into Normandy, whilst a storm was raging and the seamen represented
the perilous nature of the attempt, "Who ever heard of a King being
lost at sea? go I will, and at once, storm or no storm," and he did go,
arriving safely at his destination. Perchance the fact of this Calais
ship having a king aboard, with the immunity of kings from shipwreck,
may have had something to do with its escape from destruction, at any
rate it did survive the peril, and its having done so was the cause of
the establishment of the Abbey of St. Mary of Graces.
The royal personage who passed through the peril of the Straits was
none other than the victor of Creci and Calais, the illustrious
Plantagenet, Edward the Third. The three sons of Philip IV. of France
having successively died without issue, his nephew, Philip of Valois.
according to the Salique law, became his successor, but Edward of
England claimed the throne as son of the daughter of Philip IV., and
entered France to assert his claim. He met his rival, Philip VI., at
Creci, with 36,000 men, opposed to the French army of 130,000, and
obtained a great victory, 36,000 of the French being slain and the
rest taking to flight. He then marched to Calais, which he invested
and took after a most obstinate defence of twelve months, on August
4th 1347, after which occurred the famous historic incident of the six
brave burghers of Calais presenting themselves before the victor in
their shirts, and with ropes round their necks, as voluntary victims
to sate the vengeance of the king and save their town, and their
subsequent pardon at the intercession of the Queen. Notwithstanding the
obstinate defence of the town, the King could scarcely do less than
accede to Philippa's request, since within its walls she had presented
him with a fair daughter, afterwards called Margaret of Calais.
His Queen and the newly-born princess were with him in the frail bark
when it was tossed hither and thither, and its timbers riven by the
storm, and in the midst thereof he prostrated himself and made a solemn
vow, calling upon the nobles and ecclesiastics who accompanied him to
bear witness thereto, that if God in His mercy should permit him to
land safely in England, he would build and endow on the spot where he
landed a monastery to the honour of God and our Lady of Graces.
At length, after beating up the river as well as they were able with
their broken rudder and shattered sails, the mariners drew the vessel
alongside the shore a little to the east of East Smithfield, when the
royal party landed, and passed, amid the acclamations of the few people
congregated on the river bank, to the Tower, and offered up thanks in
the chapel for their deliverance.
Very different in aspect was the district eastward of Aldgate and
the Tower when King Edward and his retinue landed there, from what
it presents at present, with its docks, wharves, and warehouses, its
stately ships and steam-vessels, to which the ship of King Edward might
have served as a boat slung on davits by their side; its wilderness of
houses, countless miles of the squalid homes of wretchedness, poverty,
and crime; with multitudes of lofty chimneys, belching forth volumes of
black smoke rising from the midst, and railways traversing it in every
direction, accompanied by the incessant thunder of rushing trains, and
the screeching whistle of the locomotive.
The scene that presented itself to the monarch when stepping upon the
river bank from his vessel was that of a flat expanse of pasture land
and marshes, stretching away northward and eastward, protected from
inundation by the embankment of the river, the work of the Romans,
which, however, was not always effectual, as the Thames frequently
overflowed defective portions of the bank and laid the land under
water. There were also many rills and streamlets meandering along from
the high lands of the north, which lost themselves in the marshes or
found an outlet into the river.
Scattered here and there on the more elevated parts were a few hamlets,
mere clusterings of a few cottages, claybuilt, with cross timberings
and straw-thatched roofs, with holes for chimneys, and in the walls
latticed openings to admit light to the interiors. These were the
abodes of cowherds, who tended their masters' cattle in the marshes,
swineherds who drove their charges into the neighbouring forest to
pick up the fallen acorns, fishermen who plied their daily toil on the
river, and a few artizans, carpenters, smiths, and wrights, such as are
now met with in remote country villages. These people were wretchedly
poor, half-starved, ill-clad, and profoundly ignorant, the slaves of
monkish superstition, and the downtrodden serfs of the nobles. Yet had
they within them the old Saxon instinct of freedom and liberty, and
they were the men who in the following reign ranged themselves under
the banners of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw.
