CONCLUSION
WITH the reign of Henry the Eighth a wholly new chapter opens in the
history of the towns. In the preceding centuries we have traced their
gradual rise out of obscure poverty into an illustrious opulence and
dignity. Already in the time of Langland the poet’s imagination was
arrested by the exalted position of the mayor, the “days-man” who could
lay his hand upon the highest and the lowest—on the royal majesty and
the mean people of the commune. When, a hundred and fifty years later,
another poet pictures the court of Fame, where she sits
“Under a glorious cloth of estate ...
Encrowned as empress of all this world of fate.”[868]
he sees in the crowd of applicants who press round the throne to
solicit her favours the men of Dartmouth and Portsmouth and Plymouth,
the burgesses and bailiffs of the Cinque Ports, mingling with
messengers from Thrace and Rounceval. Nor were their claims to stand
in such a court but a fantastic fiction of poetry. We have seen how
the commune and the borough—originally in spite of their collective
character mere feudal lordships like the rest, introduced under the
sanction and protection of ordinary feudal custom and according to the
fictions of feudal law—became in course of time a potent force for the
rending asunder of the mediæval framework of society. Patronized and
encouraged by the king, nourished in great measure at the expense of
the baronage, lay and ecclesiastical, these insidious communities of
the people had gradually revealed a character of their own alien to the
whole feudal tradition. Under the shelter of their walls the forces of
the middle class were mustered for battle against the ancient supremacy
of the nobility and the Church. Charters “for the accommodation of the
burgesses in doing their business quietly” became the cover for their
irresistible attack; and the common bell which rang out to assemble the
congregation of enfranchised burghers perpetually announced in every
borough of the kingdom the ultimate triumph of “the common people of
the realm.”
We have also noted the manner in which during these centuries
the boroughs remained strongholds of a robust faith in political
freedom.[869] Theories of liberty taught by statesmen and philosophers,
and debated by barons and knights in their own manner at Runnymede,
on the battle-field, or in the council chamber, assumed in the towns
homelier forms, and became the vulgar property of the people. The
burgher too had his notion of an ideal freedom—a freedom which had
never entered within the range of his experience, but in which he
still believed with a transcendent faith. In what manner the faith
had come to him it is hard to say, through what legal fiction, from
what mysterious tradition, by what dominant instinct of race. To
quell the enemy and the accuser he might call to witness Domesday
or Magna Charta, or liberties registered in the Old Red Book of
the town “as we do think,” or in the customs of the elders; or for
lack of better authority, the fable of a lost charter of the Saxon
House, or a shadowy local legend, or tale of freedom “long before the
Conquest,”[870] served as evidence of repute. But for the believer
testimony was superfluous; the very vagueness of his faith was not
without advantages, since the fancied world of the past might be
adequately furnished with types of all that was desired in the present.
Imagination was stimulated by the rivalry of factions, and political
discussion never ceased. No doubt the vulgarization of the notion of
freedom, thus thrown into the market-place for burghers to cut and trim
to their own needs, has had a permanent effect on English thought.[871]
In communities where strictly personal ambition in government was
reduced to its lowest expression, where the only possible tyranny
was that of a class or of a group, and where the whole society of
burghers was nourished on a tradition of equal and indestructible
rights, the privilege coveted by ordinary folk was not the pleasure
of exercizing authority, but the right to suffer no coercion. Among
the townsfolk the “gentleman” was not the man who ruled his neighbour,
but the enfranchised equal among his fellows. It may not be altogether
fanciful to detect, in the noble translation of a church collect, not
only the fine intuition of the scholar, but an echo of the spirit of
free and equal liberty that was quickening among the people at large.
If the phrase “Cui servire est regnare” carried to English ears a
foreign thought, the English words introduced a new and characteristic
meaning—“Whose service is perfect freedom.”
Lastly we have seen how chequered was the fate of liberty—how often
it was obstructed and impaired in its passage through the market-place
and the bye-lanes of the city, driven from shelter to shelter, banished
from the Guildhall, mocked by a false homage. Between the twelfth
century, when the trading communities had represented a new democracy
and led the attack on the then established magnates of society; and
the sixteenth century, when a ruling oligarchy had been formed out of
their ranks, a vast change had taken place in the political relations
of the prosperous middle class. In their conduct of the great struggle
for emancipation from the county potentates, feudal or official, and in
their development of a general freedom of trade, the more prosperous
burghers who had first come to the front in affairs had proved the
champions of a new liberty. The strong government which they had
established through the administration of a select body of experts
had abundantly justified itself in setting the independence of the
towns beyond attack; and long before the fifteenth century had opened
the boroughs, represented by their magistrates and councillors, held
an impregnable position. Meanwhile, however, the wave of industrial
progress began slowly to lift up out of their dumb helplessness the
masses who had till now learned obedience of poverty and despair, for
“While hunger was their master would none strive.” Imperceptibly the
whole scene was changed, and a new conflict was seen to be preparing.
By the slow changes of time what had been the democracy of 1200 had
become the oligarchy of 1500. On the one hand the plutocrats of the
boroughs had made their way into the circle of the privileged classes;
in a thousand points their interests now coincided with those of the
officials and the gentry in the counties; and their conservative
instincts had won the confidence and sympathy of the court. On the
other hand the humbler sort of traders and artizans, congregated more
and more thickly at the busy centres of industry, made familiar with
the uses and methods of association, and impatient both of tyranny and
of want, were beginning to form a new democracy, and to constitute to
the comfortable classes an alarming social danger. In every borough
the problems which confront the modern world were formulated. On all
side agitators proclaimed the right of the workers to have a voice in
the organization of trade, and the right of the common burghers to
share in the control of municipal affairs. The demand of the people
that government should really be carried on by their consent, so
easily stifled in the thirteenth century, became in the fifteenth loud
and persistent; and riotous confederacies of labourers and artizans
added excitement to the political demonstrations in the streets. A
new terror invaded the council-chamber of the Guildhall—the terror
of the mob. While the craft-masters hastened to fortify the guild
against the forces of misrule, town councillors made strong the borough
administration in the interests of good order. The history of the
municipalities in the fifteenth century is far from indicating an
era of political apathy, or of mere civic indolence and corruption.
In the records of the trade fraternities we see the opening of an
industrial war. In the constitutions and ordinances of the towns we
see the foreshadowing of a political revolution. The original struggle
with feudal forces had closed in triumph for the boroughs, and a new
conflict now takes its beginning. Faction fights, crafty intrigues,
intricate constitutional changes, these signalise the opening of a new
controversy—the controversy between the middle and the lower classes.
At the very moment however when this division of social forces had
declared itself, and when it seemed as though the attention of England
was to be concentrated on the new social problem, the whole movement
was suddenly arrested. All speculation as to what might have happened
in the course of a natural evolution is utterly vain. It is probable
indeed that the poorer classes, unfed, untaught, and undisciplined,
were at that time wholly unprepared to enter on any struggle for
industrial and political emancipation, and if the battle had been
really fought out, must have suffered a crushing defeat. Centuries
of discipline have been needed to consolidate their forces, and
very possibly the course of freedom was best served by delay. As a
matter of fact however the social question was cast aside by external
and arbitrary forces. It was engulfed in the political revolution
inaugurated by the early Tudors. So violent was the change that it is
only in our own age that the controversies which were opening in the
fifteenth century have again taken the foremost place.
For from the moment when the history of national politics begins under
the Tudor kings, the whole character and significance of the local
centres of government undergo a profound change. Henry the Seventh,
as we have seen, had laid the foundation of a vast commercial policy;
but until the reign of Henry the Eighth, England, unconscious of
its capacity and of its destiny, stood aloof from European affairs;
and with her small population, her inadequate navy, her somewhat
old-fashioned army, her feeble political influence, was little more
than an upstart in the august society of continental nations. From this
position she was raised by the genius of Wolsey into a State of which
it might be said that its Crown “is this day more esteemed than the
Emperor’s Crown and all his Empire;” and of whose minister a Venetian
ambassador reports that “he is seven times more powerful than the
Pope.”[872] In a very few years England, courted by French and Spanish
kings, and able to treat on equal terms with Pope and Emperor, boasted
of being mediator and arbiter of European politics. The pride of a
great mission exalted the imagination of her people, and a poet of the
Renascence in his vision of “all manner of nations” who dwelt on the
field of fame, marked the gate of chalcedony which gave entrance to
“Anglia.”
“The building thereof was passing commendable;
Whereon stood a leopard, crowned with gold and stones,
Terrible of countenance and passing formidable, ...
As fiercely frowning as he had been fighting.”[873]
By the royal courage and appetite of Henry the Eighth, bent on making
the whole people his accomplices for the carrying out of his personal
will, the work of Wolsey was continued, though in a very different
temper, and the national pride and confidence pushed to the highest
point. If the policy of Cromwell had been fully carried out, the
history of the Reformation and the fortunes of Europe might have been
reversed by the intervention of England. We can well understand that
amid these tremendous schemes local aspirations were forgotten and
local quarrellings silenced. To perfect the policy of the new Monarchy
the destinies of the several towns were submerged in the destinies of
the whole Commonwealth. Sovereigns no longer viewed with interested
regard or with indifferent tolerance, as of old,[874] the growth of
borough franchises and the developement of local governments. Street
riots were no longer matters of the parish, but of the State. The
king’s hand was stretched out over the wealthy corporations whose
liberties had grown into such vast proportions, and like the baronage
and the Church, the boroughs were laid prostrate before the throne.
For under the Tudor system of government the king was the necessary
centre of every interest in the country.[875] He alone could impose
a common policy and give expression to a national will. To him all
classes looked to defend their cause and ensure their prosperity, in
the implicit faith that he lived for them alone and to perform their
will. In the royal power lay the one force by which England could
be held together. At an earlier time, indeed, the common folk had
repudiated the doctrine of the king’s absolute supremacy as it was now
understood. “They say that the king should live upon his commons, and
that their bodies and goods are his: the contrary is true, for then
needed him never to set Parliament and to ask good of them.”[876] But
now new maxims were scattered abroad—“that the king can do no wrong,
however much he may wish to do it; that not only the property but
the persons of his subjects are his own; and that a man has a right
to no more than the king’s goodness thinks fit not to take from him.”
