For you shall have Bow-bell ring at your will."
These 'prentices were a pugnacious race of mortals, and were ever ready
to issue forth at the cry of "Clubs! clubs! 'Prentices! 'Prentices!"
leaving the shop to take care of itself, to join in any fray that
was going on in the street, especially if it were a demonstration
against a foreign interloper in trade. They waited upon their master
and mistress at their meals, and on Sundays and saint-days followed
them demurely to church, carrying hassocks for them to kneel upon.
In the summer evenings, after the shops were shut and evening prayer
over, as Stow tells us, they were wont "to exercise their wasters and
bucklers, and the maidens, one of them playing upon a timbrel, in sight
of their masters and dames, to dance for garlands hanged across the
streets," and on holidays they went out to Finsbury Fields, and other
open places, and exercised themselves in leaping, dancing, shooting,
wrestling, casting the stone, etc., but especially in bow and arrow
practice.
Chaucer, in the _Cook's Tale_, thus describes the 'prentice of
Cheapside:—
"A prentice dwelt whilom in our cite;
At every bridale would he sing and hoppe;
He loved bet the taverne than the shoppe,
For when ther any riding was in Chepe,
Out of the shoppe thider wold he lepe,
And till that he had all the sight ysein,
And danced wel, he wold not come agen."
Some of the more salient features in the past of Cheapside which
present themselves to our view in the gradual unrolling of the panorama
of the ten centuries are very varied in their character. We behold a
strange intermingling of gorgeous processions in honour of the birth,
marriage, and coronation of royal personages, with the pillory, the
stocks, and the executioner's block, and the accompanying lopping-off
of hands, ears, and heads, and whippings at the cart tail; Lord
Mayors' shows, generally more grotesque than refined, and trade guild
demonstrations of splendid liveries and floating banners; combined with
'prentices' club frays, and fights between rival trade companies, which
seldom ended without bloodshed; tilting at the quintain; tournaments
and joustings; alongside with insurrectionary risings and outbursts of
religious fanaticism.
A.D. 1196. At this period the rich and the noble of the land were
chiefly of the Norman race, and the poor almost all Saxons, who were
ground down to the earth by the tyranny and oppression of their
masters, to which they submitted with a sullen dogged obedience, having
still within them that spirit of freedom which animated the breasts
of their ancestors previous to the Norman Conquest. Richard Cœur de
Lion was king, and had just been liberated from his captivity. He
ruled the kingdom with a high hand, and had said on one occasion, when
remonstrated with for raising money by unconstitutional means, "Have I
not a right to do what I like with my own? I would sell London itself
if I could find a purchaser." At this juncture up rose a lawyer, one
William Fitzosbert, otherwise called Longbeard, who seems to have
been a designing character, and desirous of currying favour with the
people, he proclaimed himself the advocate of the poor, the redresser
of their wrongs, and the unflinching enemy of their oppressors. He soon
had a gathering around him of the penniless and discontented serfs,
amounting eventually to 50,000 men, armed with bows and arrows, rudely
fashioned pikes, clubs, axes, hedge stakes, and other similar weapons.
This army—or rather mob—went about offering insults to the rich,
breaking open their houses and plundering them in broad daylight. The
Corporation had then but little authority and power, and were not able
to cope with so formidable an insurrection; and Archbishop Hubert, the
chief justiciary, summoned the leader to appear before him, who came,
however, so numerously attended, that it was deemed wise to dismiss him
with a rebuke. After this the outrages of the insurgents became more
barefaced and open, as well as more numerous; whereupon more vigorous
measures were taken, and after murdering an officer sent to apprehend
him, Fitzosbert, with a concubine and a few followers, took refuge in
the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, and fortified it against his pursuers,
defying them for some time, many persons being killed in the assault,
until at length a fire of damp straw was lighted beneath, the smoke of
which compelled the garrison to issue forth, and after a fight in the
street, they were captured and carried to the Tower, before the judges,
who condemned them to death. "And then," says Stow, "he (Fitzosbert)
was by the heels drawn to the Elmes in Smithfield and there hanged
with nine of his fellows, where because his favourers came not to
deliver him, he forsook Mary's son (as he termed Christ our Saviour),
and called upon the devil to help and deliver him. Such was the end of
this deceiver, a filthy fornicator, a secret murderer, a pollutor of
concubines, and (amongst his other detestable acts) a false accuser of
his elder brother, who had brought him up in learning, and done many
things for his preferment." The people, however, looked upon him as a
martyr, secured his body, carried away the broken-up gibbet and the
bloodstained earth as relics, and reports were afterwards spread abroad
of sundry wonderful miracles which had been worked by their sacred
influence.