Westward stood the Tower of London, frowning grimly on the river
bank—at once a palace, a fortress, and a prison. Stretching northward
therefrom, was the eastern wall of the City terminating in Aldgate,
whence ran the road into Essex. Within the gate, with its tower
overtopping the wall, might be seen the magnificent Priory of the Holy
Trinity, founded by Matilda, the Saxon Queen of Henry I., in the year
1108, and outside, along the road now called the minories, the humbler
and more lowly built convent of the Nuns Minoresses of the Order of
St. Clare, founded in 1239, by Edmund, Earl of Lancaster. And hard by,
close to the gate, was the Church of St. Botolph, formerly belonging
to the knights of the Cnighten guild, now to the Holy Trinity Priory.
Close by the landing place was the hospital of St. Katherine, founded
in 1148, by Matilda, Queen of Stephen, for the repose of the souls
of her children—Baldwin and Matilda; refounded in 1273 by Eleanor,
widow of King Henry III. Eastward was St. Chad's Well, round which
grew up a hamlet, so called, since corrupted to Shadwell. Further on
lay the hamlet of Stebenhithe (Stepney), with its low broad-towered
church. North-westward of it, in the Essex Road, was the chapel of
St. Mary Matfellon, whose name has given rise to much discussion,
without any satisfactory result. Afterwards it was called the White
Chapel, and hence it gave the name to the line of road running from
Aldgate. Northward might be discerned the priory and hospital of St.
Mary Spittle, a timber building with an angle turret, founded by Walter
Brune and his wife, in the year 1197; and not far distant, on the west,
the priory of St. Helen, with its hall, hospital, cloisters, and crypt,
founded in 1210 by William Fitz-William, and dedicated to the Holy
Cross and St. Helen, mother of the Emperor Constantine.
Here, then, on the north side of St. Katherine's Hospital, and
eastward of Little Tower Hill, King Edward laid the foundations of the
monastery, and made it subject to the monastery of Beaulieu, in France,
of which he was the founder. It was called also East Minster, or New
Minster without the walls.
"In the charter of endowment, dated March 2nd, 1349, he gave the abbot
and monks all those messuages, with the appurtenances at Tower Hill,
which he had of John Corey, in pure and perpetual alms, ordering the
house to be called 'The Royal Free Chapel of St. Mary of Graces.'"
In another charter it is said, "The king founded this house in
remembrance and acknowledgement of the goodness of Almighty God, and
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom he had
often called upon and found helpful to him by sea and by land; in
wars and other perils, and therefore ordered this house to be called
'The King's Free Chapel of the Blessed Virgin of Graces, _in memoriam
Gratiarum_.'"
He imported some monks from Beaulieu to occupy the house, and appointed
Walter de Sta Cruce first president of the chapel, "whom he enjoined
kindly to receive and treat the said religious who were to profess
religion in the said chapel."
The house was a stately building of the new decorated Gothic, with
its floriated windows, crocketted pinacles, flying buttresses, and
clustered pillars, presenting a fair aspect to passers by on the
river, as it stood a little way back from the bank, glowing in its
pristine freshness and beauty. And the boatmen would rest on their oars
and listen to the matins or vespers chanted by the brethren within its
walls.
In the 50th year of his reign, the King further augmented the endowment
by placing the Manors of Poplar, of Gravesend, and other manors in
Kent, in trust for the abbey.
Of the Abbots, the names of but few have survived. William de Santa
Cruce, formerly Abbot of Geronden, was the first, to whom the king made
an allowance of £20 per annum for the maintenance of the household.
William Warden, probably his successor, was Abbot in 1360. Paschalis
occurs in a record of the eighth Henry V., 1418. John Langton is named,
in 1495, in a bequest from Jane Hall, of a tenement for her soul's
health. In 1494 he was presented to the vicarage of Gedington, and in
1498, by Sir T. Lovelace, to that of Stokedanbey in the diocese of
Lincoln. John, probably the same, occurs in 1503. Henry More made his
profession as Abbot in 1516.
The house was surrendered in 1539, when the revenues were estimated at
£602 12s. 6d. gross, and £546 10s. net per annum.
