brother, seventh baron, was summoned from 1429 and died in 1432, the
last of the line of the Fitzwalters. He fought under Henry V. in the
French wars with great distinction, and for his services had a grant of
lands in Normandy. His daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, conveyed the
baronies by marriage to Sir John Radcliffe, Kt., an eminent military
commander, who became Baron Fitzwalter, _jure uxoris_. Dying 39th Henry
VI., he was succeeded by his son, Sir John, Kt., who was beheaded in
1495 for implication in the Perkin Warbeck Conspiracy, attainted, and
the barony forfeited. Nevertheless, his son, Robert, finding favour
at the court of Henry VII. was restored in blood and estates; and
in the 1st Henry VIII. to the forfeited barony. For bravery in the
French Wars, and other services to the State, he was created Viscount
Fitzwalter in 1529, and four years after further elevated in the
peerage to the Earldom of Sussex, and was decorated with the order
of the Garter. He was thrice married, having issue by all his wives,
and died in 1542, when he was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Henry,
K.B. and K.G., who died in 1556, from whom descended Sir Edward, sixth
Viscount and Earl, who died, _s.p._, 1641, when these honours became
extinct, the barony falling into abeyance, as it remained during the
civil wars and after the Restoration, until 1669, when it was called
out, in the person of Benjamin Mildmay, descended from Frances, second
daughter of Sir Henry, second Earl of Sussex, who married Sir Thomas
Mildmay, of Mulsho, Essex. He died in 1679, was succeeded by his eldest
son Charles, who died _s.p._ 1728, to whom followed his brother Henry,
who in 1730 was created Viscount Harwich and Earl Fitzwalter; but
dying, in 1753, without surviving issue, the two latter titles became
extinct, and the barony fell into abeyance, which was terminated
in 1868, in the person of Sir Brook William Bridges, fifth baronet,
who was called to the House of Peers as Baron Fitzwalter, of Woodham
Walter, in the county of Essex, and who died in December, 1875. Having
thus disposed of the Barons, Viscounts, and Earls Fitzwalter, it
becomes us to inquire into the subsequent history of the old Norman
castle, which, flinging its shadow over the then silvery Thames, was
the home of the Castellans of London. We have no record of what the
Castle of Ralph Baynard was like, but may presume that it was in the
usual Norman style, heavy and ungainly, and in its general features not
unlike that given in Aggas's Map, _temp._ Elizabeth, as it appeared
after its restoration in the 15th century. A view of it was published
in 1780, and its site is indicated in the map of Baynard Castle Ward
in Northouk's _History of London_. It appears to have been a huge,
quadrangular block, the body presenting five gabled divisions, with
sextangular corner towers, each division and the towers containing two
lofty stories, with narrow slits for windows, and rooms in each gable.
Little is known of the castle after its alienation to the Dominicans
in 1275, until the reign of Henry VI. It appears to have come to the
Crown, and was in the possession of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester,
fourth son of King Henry IV., to whom it had probably been granted
by that king. In 1428 it was partially destroyed by fire, but was
re-edified by the duke, who continued to reside within its walls until
his death. Incurring the jealousy and hatred of Margaret of Anjou and
her faction, the duke, who was arrested on a charge of high treason
when attending the Parliament of St. Edmundsbury, 1446, at the instance
of the queen was committed to prison, and there murdered by suffocation
or strangulation, when the castle reverted to the Crown.
In 1460 the Earl of Warwick defeated the Lancastrians at the second
battle of St. Alban's, the result of which was a deputation to Edward,
Earl of March, now Duke of York, and living in Baynard Castle, to
request him to assume the Crown; and it was from its portals that he
went in procession to St. Paul's to hear the _Te Deum_ sung for the
Yorkist Victory, and hence to Westminster, to be vested in the mantle
of Royalty, after which he summoned a great council of barons and
ecclesiastics to Baynard Castle, to consult with them on the state of
the realm. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was residing in Baynard Castle,
after the murder of his nephews, when he was waited upon by the Lord
Mayor and Aldermen of London, for the purpose of requesting him to
assume the Crown. Shakespeare delineates the scene with wonderfully
graphic power in his drama of _King Richard III._, act 3, scene 7.