Parliament almost ceased to exist, until in course of time, packed with
members carefully nominated, and by the craft of the king elaborately
duped, it was turned into a mere instrument by which the most ruthless
acts of royal aggression could be given the stamp and semblance of
law.[877]
The new centralized government was carried on by means of a vast
official system which extended from the highest to the lowest
departments, and reached out to the farthest limits of the country. In
its efficient form it was practically the creation of the first Tudor
king. With Warwick the baronial leaders of an earlier time had passed
away; and the weakened remnant of the baronage which emerged from the
civil wars had been carefully depressed by Henry the Seventh. At the
council-board their places were taken by officials who received their
orders directly from the king; and when the barons returned to office
and council they returned as fellow servants with the new officials,
and holding the same functions. Henry the Eighth carried out the same
policy. The great nobles might complain of “low-born knaves” who
surrounded the king; but when the minister “clapped his rod upon the
board” silence fell on an obsequious council—and barons and commons
alike trembled before the son of an Ipswich merchant or a Putney
blacksmith.
For the tremendous power of Wolsey or of Cromwell lay in the fact that
the whole hierarchy of officials, from the most exalted to the most
base, was directly responsible to him. Every figure of any importance
in the country was perfectly well known to the minister at the head of
affairs, and on every subordinate through the length and breadth of
the land the court kept vigilant watch. If an official at any point
disagreed with the opinions held at head quarters he was forthwith
turned out of office, and the ease with which Henry and his successors
made national revolutions is the measure of the absolute perfection to
which the machinery of their administration had been brought. In the
boroughs it is impossible to exaggerate the effect of this political
revolution. The consequence to which the towns had risen made of
them all-important centres of administration for the maintenance of
general order. Two-thirds of the members of Parliament were sent from
the boroughs, and the control of these members, therefore, meant the
control of the House of Commons. For a two-fold reason, therefore,
the tendency long shewn by the Court to sympathize with the governing
oligarchy in the municipalities inevitably took from this time a
new force. Under the oligarchic system of administration the towns
could be held for the king by a mere handful of loyal officials; and
the influence of the Crown was naturally flung on the side of the
representatives of good order, as it was understood by the government.
In the interests of the whole State a new policy was developed.
Municipal independence was struck down at the very roots, and the free
growth of earlier days arrested by an iron discipline invented at
Westminster, and enforced by a selected company of Townhall officials,
whose authority was felt to be ultimately supported by the majesty of
the king himself. The number of the town councillors was constantly
diminished, and the liberties of the commons curtailed. Under the new
conditions the individual life of the borough ceased to have the same
significance as of old, and an era opened in which its highest destiny
was to be employed as an instrument of the royal will for national
ends, and its only glory lay in forming one of the members of a mighty
commonwealth. To follow out the internal record of municipal politics
on the old lines, as though the story of the sixteenth century were
the natural consequence of their earlier course of developement would
be radically false; and I therefore pause on the threshold of the new
state of things. The history of the boroughs as schools in which the
new middle class received its training for service in the field of
national politics, and as the laboratories in which they made their
most fruitful experiments in administration, ends before the close of
the fifteenth century. It may be that as the working class in its turn
rises to take its place alongside of its predecessors on the stage of
public affairs, the towns will again become centres of interest in the
national story, as the workshops of an enlarged political science.
INDEX
INDEX
A
Abingdon, money given towards bridges at, 75-6;
Guild of Holy Cross, 215;
supplies Southampton with bends of elms for ploughs, 289
Accounts of towns, adornment of, 260;
change in manner of keeping and auditing in Lynn, 411;
of Norwich, 370, _note_ 4;
royal, auditing and signing of, 15, _note_ 1
Admiral of the Fleet, 323
Admiralty, courts of, 319, _note_ 2
Adventurers, merchant, Guild of, 112;
results of their monopoly of cloth trade, 91-92
Agriculture, law for protection of, 99
“Alablaster man” of Nottingham, 54, 326
Alberti, Society of, 290
Alcock, Bishop of Rochester, 14
Aldermen in Canterbury, 156, 276, 279, _note_;
Gloucester, 287;
Lincoln, 279, _note_;
London, 279, 375, _note_ 2;
Lynn, 421, 422;
Norwich, 362, _note_ 2, 380;
Nottingham, 309, 339, 340;
Oxford, 245, _note_ 2, 278, _note_ 2;
Shrewsbury, 286;
Southampton, 307-309, 312, _note_
Andernach, mill-stones brought from, 406, _note_ 1
Andover, dispute between great people and community in, 245, _note_ 4;
common lands, 237;
leet jury, 229;
merchant guild, 193, _note_ 1, 198, _note_ 1, 199
Anne of Bohemia, Nottingham given to, 330
Appleby, its school, 14, _note_ 2
Apprentices, their duty during harvest, 64;
escape from town and become free traders in suburbs, 96-97;
regulations concerning, 99, _note_ 2, 102-104, 108, 120, 212,
_note_ 1
Artizans, guilds of, 112;
subjected to town authorities, 151-152;
question as to their admission to guild merchant, 192-193, 199
Ashburton, its school, 13, _note_ 2
Ascham, his rebuke of noblemen’s sons, 23
Assembly, the common, 226, 247-249;
of Hereford, 225;
of Sandwich, 225-227, 430;
select committee of, 353;
of Norwich, 365, 371-372, 377-379;
its Rolls, 370;
of Nottingham, 341, 347-348, 352-353
Assize of beer, 35;
of bread, 35;
of wine, 35;
of breadth of cloth, 67, _note_ 2
Atwill, John, mayor of Exeter, 180
Atwood, Thomas, town clerk of Canterbury, 263, _note_ 2
Atwood, William, one of counsel of Canterbury, 263, _note_ 2
Aylesbury, charge against miller of, 31-32
B
Babington, Sir John, 329, _note_ 1
Bablake, church at, 203, _note_ 3;
payment of its warden and priests, 206
Bablake Gate, Coventry, 207
Bachelors, fellowship of the, among Exeter tailors, 172
“Bachery, Le”, Guild of, in Norwich, 389, 392
Bailiffs, modes of election of, 275, _note_ 3, 276;
of Canterbury, 227, _note_ 2, 276, 283-284;
of Ipswich, 223-224;
of Lincoln, 250;
of leets in Norwich, 361-364, 373;
of Shrewsbury, 285;
of Southampton, 305, 309;
of Winchester, 286;
of Yarmouth, 434
Bakers of Canterbury, 46;
of Exeter, their ordinances, 179;
of London, withdraw outside boundaries, 45;
punishment of fraudulent servants among, 117, _note_ 2;
their right of search transferred to mayor, 149, _note_ 1
Ball, John, 211
Baltic, trade with Southampton, 289
Banbury, its school, 17
Bardi, Society of, rent part of tenement in Southampton, 290
Bargate Tower, Southampton, 310
Barge, the town, of Lynn, 410
Barnstaple, use of seal of commonalty in, 233, _note_ 1
Bartholomew of Baddlesmere, custos of Bristol, 267
Bartone, Brother William, his connexion with strike of shoemakers’
journeymen in London, 125
Bate, Andrew, 60
Bate (brother of Andrew), town clerk of Lydd, 60
Bath, merchants become Knights of the, 79
Bayonne, swearing-in of citizens at, 230, _note_ 1
Beam, right of keeping, 27
Beaufort, Cardinal, 292
Beer, sent from Kent to Flanders, 89
Bell, the common, 226;
made for Ely Cathedral, 54;
metal for, got from Lincolnshire, 54, _note_ 1
Bell foundry at Nottingham, 326
Bellman of Guild of S. George in Norwich, 384
Benedict, son of Aaron, his mayoralty in Southampton, 307
Bequests to town corporations, 75-76
Berford, Simon de, 400
Berkeley, Lady, founder of first lay school, 16, _note_ 2
Berkeley, Sir Maurice, 79, _note_ 2
Berne, North, its trade with Lynn, 404
Berwick-on-Tweed, interest of its burghers in municipal affairs, 234,
_note_ 3
Beverley, weavers excluded from franchise in, 142;
aldermen of trades assent to governors’ ordinances in, 185, _note_ 2
Bingham, William, founds school, 14, _note_ 2
Birmingham, its Guild of Holy Cross, 213-214;
land and rights of common, 237;
members of Corpus Christi Guild, Coventry, at, 206, _note_;
town hall, 213
Biscay, its trade with Southampton, 289, 291, _note_ 3
Black Sea, trade of Southampton with, 291
Blackburn, Nicholas, Admiral of Fleet, 323
Blackheath, Nottingham men sent to help King at, 334
“Blackleg” labour, London saddlers accused of encouraging, 163;
law in London against, 165
Bonet, Richard, 124
Books of Courtesy, 3-10;
of towns, 258;
of Dartmouth and Wycombe, their binding, 230, _note_ 2;
Black Book of Hythe, 230, 257, _note_ 4;
of Sandwich, 258, _note_ 3;
Doomsday, of Dorchester, 258;
Red, of Nottingham, 334, 337, 355-356;
White, of Norwich, 258, _note_ 3;
of Sandwich, 258
Boose, Richard, of Aylesbury, 31-32
Bordeaux, effect of its loss on Bristol trade, 91
Boroughs, results of their external relations, 1-2;
independence, 2, 3;
their life in fifteenth century, as pictured in songs, 6-12;
results of extension of Statute of Mortmain to, 215;
disputes about property in, 238.