Dugdale says: "Of the manner of the surrender we find no account
which gives occasion to guess that it was done by such as were in no
authority, and therefore it was thought fit to conceal the knowledge
thereof. It was granted by Henry VIII., 34th, to Sir Arthur D'Arcy;
was clean pulled down, and of late times, in place thereof, is built a
large storehouse for victuals, and convenient ovens are built there for
baking biskets for the Royal Navy, and it is the victualling office for
the same to this day. The grounds adjoyning, and belonging formerley to
the said abbey, have small tenements built thereon."
Maitland, 1772, in his _History of London_, says that a portion of
the original building was then standing, "now converted into a bisket
bake-house," which is probably an error, as Dugdale states that it was
"clean pulled down."
In the Chapter House, Westminster, there is an impression of the seal
of the abbey, appended to an indenture for the foundation of Henry
VII.'s Chapel. In the centre is the Virgin with the infant Jesus, with
a royal personage—probably Edward III.—kneeling in prayer on the dexter
side, and a group of figures on the left. Underneath is a shield of the
Royal arms, and the legend, SIGIL LUM COMVNE MONASTERIJ BEATE MARIE DE
GRACIIS.
The Barons Fitzwalter of Baynard's Castle.
It was with mutterings of discontent and gloomy forebodings that Saxon
London beheld, soon after the victory at Hastings, the erection of
a fortress at the east end of their city—replaced soon after by the
earliest portion of the present Tower of London—and two huge castles
to the west, ostensibly to guard, really to keep the City in awe. Duke
William, after the Battle of Hastings, knowing how important it was
to hold possession of the largest and most influential city in the
kingdom, hastened up to London. The citizens, who felt not disposed
to surrender their liberty to a foreigner, and who, influenced by
Archbishop Stigand, had caused Eadgar the Atheling to be proclaimed
king, crossed the river to oppose his advance but were repulsed;
nevertheless, the Conqueror did not follow up his success by entering
London, but burnt Southwark and went to subjugate the western
counties. During his absence, the citizens deeming it the best policy
to submit, at any rate for the present, tendered their homage to him
at Berkhamstead. Suspicious, however, of their loyalty, he caused
the castles to be erected, and to conciliate the citizens granted
them a charter of four and a half lines written in Saxon, on a piece
of parchment six and a half inches long and one broad. This laconic
charter ran thus:—"William the King salutes, with friendly greeting,
William the Bishop, and Godfrey the Portreve, and all the burgesses
within London, both French and English, and I declare that I grant you
to be all law-worthy as you were in the days of King Edward; and I
grant that every child shall be his father's heir, after his father's
days; and I will not suffer any person to do you wrong. God keep you."
The two western castles were built, at the confluence of the Fleet with
the Thames. The one by the Baron Montfichet, soon afterwards destroyed
by fire, stood at the bottom of Addle Hill, where the Carron Wharf is
now located, and its western walls were washed by the Fleet, whose
course was afterwards diverted further westward to make a site for the
Dominican Friary.
It was built by the Norman, Ralph Baynard, feudal baron of Little
Dunmow, Essex, who had followed the Conqueror to England, and was
rewarded for his services at Hastings with grants of land in Essex
and Middlesex, and, in connection with Baynard's Castle, the military
governorship of London, as castellan and standard-bearer of the City.
William, third lord, sided with Helias, Earl of Maine, in his attempt
to throw off his allegiance to King Henry I., for which he was
attainted, and his estates and honours given to Robert Fitz Richard,
fifth son of Richard de Tonbridge, descended by the bend sinister from
the Dukes of Normandy.
The church of St. Andrew, on the east side of Puddle-dock Hill, is
supposed to have been built by Ralph Baynard, and was called "St.
Andrew juxta Baynard Castle" until the erection, near by, of the King's
Wardrobe, when it came to be called "St. Andrew by the Wardrobe." It
was repaired by the parishioners in 1627, destroyed in the Great Fire
of 1666, and rebuilt in 1672. The advowson was held by the Fitzwalters,
and after passing through various hands came to the Crown in 1633.
This Robert was steward and cupbearer to King Henry I., and a great
favourite with that monarch, who, upon the attainder of William
Baynard, bestowed upon him his forfeited estates, including the barony
of Dunmow, and the castle by the Thames, with its appurtenant civic
offices. He took an active part with Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, against
the designs of John, Earl of Moreton, upon the crown, during the
absence of his brother, Richard I., in Palestine; died in 1198, and was
buried at Dunmow. Robert Fitzwalter, his eldest son, died in 1234.