King Henry VII. occupied the castle as a place of residence some three
or four years; and Henry VIII. expended large sums of money in repairs
and embellishment, and entertained there the King of Castile, but
appears to have granted it to the Earl of Pembroke, a gentleman of the
bedchamber, who had married Anne, sister of Queen Katherine Parr. On
the death of Edward VI. he favoured the pretensions of Lady Jane Grey
to the Crown, but almost immediately changed his opinion; and in his
City castle a council was held, where it was determined that Mary, King
Edward's sister, should succeed, and she was at once proclaimed Queen
at Cheapside Cross. In the reign of Elizabeth it appears to have been
occupied by Sir John Fortescue, master of the wardrobe, close by, and
the Queen is said to have supped there occasionally. It afterwards
became the town residence of the Earls of Shrewsbury, coming to that
family, probably, through the marriage of John, the tenth earl, with
Mary, daughter of Sir Francis Fortescue, and so remained until the
Great Fire of 1666, when the venerable old castle, which had witnessed
so many important and tragical events connected with the City of which
it was the guardian, was finally, and for ever, destroyed, not a
vestige now remaining.
Sir Nicholas Brember, Knight, Lord Mayor of London.
Edward III. was one of the greatest of English kings, and the
progenitor, by Philippa of Hainault, of a family of stalwart sons,
brave warriors and able statesmen, whose names will long live in the
annals of England and the poetry of romance. They were Edward the Black
Prince, the hero of Creci and Poictiers; Lionel, Duke of Clarence; John
of Gaunt, "time-honoured Lancaster," titular king of Castile, father
of King Henry IV. and of two queens, and the most conspicuous figure
in the pages of Froissart; and Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, the most
persistent opponent of his nephew, King Richard, and his government by
favourites.
Unfortunate was it for England that the Prince of Wales died
prematurely, and equally unfortunate was it that he left behind him a
son, by the quondam "fair maid of Kent," who succeeded to the throne
of his grandfather as Richard II. at eleven years of age, A.D. 1377.
In his nonage a council was appointed for the government of the
realm, from which all his uncles, the best fitted by affinity and
great abilities for the office, were excluded; a measure which gave
rise to jealousy and antagonism on their part to his government, with
disastrous results to the king's favourites, and ultimately to the
king himself. Richard was spoilt by adulation and flattery, and became
the tool of intriguers; never displaying much ability, caring more
for the display of his grandeur than for the good government of his
people; desiring to rule absolutely, but lacking the power; impetuous,
fierce, revengeful, and weak-minded, and attempting to accomplish by
crooked ways what would have been better carried out by straightforward
measures. His chief favourites were Robert de Vere, ninth Earl of
Oxford, created Marquis of Dublin in 1336, and Duke of Ireland the
following year: Michael de la Pole, a Hull merchant, created Baron de
la Pole 1366 and Earl of Suffolk 1385; Alexander Nevill (a younger
son of Ralph, second Baron Nevill), Archbishop of York; Sir Robert
Tresilian, Chief Justice; and Sir Nicholas Brember, Knight, alderman of
London.
Sir Nicholas was a merchant of London of considerable wealth and
influence. He is styled by Froissart, "King's Draper," but seems rather
to have been a wholesale merchant. Towards the end of the reign of
Edward III. the ancient trade-guilds, crafts and mysteries which had
hitherto been confined, each to one special trade, were reconstructed
as Livery Companies, by charter, and endowed with certain privileges
and immunities; as the means of developing commerce.
From _Rot Parl._ ii. 278, it appears that at this period, certain
wholesale merchants established the "Grossers' Company," which
threatened to ruin some of the smaller crafts. In a petition, 36
Edward III., it is stated that "great mischief had arisen, as well to
the king, as to the great men and commons, from the merchants called
Grossers, who engrossed all manner of merchandize vendible, and who
suddenly raised the price of such merchandize within the realm, putting
to sale, by covin and by ordinances, made by themselves, and keeping
goods in store till times of dearth, etc.," suggesting as a remedy
that these merchants should not be permitted to deal in more than one
class of these commodities; and an Act based upon this suggestion was
passed 37 Edward III. Although Brember was one of the original members
of this monopolizing company, he enforced the penalties provided by
the Act with great strictness, as, when he was Lord Mayor in 1385, he
disfranchised several freemen for carrying on trades other than their
own.
