Cairo 143of the rising sparked outbreaks of violence in Essex and
Wiltshire, where another bishop was murdered. The
king’s army collapsed after a skirmish at Sevenoaks on
June 27 and Henry and his court had to withdraw to
Kenilworth in the Midlands. Cade’s forces were able to
enter London unopposed. After a form of trial, they
executed the treasurer of England, Lord Say and Sele
(d. 1450) and several other unpopular officials. The
elite of London, fearing further disorder, joined forces
with royal troops in the tower under Anthony
Woodville, Lord Scales (ca. 1442–83). On the night of
July 5 there was fighting on London Bridge, but the
next day a settlement was negotiated. There were gen-
eral pardons for the rebels and a promise of an inquiry
into their complaints. The rebels then dispersed. After
his pardon was nullified, Cade died after being
wounded and captured in Sussex, probably on July 12,
1450.
Unrest continued in Kent and Sussex for several
years, the other pardons were honored and commissions
were actually sent to investigate complaints of extortion
and misgovernment. This was the beginning of decades
of violence and dynastic changes at the beginning of the
Wars of the Roses.
See alsoWARS OF THEROSES.
Further reading:A. R. Myers, ed., English Historical
Documents, IV: 1327–1485 (London: Eyre & Spottis-
woode, 1969), 264–269; I. M. W. Harvey, Jack Cade’s
Rebellion of 1450 (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1991); Benjamin Brogden Orridge, Illustrations of Jack
Cade’s Rebellion(London: J. C. Hotten, 1869).
Caedmon, Saint(Cedmon)(d. 670/680)English poet
Probably a Celt, Caedmon was a cowherd and a monk at
the monastery of WHITBY, where, though supposedly
elderly and illiterate, he learned the Scriptures. According
to BEDE, the principal source on Caedmon, he was given
a gift for verse in a vision from God and used it to con-
vert scriptural texts into verse. He was mainly known,
however, as a writer of popular and sacred poetry, meant
to be read by the laity. Of all his poems quoted by Bede
and other sources, only one hymn, which presented him
as a poet inspired by dreams, has survived. He probably
died between 670 and 680.
Further reading:Stephen Humphreys Villiers Gur-
teen, The Epic of the Fall of Man: A Comparative Study of
Caedmon, Dante and Milton(New York: Haskell House,
1964); Katherine O’Brien O’Keefe, Visible Song: Transi-
tional Literacy in Old English Verse (Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1990), 23–46; Jeff Opland,
Anglo-Saxon Oral Poetry: A Study of the Traditions(New
Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1980).
Caetani, Benedict(Benedetto) See BONIFACE VIII,
POPE.
Cairo(al-Kahira, al-Qahira)Medieval Cairo was a city on
the Nile River in northern Egypt. The name Cairois from
the Arabic al-Qahira,“the Victorious,” the title given by the
Fatimid caliph who founded it in 969. Cairo does not have
ancient precursors. AL-FUSTAT, founded in 641 by the Mus-
lim conquerors on the right bank of the Nile at the foot of a
Byzantine fortress, was the original foundation that eventu-
ally became part of modern Cairo. Subsequent expansion
tended to move northward. After al-Fustat, three more set-
tlements were founded. The most southerly, al-Askar, was
founded by an ABBASIDgovernor in 750, then al-Qatai by
Ibn Tulun in 879, and finally al-Qahira or Cairo, the last
and northernmost, in 969. It was originally called al-
Mansuriyya, but that was soon changed to al-Qahira.
Al-Qahira was a foundation with a political design.
The Shiite FATIMIDcaliphs made it a princely capital with
walls and monumental gates; palaces; large mosques; cen-
ters for the teaching of Shiite doctrine, such as al-Azhar
(the Brilliant); markets or souks; workshops to produce
luxury goods for the court; and special urban areas for
the different ethnic groups of their army. Al-Fustat then
became a commercial and industrial center with a port,
sugar refineries, warehouses, and business quarters, all
profiting from international trade. There was a period of
toleration for Jews and Christians. An urban fabric grew
to run from al-Fustat to al-Qahira in the north.
Along with returning it to Sunni Islam with the
AYYUBIDdynasty (1171–1250), SALADINchanged the city
of Cairo by destroying the Fatimid palaces and building,
between Cairo and al-Fustat, the Citadel, a sign of
his dominance. New walls enclosed these three parts
of al-Qahira, the Citadel, and al-Fustat to become late
medieval and modern Cairo. It was around the linked
urban center that the city developed under the next
dynasty, that of the MAMLUKS(1250–1517). They were
cut off from their lands of origin, were ardent Sunnis, and
were occupying a town blessed with considerable rev-
enue, so they erected new religious, economic, and place
foundations in order to give themselves more legitimacy
in the eyes of fellow Muslims. The city suffered terribly
during the plague of 1348 and began a slow decline,
accelerated by changes in the patterns of trade in the
15th century. The city was conquered by the OTTOMANS
in 1517 and became a provincial capital.
See alsoART AND ARCHITECTURE,ISLAMIC.
Further reading:Philip K. Hitti, “Cairo: The Dissi-
dent Capital” in Capital Cities of Arab Islam(Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1973), 110–134; André
Raymond, Cairo,trans. Willard Wood (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 2000); Carl F. Petry, The Civil-
ian Elite of Cairo in the Middle Ages(Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1981); Max Rodenbeck,
Cairo: The City Victorious(New York: Vintage Books,
1998); Gaston Wiet, Cairo: City of Art and Commerce,
trans. Seymour Feiler (Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1964).