The tyranny of King John caused great discontent amongst the barons,
with whom Fitzwalter agreed in sentiment, and this discontent was
brought to a head, driving the barons to take up arms, by a flagrant
attempt on the honour of Fitzwalter's family. Matilde, "the fair," his
daughter was exceedingly beautiful, and John attempted her chastity,
which she indignantly repelled; "whereupon," says Stow, "and for other
causes of the like sort, there ensued a war throughout the realm. The
barons being received into London did great damage to the king; but in
the end the king did not only banish the said Fitzwalter, among others,
out of the realm, but also caused his castle and other houses to be
demolished. After that a messenger was sent to Matilda the Fair about
the king's suit, but she not consenting to it, was poisoned." This was
done at Dunmow, by sprinkling a deadly poison on a poached egg, which
she ate.
Her exiled father retired to France, and entered into the service
of the king. In the year 1214, John of England invaded France, and
concluded a truce with the French for five years. The two armies
lying on each side of a river one day, soon after the signing of the
treaty, an English knight of great strength and valour came forth and
challenged any French knight to a joust, when Fitzwalter crossed the
river in acceptance thereof, and at the first course unhorsed his
antagonist in gallant style. "By God's truth," exclaimed John, "he is a
king indeed who is followed by such a knight as that!" "He is your own
knight, O king," said one of his attendants, "Robert Fitzwalter whom
you banished." Upon this the king sent for him to his tent, restored
him to favour, gave him back his estates, and granted him permission to
repair his castle and houses.
The tyranny of the king, however, compelled the barons again to take
up arms, to establish on a sure basis the laws and liberties granted by
Edward the Confessor, of whom Fitzwalter became the head by the title
of "Marshal of the Army of God and of the Church." Eventually they
obtained the reluctant signature of the Magna Charta at Runnymede, when
Fitzwalter was one of the twenty-five barons appointed to enforce the
observance of the charter. In the reign of Henry III. he fought with
great bravery under the baronial banner at the Battle of Lincoln, where
he was taken prisoner, but was not detained long, as the next year he
went as a crusader to the Holy Land, and displayed great valour at the
siege of Damietta.
Camden informs us that he instituted the custom of the flitch of bacon
of Dunmow. He says: "On the Priory here" (Dunmow), "Robert Fitzwalter
(a powerful baron in the time of Henry the Third) instituted a custom
that whoever did not repent of his marriage, nor quarrelled with his
wife within a year and a day, should go to Dunmow and have a gamon of
bacon. But the party was to swear to the truth of it, kneeling upon
two hard pointed stones set in the Priory churchyard for the purpose,
before the prior, the convent, and the whole town."
Sir Robert, Kt., his grandson, was summoned to Parliament by writ,
23rd Edward I. (1295) and died in 1325. In 1275 he alienated Baynard's
Castle, by licence, to Robert Kilwardby, Archbishop of Canterbury, who
removed hither the Dominican or Black Friars from Holborn, but took
special care to reserve all the rights and official duties connected
with his barony.
In the year 1303, before Sir J. Blount, Kt., Lord Mayor, a
specification of his duties to the City was drawn out, which he swore
upon the Evangelists to observe, and to the utmost of his power to
maintain the rights and liberties of the citizens. His privileges and
immunities in connection therewith are also given, which were confirmed
by Sir John on the part of the Corporation. As this document presents
some curious features of London life in the beginning of the 14th
century, it is given below _in extenso_.
The Rights that belonged to Robert Fitzwalter, Chastilion and
Banner-Bearer of London and Lord of Wodeham.
"The said Robert and his heirs ought to be and are chief
Banner-bearers of London in and for the Castlry which he and his
ancestors have of Baynard's Castle in the said City. In time of war the
said Robert and his heirs ought to serve the City in manner hereinafter
written.
