembled themselves. The two forces engaged at the Battle at Solefields, near Sevenoaks, and the rebels won a decisive victory. That led to even more men joining the rebels, who then marched on London.

The people of London actually received Cade and his rebels with somewhat open arms. The frustrations of taxation, poor governance, and seemingly endless war had gotten under the skins of the Londoners. And these particular rebels were not demanding radical social change. This revolt was not like Wat Tyler’s in 1381 or like the Levellers during the English Civil War. They wanted some changes to how laborers were treated, less onerous taxes, and an end to the war in France, but they weren’t radical. And the people of London were not, for the most part, radical.

But Jack Cade couldn’t really control all the men under his command. They lacked the discipline of the modern army, and there was some stealing and looting. Eventually, the Londoners rose up against the rebels and drove them back across London Bridge and out of the city. Then a local bishop stepped in to negotiate an end to the rebellion, which he did, promising that the concerns of Cade’s men would be heard and offering a universal pardon to the rebels.

Unfortunately for Jack Cade, the King and the nobility chose not to recognize the pardon for him, and he was eventually found and killed in a small battle.

One wonders what might have happened had the Londoners not turned on the rebels. Would the rebels eventually have taken the Tower of London? Would Henry VI have been forced into taking the concerns of the rebels seriously? Would the Cousins’ War have ended in 1450 instead of lasting another 20 years or more? Would Jack Cade have become the folk hero, a kind of Robin Hood, that he did in fact become had he lived a long life?

But we can surmise that the history of England might actually be quite different if the followers of Jack Cade had shown a modicum of restraint. Then again, we are left with Shakespeare’s famous depiction of Jack Cade in 2 Henry 6, act 4, scene 2:

DICK THE BUTCHER. The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.

JACK CADE. Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment, that parchment, being scribbl’d o’er, should undo a man? Some say the bee stings; but I say ’tis the bee’s wax, for I did but seal once to a thing, and I was never mine own man since.

The image today is “The rebel Jack Cade seats himself on London Stone, in William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 2 (Act 4, Scene 6). Illustration by Sir John Gilbert (1817-97) in Works of William Shakespeare (London: Routledge, 1881) vol 8 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Cade%27s_Rebellion#/media/File:Jack_Cade_on_London_Stone.JPG