A.D. 1236. An aspect of a very different and much more pleasing
character was that which Cheapside assumed on one occasion in this
year. King Henry III. had in January married with great magnificence
at Canterbury, Eleanor, second daughter of Raymond, Earl of Provence,
and it was when she passed through the City, on her way to Westminster
to be crowned, that a civic display was made in Cheapside, which
surpassed in pomp and splendour everything which had preceded it,
and which is the earliest of which we have any detailed account. The
street was hung with arras, silk and cloth draperies of gay colours,
and banners and pennons floating from the housetops and windows,
accompanied by many strange devices, and pageants on scaffolds along
the route. Andrew Bockrel, the mayor, with the sheriffs and aldermen,
and a following of 360 citizens, rode forth to meet the king and queen,
and escort them through the City to Westminster. They were all clad
in long robes, lavishly embroidered with gold; their other garments
were of silk, diversified in colour, and their horses were covered
with trappings reaching to the ground, covered with embroidery and
blazonry of arms. Each man carried in his hand a gold or silver cup,
emblematic of the Lord Mayor's right to serve the office of chief
butler at the coronation feast, and they were preceded by trumpeters.
In the evening the city was illuminated with lamps, cressets, and
other lights "without number," Cheapside presenting a most brilliant
effect, with the bonfires blazing up from the ground, lights of
different kinds gleaming from the frontages of the houses, from end
to end of the street, and multitudes of men, with lighted cressets
on their shoulders, marching hither and thither, and mingling with
others bearing torches, a scene infinitely more picturesque than the
commonplace gas illuminations of the present.
A.D. 1249. In this year King Henry III. made a raid upon the
shopkeepers of Cheapside, who, true to their instinctive abhorrence
of regal interference with their liberties, presented so formidable
an opposition to his demands that he was fain to give way. Stow thus
narrates the occurrence: "This year the King kept his Christmas at
London, with the meanness of spirit worthy of himself, for he begged,
as it were, large new year's gifts of the citizens. But the money on
that occasion not being deemed sufficient, Henry soon after sent and
imperiously demanded much greater sums. This message occasioned a
great alarm amongst the citizens, who justly complained that no regard
was had to honour, justice, conscience, nor religion; and that their
liberties, which they had so often dearly bought, and had so many
times been confirmed and sworn to, were not able to protect them from
being treated as the worst of the slaves; yet, notwithstanding these
great truths, they were compelled to pay the tyrant the sum of £2,000,
a very great sum at that time. Nor did these wicked proceedings stop
here, for many shopkeepers in the City were spoiled of their goods
(especially those for the use of the kitchen) by the order of that
iniquitous prince." We may fancy the commotion that would be excited
in Cheapside when the king's officers appeared and seized the goods
which were displayed on the bunks for sale, and can only wonder that
the valorous 'prentices did not raise their usual war cry, seize their
clubs, and drive the officers back with a sound thrashing to their
master who sent them. Whether they did attempt to defend their master's
property in this their usual fashion is not recorded, but Stow adds:
"These diabolical oppressions caused many of the most eminent citizens
to retire into the country, choosing rather to cohabit with brutes
than to dwell in the capital of so wicked a tyrant.... Henry, being at
last conscious of his having frequently and unjustly imposed upon the
citizens of London by many heavy and intolerable exactions, resolved to
reconcile himself with them; and, in order thereunto, commanded them
to attend him at Westminster, where, being assembled in the great hall,
he, in the presence of his nobility, solemnly promised that for the
future they should live happily under his government, and not be liable
to such grievous taxations as formerly."
A.D. 1257. Sir Hugh Bigot, an itinerant judge, held a court in the
City, although contrary to the ancient rights and liberties of the
citizens, and made an example in Cheapside of certain bakers guilty
of malpractices such as giving short weight and supplying an inferior
article, "by setting them upon a tumbrell or dung-cart, wherein they
were exposed in the streets as bawds usually were,"—a very wholesome
punishment, which might be revived with advantage in the present day as
an example to the adulterators of food.
A.D. 1262 and 1264. At the eastern end of Cheapside is a street called
the Old Jewry, a name formerly applied to a limited district westward
of Lothbury, and so called from being the principal Jews' quarter of
the early race of Jews, who were banished the kingdom _temp._ Edward
I., and where they had a synagogue. Here they lived, as well as about
Jewin Street, and in a Jewery near the Tower, and then, as now, made
great wealth by the practice of usury, and despoiling the Gentiles by
means of hard bargains and crafty sharp practice in money dealings,
which gave rise to a great deal of ill-will between the two races, much
maltreatment, massacres, and unjust demands of money from the Jews, by
the kings and other authorities, and the frequent pillaging of their
houses by mobs.