"That the said Robert ought to come upon his Horse of Service, with 20
men at arms, mounted, harnessed with mail or iron, even to the great
door of the Minster of St. Paul, with a Banner of his Arms displayed
before him. And when he has thus come, then ought the Lord Mayor of
London, with the Sheriffs and Aldermen, come on foot out of the Minster
to the said door, with his banner in his hand, and the banner ought to
be gules, an image of St. Paul d'or, the feet, hands, and head, argent,
with a sword argent, in the hand of the said Image.
"And as soon as they shall have come forth, the said Robert shall
alight from his horse and salute the Mayor, as his companion, saying,
'Sir Mayor, I am come to do my Service which I owe to the City,' and
the Mayor shall answer, 'We allow you here as our Banner-Bearer, this
banner of the City to carry and govern to your power, to the honour and
profit of our City.' Then shall the said Robert take the banner in his
hand, and the Mayor, Alderman, and Sheriffs shall present him with a
horse of £20 value, with a saddle, garnished with the arms of the said
Robert, and covered with a sendal of the same arms, and deliver £20 to
his Chamberlain for the charges of the day.
"The said Robert shall then mount the horse, banner in hand, and desire
the Mayor, forthwith, to cause a Marshall to be chosen out of the host
of London, which being done, he shall then cause the signal to be
sounded through the City, for the commons to assemble, and follow the
banner carried by the said Robert to Aldgate, and a Council of two sage
persons from each ward be chosen, in the Priory of the Holy Trinity,
to look to the safe keeping of the City in case the said Robert should
have to absent himself for the purposes of war. And if the said Robert
with the army of London shall continue for the space of a year at the
siege of any town or castle, he shall have 100 shillings from the
commonalty of London, and no more. These are the rights of the said
Robert in times of war; in times of peace they are as follows:—
"That is to say, the said Robert shall have a soke or ward in the said
City, viz., from the wall of the canonry of St. Paul, as a man goes by
the Bracine (brew-house) of St. Paul to the Thames, and so to the side
of the mill standing by the water that runs down by Fleet Bridge, and
thence by the wall, round about the Friers preachers to Ludgate, and so
return by the back of the said Fryers' House, to the corner of the said
canons' walls of St. Paul. That is to say, all the parish of the church
of St. Andrew, which is in his gift in right of his lordship. Appendant
to his soke he hath all these things under-written:—
"That he shall have a Soke-man of his own choice, provided he be of the
Sokemannery of the Ward, and if any of the Sokemannery be impleaded
at the Guildhall, his sokeman may demand a court of the said Robert,
which shall be granted by the Mayor and Citizens. And if any thief be
taken in his soke, he shall have stocks and prison in the soke and be
taken hence to the Guildhall before the Mayor of judgment, but which
shall not be pronounced until he is brought into the court of the
said Robert and Franchise; and if the judgment be death for treason
he shall be tied to a post in the Thames for two tides, and if he be
a common Larcin he shall be hanged at the Elms and there suffer his
judgment, as other thieves. Also the said Robert and his heirs have a
great honour in holding such a franchise in the said City, where the
Mayor and Citizens ought to do him right, that is to say, that when the
Mayor is minded to call a great council he shall call the said Robert
or his heirs thereto, and he shall be sworn thereof against all people
saving the king and his heirs. And when the said Robert cometh to the
Hustings of the Guildhall of the said City, the Mayor or his Lieutenant
shall arise against him and set him down near to him; and so long as
he is in the Guildhall all the judgments shall be pronounced by him,
according to the records of the Recorders of the said Guildhall. And
all the waifs which shall happen whilst he is there he shall give to
the bailiffs of the City or to whomsoever he pleases, by advice of the
Mayor of said City."
Robert, second baron, died in 1328, three years after his father.
Sir John, Kt., third baron, died in 1361, who was knighted for his
bravery in war.
Walter, fourth baron, died in 1386. In the 44th Edward III., he was
captured when fighting in Gascony, and was obliged to mortgage one
of his castles for £1,000 to raise money for his ransom. He held many
other military employments.
Walter, fifth baron, died in 1407, having married Joane, sister and
heiress of John, second Baron Devereux, who died in 1379, when the
Baronies of Fitzwalter and Devereux became united, Walter Fitzwalter
becoming Baron Devereux, _jure uxoris_, his heir succeeding in his own
right.