_See_ Towns
Bosworth, battle of, 330
Bowyers of London, 119
Box, the common, of Southampton, 314
Bramston, Roger, mayor of Wycombe, 260, _note_ 4
“Brasylle, the Island of”, Bristol ships sent in search of, 73
Bread, assize of, 35
Bredon, Friar John, agitator in Coventry, 125, _note_
Brewers, Piers Ploughman’s picture of, 38;
their early wealth, 60-63;
forbidden to hold offices in towns, 62, _note_ 1;
of Kent, 89;
of Nottingham, 38
Bridges, at Abingdon, 75-76;
kept in repair by Guild of Holy Cross at Birmingham, 213;
of Nottingham, 322, 324, 341
Bridgenorth, priests forbidden to keep school at, 18;
no burgess to be made serjeant, 271, _note_ 3;
chief officers elected by special jury, 275;
its “Great Court” of Twenty-four, 275, _note_ 4
Bridgewater, its guild merchant, 214;
Guild of S. Mary or Holy Cross, 214, 215;
town clerk, 261
Bridport, its suburban manufacturers, 97;
use of paper for accounts, 259;
twelve jurors, 278, _note_ 1
Bright Waltham, manor of, communal organization of its villein
tenants, 232, _note_
Bristol, its Guild of Kalendars, 13, _note_ 2;
rivalry with Gloucester, 42;
school, 13, _note_ 2, 20;
treaty with Southampton, 53;
trade, 73;
sends ships on voyages of discovery, 73;
fine merchants’ houses, 74;
plate left by grocer of, 74, _note_ 1;
decline of its wool trade, 91-92;
complaint of weavers against employment of foreigners, 92;
law against employment of women at loom, 96, _note_;
decay of wealth, 104, _note_ 3;
coruesers, 119, _note_;
guilds ordered to keep the peace, 153;
robes of officers, 257, _note_ 3;
quarrel about customs, 266-267;
taken into King’s hand, 267;
appointment of custos, 267;
Council of Forty-eight, 268;
Council of Forty, 268, 278, _note_ 2;
charters, 268;
influential families, 267-268;
troubles from neighbouring lords, 328;
guildhall, 37;
guild merchant, 198, _note_ 1;
mayor, his supervision of trades, 37-38;
feeling of burghers for mayor, 228;
merchants, in Corpus Christi Guild at Coventry, 206, _note_;
town clerk, 20, 264, _note_ 1;
coroner, 267
Brittany, its trade with Bristol, 73;
with Southampton, 289
Brodhull, Court of, 428, 433
Brokers, their duties and payment, 34
Bromsgrove, its decay, caused by growth of free-traders, 97, _note_ 3
Brown, Thomas, Bishop of Norwich, 392
Bruges, mayor of Lynn sent as ambassador to, 422
Bull-baiting, attendance of municipal officers at, 256
Burellers of London, their quarrel with the weavers, 161-162;
of Winchester, contribution made to ferm by, 154, _note_ 1
Burgesses, their monopoly of trade, 40;
early significance of the word, 231-232;
“inn” and “foreign” in Preston, 47;
of Nottingham, fined for not attending meetings, 336;
act with commonalty, 355, _note_ 3;
the “out”, of Southampton, 47, _note_ 2;
_see_ Citizens
Burghers of fifteenth century, their anxiety about manners, 9-10;
ambition and love of learning, 11-13;
public munificence, 74-77;
become usurers and money-lenders, 77-78;
alliance with guilds against oligarchy, 167-168,
184;
their theory about the mayor, 227-228;
traditions of ancient liberties, 235-236;
buy copies of Magna Charta, 236;
punished for speaking against town councillors, 256-257;
_see_ Citizens
Burgundy, settlers from, in Southampton, 289
Butchers, forbidden to kill within towns, 32, _note_ 2;
of London, complaint of corporation about, 44-45
Butchers’ House, Nottingham, 324
Butt, Thomas, M.P. for Norwich, 400
C
Cabot, his voyage of discovery, 73
Cade, Jack, 334
Calendar of Ricart of Bristol, 20
Calle, Richard, marries Margery Paston, 80
Cambridge, school attached to Clare Hall at, 14, _note_ 2;
trade with Rowe of Romney, 61
Candlemakers of London, 45
Candles, “Paris”, made at Southampton, 289
Canterbury, its aldermanries, 283;
aldermen made heads of guilds, 156, 276, 279, _note_;
bailiffs, 227, _note_ 2, 276, 283-284;
bakers, 46;
charter, 284;
cloth trade, 158;
craft guilds, 155-157;
councils, 278, _note_ 2, 283-284;
disturbance caused by Crompe, 62-63;
freedom granted to Lynn merchants, 49, _note_ 2;
friars, 125, _note_;
law about inns, 33, _note_ 1;
“Intrantes”, 47;
jubilee of 1420, 43;
manufacturing trade, its decline, 88;
mayor, 284;
ordinances of 1474, 284;
portreeve, 283;
grammar school, 14, _note_ 2;
“Tollerati”, 47;
traders withdraw outside liberties, 45-46;
town clerk, 263, _note_ 2;
triours, 276;
wards, hereditary ownership of, 276, 279, _note_ 1
Cap-makers resist introduction of fulling mills, 90
Carlisle, extension of its liberties, 40, _note_ 2;
its council, 185;
merchant guild, 185
Carpenters, rule made by guild of, 147
Carracks of Genoa, 302, 305, _note_ 1
Carriers, their introduction into England, 28
Carrow, Prioress of, her disputes with Norwich, 387, _note_
Castle of Nottingham, 323;
of Southampton, 297, _note_ 3;
constable of, survival of his authority, 297
Catalonia, ships of, compete with Jacques Cœur for Mediterranean
coasting trade, 81
Caxton, William, 21
Caxton, Thomas, 261-263
Chandlers of Norwich, 140
Charles VII. (of France) borrows from Jacques Cœur, 82
Charters, privileges given to towns by early, 50-51;
conflicting rights bestowed by two, 51-52;
of incorporation given under Henry VI., 269;
of Bristol, 268;
Canterbury, 284;
Colchester, 282;
Exeter, 180;
Gloucester, 194, _note_ 1;
Leicester, 25, _note_ 1, 258, _note_ 1;
Liverpool, 41;
London, 53, _note_ 1;
Lynn, 421;
Nottingham, 330, 332-334, 339;
Norwich, 371-373, 379, 380, 395;
Oxford, 278, _note_ 2;
Southampton, 306-310;
of cordwainers at Exeter, 179;
of girdlers of London, 143, _note_ 2;
to guild merchant of Lynn, 403, _note_, 404, 405, _note_ 5, 407;
to craft guilds, 141, 143, _note_ 3;
commons petition for their withdrawal, 182, _note_ 1;
registration of, ordered by law, 150, _note_ 2;
of tailors of Exeter, 173-174, 179-180;
of merchant tailors of London, 143, _note_ 3, 182, _note_ 1;
of Fraternity of B. Trinity at Shrewsbury, 173, _note_ 4
Chaucer, his place in estimation of fifteenth-century scholars, 21
Cheese, manufacture of, at Southampton, 289
Chest, the common, of Southampton, 309, 314
Chester, lands of community at, 237;
two councils, 278, _note_ 2;
inhabitants forbidden to leave, 299, _note_ 4;
mayor pays schoolmaster of Farneworth, 19, _note_ 3
Chesterfield, its guild merchant, 203, _note_ 1
Children practise shooting at Southampton, 297-298;
of countrymen not to be apprenticed to crafts, 99, _note_ 1
Chipping Camden, merchant’s brass in church of, 73
Churchyards in fifteenth century, 31, _note_ 1
Cider made at Southampton, 289
Cinque Ports, rights claimed by merchants of, 52, _note_;
their treaty with Southampton, 53;
pay for copying of Magna Charta, 259, _note_ 2;
jurats of, 278, _note_ 1;
tradition of independence, 429;
source of strength of government in, 433;
resolution of Brodhull in 1526 about elections in, 433-434
Cirencester, cloth manufacture at, 68
Citizens, loss of freedom by, for helping “foreign” merchants, 39;
distinguished from community or commonalty, 231-235, 311, 334-336;
of Norwich, 366, 367, 368, 370, 373, 376, 399-401;
“denizen” and “foreign”, of Worcester, 39, 40;
the swearing-in of, at Bayonne, 230, _note_ 1.
_See_ Burghers
Clergy, their admission to guild merchant, 193
Clerk, the common or town, his position and duties, 257-264;
of Bridgewater, 261;
of Bristol, 20, 264, _note_ 1;
of Canterbury, 263, _note_ 2;
of Hythe, 263, _note_ 1;
of Lydd, 60, 262;
of Lynn, 414, 415;
of Nottingham, 19-20, 263, 337;
of Romney, 61;
of Sandwich, 257, _note_ 4, 262, _note_, 263;
of Southampton, 309;
of Winchester, 261;
of Worcester, 259, _note_ 6;
of York, 261, _note_ 1, 263
Clifton church, cross of, repaired by Nottingham goldsmith, 54, 326
Cloth, contractors of, their growth
and wealth, 65;
manufacture of, supersedes business of selling wool, 98-99;
in Yorkshire, 89;
shearers of, resist introduction of machinery, 89;
trade in, law passed in Canterbury to improve, 158;
supervision of, in Norwich, 149, _note_ 1, 385;
Irish, 289
Clothiers, admitted to rank of “gentleman”, 68;
one in Manchester founds a school, 17
“Clothing”, the, qualifications for member of, 62;
its composition, 252;
at Exeter, 181;
at Nottingham, 341, 352-353, 355, 356, _note_ 1, 357
Coal-mines, profits made by Nottingham from, 325
Cobblers, their quarrels with cordwainers, 166
Cœur, Jacques, 81-82
Coin, clipping of, learned from Lombards, 67
Cok, Richard, mayor of Sandwich, 431, 432
Colchester, election by Twenty-four in, 169-170;
land owned by, 238;
number of men assessed for moveables in 1301, 250, _note_ 2;
population in 1377, 250;
mode of election of officers, 276, 282;
charter, 282;
two councils, 278, _note_ 2, 282;
moot hall, 278;
ordinances, 278;
fining of late or absent members, 278, 283
Colle, Henry, of Hythe, 246, _note_ 2
College at Exeter, its foundation, 13, _note_ 2;
at Rotherham, 13
Commons, their petition to Henry VII. about measures, 27, _note_ 3;
petition to have guild charters withdrawn, 182, _note_ 1
“Commons”, “the poor”, their views about gains of merchants, 70-71;
of Exeter, their quarrel with governing class, 170-172
Commonalty, distinguished from citizens or burgesses, 231-235, 311,
334-336;
their interest in matters touching common lands, 234;
lack of security for freedom, 247-249;
exclusion from town administration, 249;
brought into council chamber in fifteenth century, 270;
its seal, 233, _note_ 1;
of Norwich, 366-373, 376, 377, 399.