At this time the aldermen were elected annually until 17 Richard II.,
when they were chosen for life, or during good behaviour. Brember, who
had been elected several years in succession, served the office of
sheriff in 1372, and that of Lord Mayor not less than four times—in
the years 1377, 1383, 1384, and 1385, being the first alderman who
held the office in two consecutive years. This, however, was not by
the goodwill of the freemen, but in opposition of their wishes, the
citizens being favourers of the Duke of Gloucester, and disliking
Brember as one of the evil counsellors of the king. In the _Chronicle
of London_, printed 1827, from a MS. in the British Museum, is the
following passage:—"Also this yere Sr. Nicholl Brembre was chosen Maire
agene be the saide craftes, and by men of the contre at Harrow and the
contre there aboughte, and not be fre eleccion of the citee of London,
as it owith to be; and the olde halle was stuffed with men at armes
overe even be ordinaunce and assente of Sr Nicholl Brember fur to chose
hym maire on the morrowe, and so he was." This interference with the
rights of free election was not allowed to pass without remonstrance.
"The folke of the Mercerye" made it the subject of a petition to the
King, in which they stated that "Though the eleccion of mairelte was to
be to the fremen of the citee bi gode and paisable avys of the wysest
and trewest, at a day in the yere, frelich," (free) "Nichol Brembre
wyth his upberers, had through debate and stronger partye and carrying
grete quantities of armure to the Guyldehall," overawed the citizens
and procured his re-election, adding that they of the Mercery or other
crafts protested against the election as illegal, "they were anon
apeched for arrysers ageins the pees" (impeached as the disturbers of
the peace). Although Brember's election was not set aside, this and
other remonstrances led to certain reforms in the Corporation.
In 1381 the memorable meeting between King Richard and the Kentish
rebels took place in Smithfield, when their leader, Wat Tyler, was
stabbed by Lord Mayor Walworth, and when the boy king, by a bold and
masterly act, appeased the mob, who were preparing to avenge the death
of their captain. Speed informs us that Walworth, after the fall of
Tyler, rushed into the City and returned accompanied by Sir Robert
Knowles and a thousand citizens in armour, when he "commanded the head
of Wat Tyler to be chopt of from his dead carcase and borne before him
on a speare to the king." Froissart says, "among the first" (from the
City) "came Sir Robert Knolles and Sir Perducas d'Albret well attended,
then several aldermen, with upwards of 600 men at arms, and a powerful
man of the City, by name Nicholas Brember, the king's draper, bringing
with him a large force on foot." After the dispersion of the mob with
ample promises of a redress of their grievances, the king knighted
Walworth, and gave him a fee farm worth £100 per annum, as he did
also Aldermen Brember, Philpot, Laund, Standish, Twiford, and Traver,
granting to each a fee farm of £40 per annum. Thomas of Woodstock, the
king's youngest uncle, created Duke of Gloucester, 1385, was the most
vehement opponent of his nephew's policy, and the favourites Vere,
Pole, and Brember, perceiving him to be the greatest obstacle to their
assumption of the supreme direction of affairs conspired to remove
him. They arranged that he should be invited to a supper in Brember's
house, and whilst there should be assassinated. It was, however,
necessary that the invitation should be sent through Lord Mayor Exton,
"who," says Maitland, "was no sooner acquainted with this wicked design
than he received it with the utmost abhorrence and detestation, and
boldly declared that he would never consent to so flagitious an act
of villainy," and forthwith gave information to the duke, who took
measures for his safety, and resolved upon the destruction of the
conspirators, in which he was backed by the citizens of London, who
suggested that he should assume the government of the country, hinting
that they would be ready to give him support. This, however, was not a
practicable scheme, for even if York and Lancaster should approve of
the deposition of Richard, they, as elder brothers, would have prior
claims to the succession.
The question was brought before the Parliament of 1386, which met at
Westminster, when a council of eleven, with Gloucester at the head,
was appointed to govern the kingdom under the king, who was required
to dismiss Pole, his chancellor, and the rest of his favourites, which
he promised to do, but as soon as Parliament broke up he carried them
with him into the west of England to devise measures for opposing the
confederacy. They resolved to take up arms against the duke, and, as a
preliminary, called a council of the judges at Nottingham, who, under
compulsion, declared the acts of the Parliament invalid, and those who
passed them traitors. Whilst at Bristol the king sent Pole, Brember,
and Sir Peter Gouloufre to London for intelligence, where they had an
interview with the governor of the Tower, who told them that they ran
great risk in coming there. "How so," they inquired; "we are the king's
knights, and have a right of entry into his palaces?" The governor
replied "that it was true the Tower belonged to the king, and that he
would be obedient to him, but could no further than when his orders
were not in contravention to the will of the council and the Duke of
Gloucester; and (added he) I tell you for your welfare that you had
better depart, for if it become known that you are here, the Tower will
be besieged by the citizens, and you will be torn to pieces." Upon
hearing this they departed, not caring to brave the fury of a London
mob, returned to Kensington, mounted their horses, and rode back to the
king.