In 1189, a general massacre of the Jews took place at the coronation
of Richard I., the survivors living in constant peril of murder and
confiscation, an instance of the latter occurring in 1241, when the
Jews of London were fined 20,000 marks because the Jews of Norwich had
circumcised a Christian child.
In 1262, a fierce quarrel broke out between a Christian and a Jew,
in the Church of St. Mary Cole, in the Poultry, relative to some
money transactions, which proceeded from words to blows, and the Jew,
having dangerously wounded his adversary, fled into the Jewry for
refuge, pursued by a mob of idlers who had witnessed the fray, and
of 'prentices from the shops, nothing loth to join in a Jew-hunting
frolic. The Jew was captured in his own house, dragged forth, and
bludgeoned to death. Not satisfied with that, the mob fell upon
the inhabitants of the quarter and murdered them indiscriminately,
afterwards plundering and burning their houses.
Two years afterwards the mob was again in arms, arising out of an
attempt on the part of a Jew to extort more than the legal interest
(twopence per week) for £20, which he had lent to a Christian. They
attacked the "Jewery" in great force, destroyed the synagogue—the first
erected in England—massacred 500, or according to another authority,
700 Jews, male and female, and "spoiled the residue of their property."
In the Westminster Parliament of 1273, laws were enacted to restrain
their exorbitant rates of usury, and in 1290, by an Act of the
Parliament assembled at Northampton, they were banished the realm, and
all their immovable property confiscated. The number who were thus
driven forth amounted, according to Matthew of Westminster, to 16,160,
and thus ended the first race of Jews in England, from which period
until the middle of the seventeenth century, although there might be
individuals, there was no organised body of Jews in the land.
A.D. 1269. In this year, the 53rd of the reign of Henry III., a great
fight took place between the Goldsmiths and the Taylors Companies,
which is thus graphically described by Fabyan: "In this lili. yere in
ye moneth of November fyll a very aulnce atweene the felys-shyppes
of Goldsmythes and Tayloures of London, whiche grewe to makynge of
parties, so that with the Goldsmythes take partie the felyshep or
craft of—and with the Tayloures held ye craft of Stayners; by meane of
this moche people uyghtly gaderyd in the streetes in harneys, and at
length as it were prouyded, the thirde nyght of the sayd parties mette
upon the number of V. C. men on both sydes and ran togyder, with such
vyolence, that some were slayne and many wounded. Then outcry was was
made that ye shyreffes, with strengthe of other comers, came to the
ryddynge of theym, and of theym toke certayne persones and sent them
into dyvers prysons and upon the morrowe such serche was made, yt the
moste of the chief causers of that fray were taken and put in warde.
Then vpon the Fryday followynge Saynt Katteryn's daye, sessyons were
kepte at Newgate by the Mayre and Lawrence de Broke, iustice, and
others; where xxx. of the sayd persones were arregned of felony, and
xiii. of theym caste and hanged."
A.D. 1330. King Edward II. had been murdered in Berkeley Castle, and
his son, Edward III., reigned in his stead, and now, five years after
the decapitation of Bishop Stapleton, Cheapside was witness of a scene
of a more joyous character. Unsuitable as it might be deemed nowadays,
with its endless throng of cabs, omnibuses, and other vehicles, for
such a display, it was then not unfrequently the chosen spot for
tournaments and jousts. Two years before, the young King had married
Philippa of Hainhault, and this year she had given birth to an infant,
afterwards the famous Black Prince. In honour of this event, and to do
honour to the visit of some French ambassadors, the King gave orders
for a tournament to be held in Cheapside. The street was decorated with
tapestries and silver draperies, pendant on the walls, and banners
streaming from the roofs. The bright eyes of beauteous damsels glanced
in the windows of the houses, and the street was filled with a crowd
of gaily dressed holiday-makers. The lists were formed between Wood
Street and Queen Street, and the ground bestrewn with sand to prevent
the horses slipping. There was seen all the glory and paraphernalia of
heraldry. Kings-at-arms and pursuivants, decked in habits emblazoned
with arms, trumpeters, and other officials; prancing steeds, bestridden
by knights in full panoply, with their achievements blazoned on their
shields, accompanied by their esquires bearing their arms. Across the
street had been erected a scaffold, shaped like a tower, whereon sat
Philippa and the ladies of her court, the great centre of attraction
for the spectators in the street below. Thirteen knights entered the
lists on each side; stalwart men and the flower of chivalry. Their
esquires handed to them their lances, and making deep obeisance to
the Queen, they ranged themselves at each end for the onset, when the
trumpets sounded and they dashed forward. Scarcely, however, had they
done so when the scaffold on which the Queen sat came down with a
terrific crash, which stopped the jousters in midway. The King rushed
to the spot, anxious for the safety of the Queen, but fortunately found
that no one had been hurt beyond a few bruises and a terrible fright.