_See_ Community
Communes of France, 321
Community of the town, reasons for entering, 55;
its services to the guilds, 157-158;
privileges of early, 232-233;
its holding of land, 237-239;
of Lynn, admission of non-burgesses to, 409;
of Nottingham, their rights, 338-343;
election of special juries by, 341.
_See_ Commonalty
Conesford Ward, Norwich, 376, _note_ 2
Constable of Dover, 302, 303;
of castle, survival of his authority in Southampton, 297
Constabularies in Lynn, 279, _note_, 415, _note_ 2, 421
Cooks, regulations for, 36
Cordwainers (shoemakers), their quarrels with cobblers, 166;
guild of, at Exeter, 119, _note_, 179
Corn, encouragement of carriage of, 42, _note_ 2
Coruesers of Bristol, 119, _note_
Cornhill, S. Peter’s, dispute about presentation to, 276, _note_ 2
Coroners of Bristol, 267;
of Ipswich, their election and duties in 1200, 223
Corporation chapel of S. Michael’s, Southampton, 308
Cossal, notice of transfer of coal-mine in, 325, _note_ 5
Cotswolds, wool of, 88, _note_ 3
Councils of towns, their alliances with guilds, 108;
various business of, 254-255;
their variety, 272-274, 277-279;
probable causes influencing their character, 279-281;
upper, result of appointing its members justices of the peace,
254-255;
of Bristol, 268, 278, _note_ 2;
of Canterbury, 278, _note_ 2, 283, 284;
Carlisle, 185;
Chester, 278, _note_ 2;
Colchester, 278, 282;
Coventry, 185, 205, 353, 354;
Exeter, 170, 172, 180;
Gloucester, 287, 354;
Ipswich, 278, _note_ 2;
Leicester, 287, 354;
Liverpool, 278, _note_ 2;
London, 375, _note_ 2;
Lynn, 402, 413, 419-422, 424, 425;
Norwich, 170, 278, _note_ 2, 363-365, 376, 377, 395, 419;
Nottingham, 336, 337-340, 355, 357;
Oxford, 278, _note_ 2;
Pontefract, 278;
Sandwich, 430, 432-434;
Shrewsbury, 285, 286;
Southampton, 280, 308, 309;
Wells, 278, _note_ 1;
Worcester, 278, _note_ 2;
of Eight among Exeter tailors, 173;
of Fifteen ordered by provisions of Oxford, 253;
Privy, writ sent to Nottingham by, 278, _note_ 1;
people of Norwich summoned before, 391
Councillors in early town government, 228;
of Nottingham, 339-341, 355;
town, various methods of electing, 277
Countrymen, their various difficulties, 98-99;
town employers contract for work with, 105-106;
policy concerning employment of, in Norwich and Worcester, 106
Courts of Admiralty, 319, _note_ 2;
of aldermen, at Norwich, 362, _note_ 2;
of arbitration, their importance to craft guilds, 114, _note_ 1;
of Brodhull, 428, 433;
consistory, clerks of, forbidden to be mayors, 171;
the great, of Bridgenorth, 275, _note_ 4;
of King’s Bench, 238;
the Pye-powder, statute of 1477 about, 393, _note_ 2.
_See_ Leet
Coventry, grammar school at, 14, _note_ 2;
attempts free trade, 53, _note_ 4;
laws about apprentices in, 99, _note_ 2, 102, _note_ 1;
Bablake gate, 207;
Drapery hall, 207;
wages of journeymen, 104, _note_ 1;
election of keepers among the smiths at, 118, _note_ 1;
the White Friars in, 125, _note_;
obtains right to have no guild, 144, _note_ 1;
rules about punishment among guilds in 1518, 151, _note_ 2;
complaint against craftsmen who would not contribute to pageants,
154, _note_ 2;
drapers and mercers, 183, 204, _note_;
election of officials, 205, 207, _note_ 2;
craftsmen who held office, 207, _note_ 4;
guild of S. Catherine, 203;
of Corpus Christi, 204, 206, _note_;
of S. George, 208;
of S. John Baptist, 203;
merchant, 193, _note_ 1, 203-204;
of Trinity, 14, _note_ 2, 19, _note_ 3, 203-213;
union of guilds, 203;
attempts to set up craft-guilds in, 208-209;
rhymes nailed by commons on church door, 211;
dyers in, 207, _note_ 4, 208, 210, _note_ 2;
regulations for crafts made at leet court, 212, _note_ 1;
apprentices’ fines, 212;
ferm, 206, 216;
land of community, 238;
petitions to have aldermen of wards, 279, _note_;
procedure in leet, 345, _note_ 3;
common council, 353-354;
Queen Isabella’s land, 202-204;
mayor, 205, 207, _note_ 2;
town hall called S. Mary’s Guild, 203
Cowes, control of mayor of Southampton over, 319
Crafts, their anxiety to protect industry, 100;
attitude towards countrymen, 99, _note_ 1, 100-101;
journeymen of, their combinations for self-protection, 101.
_See_ Guilds
Crompe, brewer at Canterbury, 62-63
Culham Ford, bridge over, 75-76
Customs of Bristol, quarrel about, 266-267;
of Southampton, leasing out of, 68, 291
“Customs” of Norwich, 364
Custumals of towns, copying and translation of, 257-258
D
Dacia, its trade with Lynn, 404
Dartmouth, binding of its corporation books, 230, _note_ 2
Dean, Forest of, its rovers, 42, _note_ 1
“Decennaries”, appointment of, 34
Delf (canal), 435
Dengemarsh, 60, 237
Denmark, its trade with Bristol, 73;
settlers from, in Southampton, 289
Dereham, work done for Norwich dealers at, 105, _note_ 2
Deritend, school of guild at, 13, _note_ 2
Devonshire, Flemish weavers in, 94
“Discreets” of Southampton, 308, 309
Dogget Rolls of Ipswich, 259
Doncaster, S. George’s Church at, merchants’ marks in, 71, _note_ 3
Doomsday Book, extracts made by town clerks from, 259;
of towns, 258
Dorchester, its Doomsday Book, 258, _note_ 3
Dorset, Marquis of, 206, _note_
Dover, constable of, 302, 303;
central government of Cinque Ports at, 428;
hornblowing, 430, _note_ 2;
election of jurats, 434, _note_ 2
Drapers admitted to rank of “gentleman”, 68;
of Coventry, 183, 204, _note_;
of Shrewsbury, their school, 13, _note_ 2;
their guild, 144, _note_ 2, 173, _note_ 4
Drapers’ house, Nottingham, 325
Drapery hall, Coventry, 207
Drogheda, merchants of, in guild at Coventry, 206, _note_;
its trade with Southampton, 289
Droitwich, cause of its decay, 97, _note_ 3
Dublin, merchants of, in guild at Coventry, 206, _note_
Dye, scarlet, English cloth sent to Italy for, 326
Dyeing, at Nottingham, 326
Dyers in Coventry, 207, _note_ 4, 208-210
E
Easingwold, town clerk of Nottingham, 263-264
Edmund Crouchback, his charter to Leicester, 25, _note_ 1, 258,
_note_ 1;
Education in the fifteenth century, 12-23;
Edward I. summons councils to get money for Welsh war, 332;
his charter to Nottingham, 334
Edward II., his grants to Nottingham, 333
Edward III. fixes price of wine of Gascony, 139;
his charter to girdlers of London, 143, _note_ 2;
grants bridge over Trent to townspeople of Nottingham, 324;
demands soldiers from Norwich, 366
Edward IV., his charters to Exeter tailors, 173-174;
to Fraternity of Trinity at Shrewsbury, 173, _note_ 4;
judgment in the disputes at Exeter, 176-177, 179-180;
his patent to York about election of mayor, 186;
appeal of Plymouth guild merchant to, 220;
Lydd sends men to his help, 263;
his charter to Colchester, 282;
reduces ferm of Nottingham, 328;
renews its charter, 330;
gives election of common council of London to trading companies,
375, _note_ 2;
peace made by Sandwich with, 431
Elizabeth Woodville, coronation of, 79, _note_ 2;
Nottingham granted to, 330, _note_ 1;
confirms its charter, 339, _note_ 2
Ely, its cathedral bells, 54
Elys, Thomas, his benefactions to Sandwich, 16, 75
Employers, illicit industry carried on by, 88;
settlement in country districts, 88;
their attitude towards foreigners, 92-94;
towards countrymen, 100-101;
foster “uncovenanted” labour, 102;
in Norwich, responsible for their servants, 101, _note_ 2;
of towns, contract with country folk for work, 105-106
Engrossing, 39
Erasmus, his estimate of schoolmasters, 22, _note_
Erith, clay got from, 54
Evesham, cause of its decay, 97, _note_ 3
Ewelme almshouse, 14, _note_ 2
Exchange, dry, denounced by Church and people, 69
Exchange, the King’s, Jews replaced by members of Pepperers’ Company
at, 69, _note_ 1
Exeter, ordinances granted to bakers, 179;
“the clothing”, 181;
college, 13, _note_ 2;
condition under Shillingford, 168-169;
quarrel between commons and governing class, 170-172;
official, its Lancastrian sympathies, 173;
Henry VII.’s charter to, 180;
common council, 170, _note_ 2, 172, 180;
cordwainers’ guild, 119, _note_, 179;
hospital, 75;
mayor, election of, 169-171, 180;
sworn on Black Book, 230, _note_ 1;
his fellowship, 168, 172;
recorder, 168, 171, _note_;
style, 180;
tailors’ guild, 172-181, 184;
twelve men, 169-170;
twenty-four, 170, 172;
thirty-six, 171
Exeter, Hugh Oldham, Bishop of, 17
“Extravagantes” in Romney, 47
F
Fairs, their origin, history, and decline, 25;
grants of, 26;
of Leicester, 25, _note_ 1;
of Lenton, 348, _note_ 3;
of Southampton, 293;
of Wayhill, 66;
of Winchester, 66, 292;
of Wycombe, 25, _note_ 2
Fairford, Henry VIII. at, 68
Fallande, Richard, his tablet in Hospital Hall, Abingdon, 76, _note_ 1
Farneworth, payment of schoolmaster at, 19, _note_ 3
Farriers, rule made by guild of, 146-147
Fastolf, Sir John, 79, _note_ 2
Fastolf, Richard, 79, _note_ 2
Ferm of Coventry, payment of, 206;
in arrears, 216;
of Nottingham reduced by Edward IV., 328, 330;
its amount, 332;
of Southampton, amount of, 300;
part settled on successive queens, 300;
in arrears, 300, _note_ 2, 301-302;
arrear remitted, 303, _note_ 1;
difficulties in raising, 304;
reduced, 305, _note_ 1;
of Winchester, contribution of burellers to, 154, _note_ 1
“Fermour of the Beme”, 28
Festivals, enforced contributions to, 154, _note_ 2;
attendance of municipal officers at, 256
Fishmongers, regulations for, 36;
of London, plate pawned to one, 78
Flanders, its manners and wealth in fifteenth century, 5;
beer sent from Kent to, 89;
weavers from, in England, 90-91;
settlers from, in valley of Stroud, 88;
in Southampton, 289;
trade with Southampton, 288, 291, 294
Florence, the Bardi and Alberti Societies of, 290
Food, regulations of its price, 35-37, 43
Fordwich, its Kalendar, 258, _note_ 3
Foreigners, their position in towns, 90-96;
in Norwich, 320;
fine paid by, in Romney, 91, _note_ 1;
tax on, in Sandwich, 91, 320, 429;
in Southampton, 289, 293, 320
Forest laws and officers, exemption of Nottingham from, 328
Forestalling, 39, 50, 54;
at Nottingham, 50, _note_ 1
Fork, first mention of, in England, 74, _note_ 1
France, its wine trade with Bristol, 73;
appointment of guild officer in, 130;
settlers from, in English towns, 320;
communes of, 321
Franchise in Lynn, settlers not obliged to take up, 408.