Meanwhile Gloucester and his nephew, the Earl of Derby, afterwards
King Henry IV., finding that none but the most decided measures would
prevail with the king, raised an army of 40,000 men, with which they
marched towards London—not with the object of dethroning the king, but
to uphold the council and destroy the power of the favourites. Richard,
who was not deficient in boldness, came to London, and it was reported
that Brember and Sir Thomas Trivet accompanied him with a thousand
armed men, who were secretly placed in the mews at Charing Cross, with
the view of killing the most obnoxious of the king's enemies as they
passed from London to Westminster.
Richard kept state in Westminster Hall, and when he was informed of the
rumours relative to Brember and his thousand men, swore solemnly that
he knew nothing about them, but contrived to get them away and join
De Vere in the West, who was raising an army in Wales in the king's
service.
When the lords presented themselves before the king, the Bishop of
Ely, the new Lord Chancellor, asked them why they were assembled in
warlike array at Haringey Park, to whom they replied, "For the good
of the king and the kingdom, and to weed out the traitors by whom he
is surrounded." On being asked to name the traitors, they answered,
"Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland; Alex. Nevill, Archbishop of York;
Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk; Sir Robert Tresilian, that false
Justicier; and Sir Nicholas Brember, that false knight of London;"
and then threw down the gage of challenge. The king, having sent his
favourites out of immediate harm's way, rated the lords soundly for
presuming to take up arms against his supreme will and authority.
"You," said he, "whom I could kill like cattle, and whom I esteem
no more than the basest scullion in my kitchen!" yet he eventually
promised that the matter should be taken into consideration by the
Parliament, which would assemble at Westminster on the morrow after
Candlemas.
A proclamation was soon after issued by Richard, forbidding any one,
under pain of death, to supply arms, ammunition, or provisions to the
rebel army, and he sent word to De Vere to hasten his muster of men,
and march towards London to put down the rebellion. Simultaneously with
the proclamation, the confederates sent a letter to the Corporation
of London, soliciting their sympathy and aid, which was immediately
responded to with assurances of both.
The Duke of Ireland, with his Welsh army, marched eastward and came to
Oxford, when he heard that the Dukes of Gloucester and York and Lord
Mayor Exton were coming to meet him, and were not far distant, having
crossed the Thames by Reading Bridge—those of Staines and Windsor
having been broken down by direction of de Vere. He had been appointed
Lieut.-General of the king's forces, with Suffolk and Brember in
command under him; but on hearing this intelligence he became terribly
alarmed. He called a council of war, and it was decided that they must
give battle to the enemy; but it was also arranged that they—De Vere,
De la Pole, and Brember—should station themselves on fleet horses in
the wings of the army, so that if the day went against them, they might
save themselves by flight.
Soon afterwards the army of Gloucester made its appearance, and the
King's Welshmen, panic stricken, threw down their arms, and took to
flight in disorder. Their leaders followed—or set the example—and
escaped to Wales, and hence De Vere, De la Pole, and the Archbishop
gained the Continent by way of Scotland, the Duke of Ireland dying an
exile in Holland, Suffolk in France, and Nevill as a parish priest
in Flanders. With respect to the others. Froissart says: "Brember
was arrested in Wales, brought to London, and beheaded;" Speed: "Sir
N. Brember and others were aprehended, and kept in straight prison
to answere such accusations (which if meere calumniations) as in
the next Parliament at Westminster, should be objected. Parliament
met at Candlemas: Tresilian had sentence to be drawn to Tyburne in
the afternoone, and there to have his throat cut, which was done
accordingly. This Bramber" (saith Walsingham) "was saide to have
imagined to bee made Duke of New Troye (the olde supposed name of
London), by murthering thousands of such citizens (whose names he had
billed for that purpose) as were of such likelihood to oppose him."
Maitland says, "Soon after Nicholas Brember, late Lord Mayor of London,
one of the wicked favourites of Richard, was condemned by Parliament
for High Treason, for which he was adjudged to be drawn and hanged,
which was accordingly executed upon him at Tyburn, and not according
to that idle story mentioned by Holingshed, Stow, and others, of his
being beheaded with an ax, which he had prepared for the execution of
all such as opposed his measures. If this perfidious and cruel man and
his accomplices had succeeded in their wicked schemes he was to have
been made Duke of New Troye, as London is denominated by the fabulous
Geoffrey of Monmouth."