Great confusion prevailed, and the King, in a tempest of rage, vowed
that all the careless carpenters who had constructed the stage should
be put to death, but the Queen, says Stow, "took great care to save the
carpenters from punishment, and through her prayers, which she made on
her knees, she pacified the King and council, and thereby purchased
great love of the people." After this the King caused a stone shed,
called Sildham, to be built in front of Bow Church, "for himself, the
Queen, and other estates to stand in, there to behold the joustings and
other shows at their pleasure." It served this purpose until the year
1410, in the reign of Henry VI., when it was disposed of to Stephen
Spilman, William Marchford, and John Wattel, mercers, for business
purposes, with the condition that "The kings of England and other great
estates, as well as those of foreign countries repairing to this realm,
should be entitled to make use of it for witnessing the shows of the
City, passing through Westchepe."
At the western standard by Paul's Gate, Jack Cade, the rebel leader, in
1450, caused Lord Say to be decapitated.
A.D. 1382-1445. In the interval between these dates, Cheapside was
the scene of much royal pageantry of great splendour. When Anne of
Bohemia, the first Queen of Richard II., entered London after her
marriage, in 1382, a castle, with towers, was erected in Cheapside,
on whose battlements stood a bevy of fair maidens, who flung in
their path counterfeit gold coins, and threw over them, as it were,
showers of butterflies made of gold leaf; and when she and Richard
passed in procession through Cheapside, afterwards, to celebrate his
reconciliation with the City, after a fierce quarrel, a tower was
erected, whence issued copious streams of red and white wine for all
comers, the King and Queen quaffing draughts therefrom out of golden
goblets, and an "angel descending from a cloud crowned them with golden
circlets." In 1423 Katherine of Valois, widow of Henry V., after
visiting St. Paul's Cathedral, passed through Cheapside, seated in a
chair of state, with her infant king, Henry VI., in her lap, whence
she proceeded to Newington Manor House. Henry VI. and his queen—the
masculine and brave, but unfortunate, Margaret of Anjou—passed along
Cheapside with much pageantry on the occasion of their marriage, in
1445, when they halted by the great conduit to witness a play called
_The Five Wise and the Five Foolish Virgins_, who were personated with
great spirit by ten City maidens. Twenty-seven years after—in 1472—the
corpse of the weak and unfortunate monarch, after his suspicious death
in the Tower, and the fall of the Lancaster dynasty, passed along
Cheapside in mournful funereal silence, by torchlight, and with the
face exposed, that all might see that the last of the Lancasters was
really dead, on its progress to St. Paul's, and hence to Windsor for
burial.
A.D. 1510. Perhaps the most splendid of the sights of Cheapside was the
setting of the Marching Watch on the Vigil of St. John the Baptist, in
June, and on that of Saints Peter and Paul in July. The City Watch was
instituted in the year 1253 by Henry III., and consisted of a body of
substantial citizens, with an alderman or magistrate at their head,
for each ward, to protect the houses from robbery and the streets
from outrages by night—crimes which had hitherto been very rife; and
it was ordained that if anyone suffered loss or violence whilst the
guard was on duty he should receive compensation from the ward. The
Marching Watch was a grand processional display of fire and light,
banners and music, glittering armour and flashing weapons, bonfires in
the streets, and numberless cressets borne aloft. The citizens' wives
and daughters, apparelled in their most fascinating costumes, occupied
the windows; men and boys clambered on the gabled roofs; whilst in
the street below tables were spread with viands and provided by the
citizens, which were presided over by their 'prentices, attired in
their blue gowns and yellow hosen, like the Christ's Hospital boys of
our time, who invited the passers-by—more especially if they were young
and pretty and of the other sex—to partake of their masters' cheer.
On the Vigil of St. John in 1510, Henry VIII., then a frolicsome
young man of nineteen, who had only been a year on the throne, with
a companion or two, perhaps Charles Brandon, came from Westminster,
disguised as a yeomen of the guard, to see this setting of the Watch,
of which he had heard so much. He came from Westminster in a public
wherry, and landing at Bridewell Stairs, proceeded on foot, like a
modern Haroun al Raschid, mingling with the people and cracking jests
with them as he went along. He stationed himself at the cross in West
Cheap, where he saw the proceedings admirably, and after partaking,
most probably, of a cake and a flagon of ale at some hospitable
citizen's door, he returned, so much struck with the splendour of the
festival that he vowed he would bring the Queen (Catherine of Arragon,
whom he had married the previous year) to see it on the next occasion,
in July.