_See_ Freedom
Franchises of Norwich forfeited, 367, 389, 391-393;
restored, 391, 394;
of Nottingham forfeited, 332
Fray, John, 391
Freedom of borough obtained by becoming member of craft, 186;
terms of admission to, in Nottingham, 325;
loss of, for helping “foreign” merchant, 39;
traders of Norwich ordered to take up, 400
Freemen generally members of craft guilds, 190;
their right to attend meetings, 224;
of Norwich must belong to craft guild, 383
Friars, 125, _note_
Fry, Thomas, 79, _note_ 1
Fullers of Coventry set up fraternity with tailors, 208-209
G
Game laws, men presented for breaking, 246, _note_ 2
Games, attendance of municipal officers at, 256
Gascony, its wine, result of fixing price of, 139;
its wool trade with Southampton, 290;
trade of Lynn with, 404
Gate, the Water, at Southampton, 291, 294, _note_ 1
Genoa, its relations with Jacques Cœur, 81;
trade with Southampton, 289, 291;
carracks, 302, 305, _note_ 1
Genoese, grant of Henry IV. to, 290;
merchants at Southampton, 290, 291;
Southampton burnt by, 295
“Gentleman”, drapers and clothiers admitted to rank of, 68
Gentry, country, marry traders, 78-80;
take office in municipal government, 79
German, a, town clerk at Winchester, 261;
merchants, their organization at Lynn, 404
Germany, appointment of guild officer in, 130;
trade with Southampton, 291, 294
Giles, Karoll, 20
Girdlers of London, Edward III.’s charter to, 143, _note_ 2
Girdler Gate, Nottingham, 326
Gladman, John, his insurrection, 392-393
Gloucester, its trade, &c., 42;
charters, 194, _note_ 1;
guild merchant, 194;
common council, 287, 354
Gloucester, [Humphry] Duke of, befriends Norwich, 387, 392
Gloucester, [Richard] Duke of, his services to York, 261, _note_ 1
Gloucester, John of, makes bells for Ely cathedral, 54
Glover of Leighton Buzzard, adventures of a, 31-32
God’s House Meadow, Southampton, 314
Godstede, William de, 283
Gold, fear of government lest merchants should diminish stock of, 69;
its exportation forbidden, 69 _note_ 3
Goldsmith employed to weigh bread at Sandwich, 37-38;
of Nottingham repairs cross in Clifton Church, 54, 326
Gorse held by Romney, 237
Gospels, portions of, copied for swearing-in of officers, 258
Greek learned by town clerk of Nottingham, 20
Green, Godfrey, 80, _note_ 4
Gregory, town clerk of Nottingham, 337, _note_ 3
Grendon, Simon, of Exeter, 75
Grocers of Bristol, plate left by one, 74, _note_ 1;
of London, laws about their apprentices, 102, _note_ 2;
control claimed by, 116, _note_ 1;
protest against powers of oligarchy, 117, _note_ 4;
appointment of wardens, 118, _note_ 2.
_See_ Pepperers
Grocyn, his education at Bristol, 20
Gryme, Richard, of Southampton, 302
Guilds, schools founded by, 13;
social-religious, 213-217;
system of indirect election, 253;
at Deritend, 13, _note_ 2;
at Hull, 69, _note_ 2, 182, _note_ 2;
at Lynn, 405, _note_ 2, 425;
in Newcastle, 185-186;
at Shrewsbury, 49, _note_ 1;
at Southampton, 293;
at Stratford, 13, _note_ 2;
at Walsall, 183;
at Warwick, 186;
of merchant adventurers, 112;
of artizans, 112;
“Le Bachery” in Norwich, 389, 392;
of S. Benedict at Lincoln, 144, _note_ 2;
of S. Catherine at Coventry, 203;
of “common and middling folks” at Lincoln, 271, _note_ 3;
of Corpus Christi at Coventry, 204-206, 209;
at Hull, 144, _note_ 2;
at Lynn, 405, _note_ 2;
of Holy Cross at Abingdon, 215;
at Birmingham, 213-214;
at Bridgewater, 215;
of S. George at Coventry, 208;
at Norwich, 384-385, 389, 395;
of S. George and S. Christopher at York, 205, _note_ 1;
of S. John at Coventry, 203;
at Hull, 144, _note_ 2;
of our Lady and S. George at Plymouth, 220;
of S. Lawrence at Ashburton, 13, _note_ 2;
of S. Mary at Bridgewater, 214-215;
at Coventry, 203;
of S. Nicholas at Worcester, 13, _note_ 2;
of palmers at Ludlow, 13;
of young scholars at Lynn, 13;
of Trinity at Coventry, 14, _note_ 2, 19, _note_ 3, 203-213;
at Hull, 144, _note_ 2;
at Lynn, 217, 404-407;
at Shrewsbury, 144, _note_ 2, 173, _note_ 4;
craft, their origin, 113, 114;
exclusive character, 99;
alliance with town councils, 108;
aid burghers in strife with governing body, 167-168, 184-187;
various forms, 110-113;
charitable works, 113, _note_ 2;
courts of arbitration, 114, _note_ 1;
protection of members, 114, _note_ 2;
composition, 115-117;
difference from modern trades unions, 115-116, 134-136, 159-160;
government, 117-120;
laws concerning hired workers, 121-123;
organization, 128-129;
rule of oligarchy in, 129-131;
part taken by members of, on appointment to town offices, 130-131;
founded by order of town, 135, 155;
attitude towards the public, 136-138;
struggle for control of prices, 139-140;
charters, 141, 143, _note_ 3;
relations with town and State, 143-154, 181-189;
shelter themselves under form of religious association, 144-145;
enforced contribution to feasts, 154, _note_ 2;
increase in number, 155;
combinations, 156, 157, _note_ 1;
relations with municipality, 157-158;
victory in the strife with town, 159-160;
greater and lesser, 160;
struggles between, 160-166;
their alliance with burghers against ruling oligarchy, 167-168;
freedom of borough often obtained by becoming member of, 186;
freemen of borough generally enrolled in, 190;
relations with guild merchant, 191-199;
at Beverley, 142;
in Bristol, 153;
at Canterbury, 156-157;
at Coventry, 151, _note_ 2, 207-211;
of Newcastle, 185-186;
in Norwich, 144, _note_ 1, 381-4;
at Sandwich, 155;
at Southampton, their duties, 299;
of bakers at Exeter, 179;
in London, 149, _note_ 1;
of carpenters, 147;
of cordwainers at Exeter, 119, _note_, 179;
of drapers at Shrewsbury, 144, _note_ 2, 173, _note_ 4;
of farriers, 146-147;
of joiners and lorimers in London, 163-164;
of kalendars at Bristol, 13, _note_ 2;
of masons, 147-148;
of mercers of Shrewsbury, 182, _note_ 1;
of painters in London, 163;
of saddlers in London, 162-164;
of spurriers, 147;
of tailors at Exeter, 172-181, 184;
in London, 143, _note_ 3, 149, _note_ 1, 182, _note_ 1;
at Lynn, 151, _note_ 1;
of weavers in Leicester, 122, _note_ 1;
in London, 141-142, 162;
in Newcastle, 102, _note_ 2;
in Nottingham, 141, _note_;
merchant, its early history, and composition, 191-193;
organization, 193;
independent position, 194;
monopoly of trade, 40;
struggle with crafts, 191;