Brember was buried in Christ Church, Newgate Street. His arms are
emblazoned in the Hall of the Grocers' Company.
An Olden Time Bishop of London: Robert de Braybrooke.
In the pleasant Northamptonshire village of Braybrooke, on the verge
of a forest, and near the Leicestershire border, there was born, some
five-and-a-half centuries ago, a child who was destined to pass his
name down to posterity in the annals of London.
In the earlier portion of the thirteenth century, Robert May, otherwise
de Braybrooke, a favourite of King John, and landed proprietor in
Braybrooke, built a castle on his estates for his residence. His eldest
son, Henry, married Christian Ledlet, a great heiress, and assumed the
name of Ledlet. The estates passed by marriage to the Griffin family,
who were created Barons de Braybrooke, 1688, the barony expiring for
lack of male heirs, 1742; but the heiress married William Whitwell,
whose son assumed the name of Griffin and was created Baron Braybrooke,
1788, with limitation to his nephew, Richard Neville Aldworth, who
succeeded to the barony, and assumed the name of Neville in addition
to and after Aldworth, from whom is descended the extant Baron
Braybrooke. Henry de Braybrooke, probably the son of Robert, was a
"justice itinerant" in county Beds. and was dragged from the bench
at Dunstable by the Norman Falcasius—who held Bedford Castle for the
King against the barons—and cast into a dungeon of the castle for
having given adverse judgments in thirty-five law suits which had been
instituted by Falcasius.
The boy Robert was probably born in the castle, and educated in the
little monastery in the forest hard by, or possibly in the more
distant great abbey of Medehamsted (Peterborough), and in his youthful
wanderings would doubtless sometimes visit the neighbouring town of
Lutterworth, where Wyclif, the leader of the Lollards, Braybrooke's
victims, was afterwards to pass away from this world.
After his preliminary studies he went to Oxford, where he became a
licentiate of civil law, and took Holy Orders.
His very first act after ordination displays his character as a
determined supporter of Papal supremacy, and at the same time
demonstrates the influence of his family. In spite of the statute
of provisors, recently passed, and of præmunire, he obtained a
provision from the Pope for induction into the living of Hinton,
in Cambridgeshire, the patronage being vested in the Fellows of
Peterhouse; and notwithstanding the penalties attaching to the offence,
obtained the living in 1360, and held it nineteen years. In 1366,
he was nominated Prebendary of Fenton, in York Cathedral, which he
exchanged for that of Friday Thorpe in the same cathedral, 1376, and
the same year was appointed Archdeacon of Cornwall, and Prebendary of
Wells. In 1380, he was constituted Dean of Salisbury, and a few months
after exchanged his archdeaconry for the rectory of Bideford, resigning
at the same time the rectory of Hinton. The following year, by virtue
of a Bull of Pope Urban VI., he was appointed sixty-third Bishop of
London, succeeding Courtney, who had been translated to Canterbury in
place of Archbishop Sudbury, who had been beheaded on Tower Hill three
months before by the Wat Tyler insurgents.
Braybrooke lived in one of the most important periods in the annals
of England—a transition period—when the religious, political,
and intellectual systems of the country were experiencing
earthquake-throes, essential in working out that liberty and social
civilization which we now enjoy.
In the early portion of his life, the throne was occupied by "the
greatest of the Plantagenets;" in his middle life, by one of the
weakest; and the latter portion witnessed that change of dynasty which
resulted in the Wars of the Roses, sweeping off vast numbers of the
Norman lords, and leaving England more Saxon than it had been since
the Conquest. In the century preceding his birth the feudal barons had
been struggling with John and Henry III. against oppressive monarchial
prerogative; had wrested from John the Magna Charta; and under the
leading of Simon de Montfort, had in the latter reign summoned the
first representative Parliament. And now the mass of the people—who
had remained serfs, mere chattels, who could be bought and sold like
cattle—rose under Wat Tyler and Jack Straw to assert their rights,
proclaiming that all men were by nature equally free, and demanding the
abolition of serfdom, the abrogation of unjust and oppressive laws,
open markets, etc., adopting as their motto,—
"When Adam delved, and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?"