Gross’s theory of its decline, 191-197;
obscurity and local variety of its history, 197-201;
its successors in fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 201-202;
of Andover, 193, _note_ 1, 198, _note_ 1, 199;
of Bridgewater, 214;
of Bristol, 198, _note_ 1;
of Carlisle, 185;
of Chesterfield, 203, _note_ 1;
of Coventry, 203-204;
of Gloucester, 194, note 1;
of Lichfield, 213, _note_ 3;
of Lynn, 184, 196, _note_ 3, 198, _note_ 1, 217, 403;
of Nottingham, 332;
of Plymouth, 220;
of Reading, 203, _note_ 2;
of S. Albans, 203;
of Southampton, 198, _note_ 1, 207, _note_ 3, 305;
of Totnes, 33, _note_ 2, 220
Guildhall, _see_ Hall
Gun made for Lydd, 54, _note_ 1
Gunner, payment of, by Southampton, 298
H
Halifax, cloth-makers at, 89
Hall, the drapery, at Coventry, 207;
guild, its storage rooms, 34;
of Bristol, 37;
of Lynn, 406;
of Nottingham, 325;
of Southampton, 310, 312;
of York, 205, _note_ 1;
town or guild, of Birmingham, 213;
town, of Coventry, called S. Mary’s Guild, 203
Hamble, court of Admiralty held at, 319, _note_ 2
Hanse, its trade with Lynn, 404
Harpe, held by Romney, 237
Hastings, metal for gun got from, 54, _note_ 1
Haverford West, interest taken by its burghers in municipal affairs,
234, _note_ 3
Hawk, town clerk of Norwich, 390
Hawleys, the, of Dartmouth, 73
Hazard, John, coroner of Bristol, 267
Henley, Walter of, 133
Henry I., his grant of liberties to Southampton, 306
Henry II., his charter to Gloucester, 194, _note_ 1;
to Southampton, 306;
to Nottingham, 331
Henry III., his charter to Liverpool, 41;
to Gloucester, 194, _note_ 1;
to Oxford, 278, _note_ 2;
to guild merchant of Lynn, 407
Henry IV., his Act about apprentices, 104, _note_ 3;
charter to Liverpool, 41;
to Nottingham, 333;
to Norwich, 373;
to Southampton, 307, 309;
confirms decrees of committee of eighteen in Lynn, 414;
grant to Genoese traders, 290;
grant for fortification of Southampton, 292
Henry V., loan of Cardinal Beaufort to, 292;
his letters patent to Lynn, 409;
to Southampton, 307;
confirms decrees of committee of eighteen in Lynn, 414;
appeal of people of Lynn to, 417;
confirms guild of S. George in Norwich, 384;
his charter to Norwich, 379-380
Henry VI., charters of incorporation given under, 269;
loans from Lynn to, 423;
supported by Nottingham, 330;
charter to Nottingham, 333-334;
to Southampton, 307-308
Henry VII., depression of trade in his early years, 87;
effects of his commercial treaties, 87;
brings over Flemish weavers, 94;
repeals Act of Henry IV. about apprentices, 104, _note_ 3;
charter to Exeter, 180;
to merchant tailors of London, 143, _note_ 3;
grants to Southampton, 293;
Nottingham sends deputation to, 331
Henry VIII. entertained at Fairford, 68;
forbids emigration from Chester, 299, _note_ 4
Hereford, its in-borough and out-borough, 40, _note_ 2;
customs, 225-227;
law about steward, 261, _note_ 2
Heydon, John, of Baconsthorpe, 387, 389, 393, 394, 395, _note_ 1
Hill, Nicholas, image-maker of Nottingham, 326
Hoastmen, complaint of London corporation against, 140, _note_ 3
Holbein, his “Dance of Death”, 57
Holidays, disputes about, 88;
trading on, forbidden, 133
Hollingbrokes, the, of Romney, 59, _note_
Holme, Abbot of, his disputes with Norwich, 387, _note_, 391-392
Honywodes, merchants at Hythe, 29
Horn, the common, of Sandwich, 227
“Hornblowing”, 430
Horseho held by Romney, 237
Hospital of S. Julian, Southampton, 295, 314-315;
of S. Thomas the Martyr, at Sandwich, 75;
founded by Simon Grendon at Exeter, 75;
of S. Paul, Norwich, its dispute with the town, 387, _note_
House, the audit, of Southampton, 310;
the butchers’, in Nottingham, 324;
the common, its storerooms for wool, 3;
the drapers’, in Nottingham, 325;
the mercers’, in Nottingham, 324-325
Houses in Nottingham, 327;
contrast between English and French, 84;
of merchants in Bristol, 74
Huddersfield, cloth-makers at, 89
Hull, its grammar school, 14;
merchants, 69, _note_ 2;
guilds at, 144, _note_ 2;
use made of them by county magnate, 182, _note_ 2;
royal charters to guilds, 182, _note_ 1;
trade with Nottingham, 324, 328
Hythe, its condition in early fifteenth century, 29-30;
Black Book, 230, 257, _note_ 4;
use of paper for accounts, 259, _note_ 6;
lands of community, 237;
perambulation on Holy Thursday, 30;
pestilence, 30;
its town clerk, 263, _note_ 1
I
Iceland, Bristol merchants in, 73
Illuminator of Nottingham, 326
Image-maker of Nottingham, 326
Incorporation, charters of, given under Henry VI., 269
“Inferiores” of Lynn, 407-409, 412, 413, 420-425
Ingoldsby, John, 303, _note_ 2
Inns provided by the towns, 33
Inn-holders, profit allowed to be taken by, 36
“Intrantes” in Canterbury, 47
Ipswich, its coroners, 223;
early form of government, 223, 224;
land of community, 237;
powers assumed by oligarchy, 240-241, 252;
portmen, 223, 250, 252;
dogget rolls, 259;
two councils, 278, _note_ 2;
agreement made by barber taking apprentice at, 120, _note_ 1
Ireland, its trade with Liverpool, 41, _note_;
smuggling trade with Gloucester, 42;
cloth, 289
Iron works at Nottingham, 326
Isabella, Queen, her land at Coventry, 202-204
Italy, cities of, their commerce with Southampton, 290-291, 320;
English cloth sent to, to be dyed scarlet, 326;
merchants from, obliged to buy only in London, Southampton, or
Sandwich, 293
J
Jews at King’s exchange, 69, _note_ 1;
school for, at Bristol, 13, _note_ 2
Joan, Queen, 304, _note_ 2
John, King, his charter to Gloucester, 194, _note_ 1;
grant of privileges to Southampton, 306;
“palaces” of, in Nottingham, 327;
frees Nottingham from forest laws and forest officers, 328;
charter to Nottingham, 332;
to guild merchant of Lynn, 404
John of Horncastle, bailiff of Bristol, 267
John the Taverner, mayor of Bristol, 267
Joiners, guild of, in London, 163-164
Journeymen, their combinations for self-protection, 101;
protection of, in guild, 103;
regulations about their wages, 104, _note_ 1;
position in craft-guilds, 119, 128-129;
protection by town authorities, 120;
laws about, 121-123;
strikes of, 123-127;
unions of, 129
Jubilee of 1420 at Canterbury, 43
Jurats of Cinque Ports, 278, _note_ 1, 434;
of Lynn, 407, 409, 421
Juries, system of, in towns, 228-229;
special, 229, _note_ 2, 275, 276, 341;
of forty-eight of Nottingham, 356-358;
of wards and leets in Norwich, 381.
_See_ Leet, Mickletorn
Justices, their right to order election of discreet men for town
officers, 249, _note_ 2;
of the peace, appointment of members of upper town council as,
254-255;
in Nottingham, 339, 340;
in Norwich, 362, _note_ 2;
in Southampton, 307, 309
K
Kalendar of Fordwich, 258, _note_ 3
Kalendars, guild of, at Bristol, 13, _note_ 2
Kent, its decline in wealth during Hundred Years’ War, 88, _note_ 3;
brewers of, 89;
popular movements in, 429
Keyhaven, court of Admiralty held at, 319, _note_ 2
Kidderminster, cause of its decay, 97, _note_ 3
King’s Bench, court of, 238
Kipton Ash, its market, 404, _note_ 1
L
Labour, effects of war and rivalry between England and Netherlands on,
87;
difficulties caused by industrial changes, 87-90;
by foreign immigration, 90-96;
problem of, 107-109;
“blackleg”, London saddlers accused of encouraging, 163;
law against, 165;
“uncovenanted”, fostered by employers, 102
Labourers, unskilled, 103-104;
country, difficulties of their transfer to towns, 98-99;
legal hours of work, 133;
of Norwich, their condition before 1340, 101
Lammas lands of Colchester, 238
Lancaster, Nicholas, town clerk of York, 263
Land, conversion of arable, into pasture, 98;
disputes about ownership and use of, 238-239;
common, of towns, rights and interests of commonalty in, 234,
237-239;
of Andover, 237;
of Birmingham, 237;
of Chester, 237;
of Colchester, 238;
of Coventry, 238;
of Hythe, 237;
of Ipswich, 237;
of Liverpool, 237;
of Lydd, 237, 238;
of Morpeth, 237;
of Norwich, 367;
of Nottingham, 237, 334, 335-336, 342-343, 348, _note_ 3;
of Oxford, 237;
of Romney, 237;
of Southampton, 311, 314-317;
of Wycombe, 237
Lanes, naming of, in towns, 29;
improvement in their condition, 32-33
Langton, Nicholas, mayor of York, 251, _note_ 1
Laymen, schools founded by, 16-17
“Leave-lookers”, 34
Leet of Andover, 229;
of Coventry, 205, 206, 212, _note_ 1, 345, _note_ 3;
of Manchester, 249, _note_ 2;
of Nottingham, 19, 341, 345, 346, 356;
of Southampton, 318, _note_
Leets of Norwich, 361-362
Legate, Richard, bailiff of Bristol, 267
Leicester, no plea held in, during fairs, 25, _note_ 1;
night work allowed by guild in, 122, _note_ 1;
Crouchback’s charter to, 25, _note_ 1, 258, _note_ 1;
councils, 287, 354
Leighton Buzzard, adventures of a glover of, 31-32
Lenton, agreement with Nottingham about its fair, 348, _note_ 3;
convent of, 354, _note_ 4
Lepe, court of Admiralty held at, 319, _note_ 2
Levant, Bristol vessels first to enter, 73;
trade of Jacques Cœur with, 81;
trade of Southampton with, 290
Liberties, extension of, in Carlisle and Hereford, 40, _note_ 2
Lichfield, its guild merchant, 213, _note_ 3
Lime-burners, conspiracy of, in London, 140
Lincoln, guild of S. Benedict at, 144, _note_ 2;
bailiffs, 250;
appeal of commonalty to King against corporation, 244;
charter, 244;
dispute with lord of S. Botolph’s fair about tolls, 244;
its guild of “common and middling folks”, 271, _note_ 3;
aldermen, 279, _note_
Lincoln, Robert, bishop of, translation of his “Rules”, 5
Lincoln, bishop of, begs for Norwich liberties to be restored, 391
Lincolnshire, its bell-metal, 54, _note_ 1;
its wool, 88, _note_ 3
Linen manufactured at Nottingham, 326
Literature of fifteenth century, 3-10
Liverpool, its charters, 41;
attempt to establish free trade, 41;
council of forty, 278, _note_ 2;
its mayor, 61, _note_ 2, 251, _note_ 1;
mosses granted to, 237;
grant for paving, 32, _note_ 3;
school, 14, _note_ 2
Lombards, traders learn to clip coin from, 67;
settle in Southampton, 289
London, its aldermen hereditary owners of wards, 279, _note_;
elected for life, 375, _note_ 2;
apprentices must be sworn to the franchise before using trade, 103,
_note_ 2;
yearly wage of artizans, 133;
bakers, 45, 117, _note_ 2, 149, _note_ 1;
bowyers, 119;
complaint about butchers, 44-45;
dispute between burellers and weavers, 161-162;
candlemakers, 45;
common council, 375, _note_ 2;
hindrance to influence of crafts, 186;
complaints about cloth, 146;
farriers, 146-147;
complaints against foreigners, 95;
plate pawned to a fishmonger of, 78;
trouble about fulling machinery, 90, _note_ 2;
Edward III.’s charter to girdlers, 143, _note_ 2;
grocers, 102, _note_ 2, 116, _note_ 1, 117, _note_ 4, 118, _note_ 2;
growth, 50;
guild ordinances, 146-148;
relations with Coventry guild, 206, _note_;
complaint against hoastmen, 140, _note_ 3;
images sent from Nottingham to, 326;
mayors of, 16, 149, _notes_;
Italian merchants in, 293;
conspiracy of lime-burners, 140;
lorimers, 163;
decline of manufacturing trade, 88;
merchants of, cause assassination of Genoese at Southampton, 291;
provision for mercer’s widow, 80;
laws to protect consumer against pepperers, 139-140;
the raising of prices for repairing roofs forbidden, 152;
controversy between saddlers and other crafts, 162-165;
schools, 13, _note_ 2, 14, _note_ 2;
sheriff lends money to John Paston, 77;
dealings with Southampton, 294-295;
settlers from, in Southampton, 291;
strikes in, 123-127;
tailors of, 149, _note_ 2, 143, _note_ 3, 182, _note_ 1;
rebellion of taverners, 139;
ordinances of tawyers, 165;
withdrawal of tradesmen outside boundaries, 44-45;
jurisdiction of trades, 149, _notes_;
retaliation in taking of toll, 53, _note_ 1;
“vice-comites”, 361, _note_ 3;
regulations about wages of journeymen, 104, _note_ 1;
decay of wealth, 104, _note_ 3;
weavers, 141-142, 160-162
Lorimers of London, 163
Louis XI., extinction of liberties of French communes under, 321
Lovel, Sir Thomas, 329, _note_ 1, 347, _note_ 2
Lübeck, merchants of, at Lynn, 404
Ludlow, its school, 13, _note_ 2
Lydd, gun made for, 54, _note_ 1;
troubles caused by Andrew Bate, 60;
seals of community and of mayor, 233, _note_ 1, 238;
lands, 237-238;
dispute about ownership of shore, 238;
custumal, 257, _note_ 4;
helps Warwick, 262;
helps Edward IV., 263;
town clerks, 60, 262;
treasurer, 263
Lydgate, 21
Lyhert, Walter, bishop of Norwich, 394, _note_ 1
Lymington, its treaty with Southampton, 53, _note_ 4
Lynn, its people seek protection against ruling burgesses, 242-243;
relations with bishop of Norwich, 403, 408, 412, 419, 423-424, 428;
advantages of its position, 404;
three classes in, 407;
constitution in 1417, 409;
prosperity, 410;
expenses, 410-411;
financial difficulties, 411-413;
dispute between ruling body and people, 411-420;
failure of attempt to gain popular liberty, 423-426, 428;
barge, 410;
non-burgesses of, their share in administration, 412, 413;
change in mode of electing for Parliament, 420, _note_ 1;
cattle market, 404;
charter, 421;
committee of eighteen, 412-416;
councils, 402, 413, 419-422, 424, 425;
its constabularies, 279, _note_, 415, _note_ 2, 421;
copper, 54;
wealth and importance of corporation, 402;
franchise not obligatory on settlers, 408;
admission of “foreign” inhabitants to, 417;
German merchants, 404;
guilds, 13, _note_ 2, 151, _note_ 1, 217, 403-407, 425;
guild merchant, 184, 196, _note_ 3, 198, _note_ 1, 403;
guildhall, 406;
“inferiores”, their decline, 420-425;
jurats, 407, 409, 421;
loans to the King, 411, 423;
mayor, composition with, 243;
his powers of distraint, 243, _note_ 1;
mode of election, 409, 416-417;
salary, 413;
sent as ambassador to Bruges, 422;
“mediocres”, 407-409, 412, 413;
merchants made freemen of Canterbury, 49, _note_ 2;
their power, 403, 425;
ordinances about elections, 414-416;
prolocutor, 414;
“potentiores”, 196, _note_ 3, 407-409, 412, 413, 419;
their alliance with “mediocres”, 421-424;
election of serjeant, 418, _note_ 3;
trade, 404;
town clerk, 414, 415;
wealth, 326;
members of Coventry guild at, 206, _note_
Lyttleton’s “New Tenures”, extracts made by town clerks from, 259
M
Macclesfield, school at, 16
Machinery, trouble caused by introduction of, 89-90
Magna Charta, copies bought by burghers, 236;
extracts made by town clerks from, 259
“Magnates”, of Norwich, 196, _note_ 3, 249
Malt, made by brewers, 89
Manchester, its grammar school, 17;
trade with Liverpool, 41, _note_;
election of court leet jury, 249, _note_ 2
Mancroft ward, Norwich, 376, _note_ 2
Manners, Latin treatise on, translation of, 5;
anxiety of burghers about, 8-10
Manufacturers in suburbs, 96-97
Manufactures, the home, of the suburbs, 97
Marches, Scotch, their laws codified in fifteenth century, 258,
_note_ 3
Margaret of Anjou, grant from revenue of Southampton to, 300, _note_ 3
Market, its situation, 24;
origin, 25-27;
early control of, 26;
grants of, 26, 27;
right of, in Scotland, 27, _note_ 1;
regulation of 33, 34, 39, 40;
laws made by government and by towns, 36, _note_ 1;
officials of, 34;
of Kipton Ash, 404, _note_ 1;
the cattle, of Lynn, 404;
of Norwich, 367, _note_ 2
Market-place of Norwich, 31;
of Nottingham, 324
Market-crosses, 32
Marlborough, its treaty with Southampton, 53, _note_ 4;
trouble caused by craft guilds in, 142
Mary, Queen, renews charter to Liverpool, 41
“Marye of Hampton”, 291, _note_ 3
Masons, rules made by guild of, 147;
forbidden to confederate, 148, _note_ 3
Maximilian, treaty with, 311
Mayor, testing of weights and measures by, 27-28;
officials of market sworn before, 34;
his office as protector of people, 36-38;
robe of “clean scarlet”, 62;
modes of his election, 226-228, 274-276;
his assistants, 228;
oath on “Black Book”, 230;
of Bristol, 212, _note_ 2;
his supervision of trades, 37-38;
of Canterbury, 284;
of Coventry, 205, 207, _note_ 2;
of Exeter, his election, 169-171;
member of tailors’ guild appointed, 178;
law of 1496 about his election, 169-171, 180;
of Liverpool in 1380, his wealth, 61, _note_ 2, 251, _note_ 1;
of London, 16, 149 _notes_;
of Lynn, modes of his election, 409, 414-417;
salary, 413;
sent as ambassador to Bruges, 422-423;
of Norwich, replaces bailiffs, 373;
his imprisonment in London, 392;
charges brought against, 393, _note_ 2;
of Nottingham, 251, _note_ 2;
presented at court leet, 346, 349, 354;
of Oxford, 244;
of Plymouth, 220;
of Romney, elected at Stuppeney’s tomb, 59, _note_;
of Sandwich, his election, 226-227, 274, 430-434;
of Southampton, 298;
deposed, 303, _note_ 1;
his powers, 306;
election, 274-275, 306-307, 312-313;
decree about payment of his salary, 314;
presented at court leet, 318, _note_;
his important position, 319-320;
his authority as King’s admiral, 319;
alderman of guild, 306, 407, _note_ 2;
of Wycombe, 228, 260, _note_ 4;
of York, Edward IV.’s patent about election of, 186
Measures, petition of commons to Henry VII. about, 27, _note_ 3;
standard, towns compelled to keep, 27;
tested and sealed by mayor, 27-28
“Mediocres” of Lynn, 407, 408, 409, 412, 413, 421, 424
Mediterranean, trade of Southampton with, 289-290
Melcombe Regis, election of officers, 275, _note_ 4
Meller, Dame Agnes, founds school at Nottingham, 19, _note_ 3
Melors, Thomas, mayor of Nottingham, 349
“Mercatores” of Coventry guild, 204
Mercers of Coventry, 183, 204, _note_;
of London, provision made by one for his widow, 80;
of Shrewsbury, royal charter granted to, 182, _note_ 1;
mistery of, at York, 69, _note_ 2;
house, Nottingham, 324-325
Merchants, schools founded by, 16-17;
their difficulties, 69-72;
wealth, 69, 72-74;
views of “poor commons” about their gains, 70-71;
marks, 71;
one at Abingdon gives money towards bridges, 75-76;
become landed proprietors, 79;
Knights of the Bath, 79;
associations of, 108;
of Cinque Ports, their privileges, 52, _note_;
English, keeping of sea given to, 323;
of Germany, their organization at Lynn, 404;
Irish, in Liverpool, 41, _note_;
Italian, laws about their buying, 293;
expelled from London, 293;
settle in Southampton, 293;
of Lübeck, at Lynn, 404;
of Lynn, made freemen of Canterbury, 49, _note_ 2;
their powers, 403, 425
Metals, Southampton made staple of, 293
Mickletorn jury at Nottingham, 138, 345-346, 356-358
Mill-stones, cost of, 406, _note_ 1;
brought from Paris and Andernach, 406;
Mills, fulling, forbidden by Parliament, 90;
the school, at Manchester, inhabitants forced to grind corn at, 17
Monopoly, 48, 49, 51, 56
Morpeth, 186, _note_ 3, 237, 238
Mortmain, license to, given to Trinity Guild, Coventry, 203;
to S. John Baptist’s Guild, 203, _note_ 4;
to fullers and tailors of Coventry, 209;
grant to assign lands in, given to merchant guild of Bridgewater,
214;
statute of, results of its extension to cities and boroughs, 215
N
Netherlands, distress caused by their rivalry with England, 87;
wool sent from Southampton to, 291;
settlers from, in English towns, 320;
in Sandwich, 429;
independent temper of towns of, 360-361
Netley Abbey, its treaty with Southampton, 53, _note_ 4
Newcastle, weavers of, 102, _note_ 2;
piece-work in, 121, _note_ 5;
quarrel among guilds about government, 185-186
New Sarum attempts free trade, 47, _note_ 1;
its treaty with Southampton, 53, _note_ 1
Non-burgesses of Lynn, their share in administration, 413;
in Nottingham, their numbers, 325
Norfolk, supervision of its woollen trade by Norwich, 385-386
Northampton, its dispute with abbot of Thorney, 52, _note_;
style, 278, _note_ 1;
tin, 54
Norwich, complaint of democracy against oligarchy in, 241-242;
character and value of its political experiments, 361, 396-397;
early constitution, 361-365;
copying of old documents, 370, _note_ 4;
troubles about election in 1404, 373-374;
disputes between mayor’s council and commonalty, 379-380;
its disputes with the prioress of Carrow, hospital of S. Paul, and
abbot of Wendling, 387, _note_;
with abbot of Holme, 387, 391-392;
with prior of the cathedral, 387, 391, 395-396;
struggle between county party and town party, 385-395;
insurrection of John Gladman, 392-393;
refusal to advance money to King, 393;
visited by him, 394;
reception of the Duke of York, 394;
poverty in fifteenth century, 395;
causes of decay, 397-398;
cause of failure of its attempt to gain popular liberty, 427-428;
its account-books, 370, _note_ 4;
aldermen, 362, _note_ 2, 380;
apprentices, payments by, 102, _note_ 2;
assembly, 371-372, 377-379;
superseded by twenty-four, 365;
assembly rolls, 370;
“Le Bachery”, 389, 392;
bailiffs, 361-364, 373;
chandlers presented at court leet, 140;
chapel of the Blessed Virgin in the Fields, 389, 397;
charters, 371-373, 379-380, 395;
churches, 329, _note_ 2;
“the citizens”, 366, 367, 368, 370, 373, 376, 399-401;
craft guilds, 144, _note_ 1, 381-384;
supervision of cloth and wool trade, 149, _note_ 1, 385-386;
system of contracting for work in surrounding villages, 105-106;
the community or commonalty of, 366-373, 376, 377, 399;
composition of 1415, 374-380;
councils, 170, 278, _note_ 2, 363-365, 369-377, 419;
“customs”, 364;
election of common councillors, 376, 380-381;
election of officers after 1415, 377-379;
employers made responsible for servants, 101, _note_ 2;
franchises forfeited, 367, 389, 391-393;
restored, 391, 394;
freemen must belong to craft guild, 383;
foreign settlers, 320;
guilds, 144, _note_ 1;
guild of S. George, 384-385, 389, 395;
income in 1378, 370, _note_ 4;
justices of the peace, 362, _note_ 2;
condition of its labourers before 1340, 101;
its four leets, 361-362;
replaced by wards, 380;
leet courts, 362;
loan to King, 372, _note_ 2;
magnates, 196, _note_ 3, 249;
manufacturing trade, its decline, 88;
market, 367, _note_ 2;
market-place, 31;
mayor, 373;
mayor imprisoned in London, 392;
charges against him, 393, _note_ 2;
lawsuit about rights of pasture, 238;
petition to Parliament, 367;
capital pledges, 362, 381;
statute of 1477 about Pye-powder court, 393, _note_ 2;
recorder, 387;
increased rents, 400;
common seal, 390, 391, 392;
sheriffs, 373, 381;
official styles, 365-368, 373;
appointment of supervisors of bread, 35, _note_ 4;
tanners, 105;
tolbooth, 362, 389, _note_ 1;
traders ordered to become freemen, 400;
wards, 376, 380;
wealth, causes of its decay, 104, _note_ 3;
White Book, 258, _note_ 3;
law about ordinances of worsted-shearers, 149, _note_ 1;
relations with country workmen, 105-106
Norwich, bishop of, begs for restoration of town’s liberties, 391;
relations of, with Lynn, 403, 408-412, 419, 423-424, 428
Nottingham, advantages of its position, 322-325;
ordered to contribute to keeping of sea, 323;
condition of people, 327-328;
small part played by ecclesiastical interests in, 329;
its quarrel with Sir John Babington, 329, _note_ 1;
given to Anne of Bohemia, 330;
supports Edward IV., 330;
attitude towards Richard III., 330;
granted to Elizabeth Woodville, 330, _note_ 1;
sends deputation to Henry VII., 331;
increasing wealth in fifteenth century, 331;
originally governed by reeve, 331;
grants from Henry II., 331;
from Edward II., 333;
privileges gained during Welsh war, 332;
sends men to help King against Jack Cade, 334;
condition of its government in 1500, 344;
struggle between government and people, 345-359;
“alablaster man”, 54, 326;
aldermen, 309, 339-341;
common assembly, 341, 347-348, 352-353;
bell-foundry, 326;
bell-metal got from Lincolnshire, 54, _note_ 1;
two boroughs, 332;
complaint about brewers, 38;
bridges, 322, 324, 341;
Bridlesmith gate, 326;
burgesses, their relations with the people, 312, _note_, 355,
_note_ 3;
distinguished from community, 334-336;
burgesses fined for not attending meetings, 336;
butchers’ house, 324;
castle, 323;
charters, 330-334, 339;
church of S. Mary, 326;
town clerk, 19, 20, 263-264, 337;
“clothing”, 341, 352-353, 355, 356, _note_ 1, 357;
coal-mines, 325;
common, 314, _note_ 5;
“community” or commonalty, 338-343;
council, 337-340, 355, 357;
disputes about control of Trent, 328-329;
drapers’ house, 325;
exemption from forest laws and forest officers, 328;
agreement with Lenton convent about its fair, 348, _note_ 3;
ferm, 328, 330, 332;
franchises forfeited, 332;
terms of admission to freedom, 325;
forestalling, 50, _note_ 1;
Girdler gate, 326;
goldsmith, 54, 326;
guildhall, 325;
guild merchant, 332;
common hall, 343;
houses, 327;
illuminator, 326;
image-maker, 326;
industries, 325-327;
jury of forty-eight, 356, 357, 358;
special juries, 341;
justices of peace, 339, 340;
common lands, 237, 334, 335-336, 342-343, 348, _note_ 3;
leet, 341, 346, 356, 19, 229, 345-346;
market-place, 324;
mayors, 251, _note_ 2;
their independent rule in sixteenth century, 354;
mayor presented at court leet, 346, 349, 354;
fined for not rendering accounts, 353, _note_;
mercers’ house, 324-325;
Mickletorn jury, 138, 345-346, 356-358;
money borrowed by corporation, 328;
numbers of non-burgesses in, 325;
Whitsuntide offerings, 329;
paviour, 32, _note_ 3;
recorder, 347-348;
Red Book, 334, 337, 355, 356;
sources of revenue, 47;
rolls, 259;
free school, 19, 348, _note_ 3, 354, _note_ 4;
styles, 334-336;
subsidy roll of 1472, 327;
tin, 54;
tolls at Retford, 335, _note_ 2;
raising of river-side tolls forbidden, 329;
trade and prosperity, 324-328;
results of wide distribution of wealth, 251;
weavers’ guild, 141, _note_;
provision for widows, 80;
workmen charged with taking too much pay, 132
Nycoll, William, sends his ship to Bay of Biscay, 291, _note_ 3
O
Occleve, 21
Oldham, Hugh, bishop of Exeter, completes Manchester grammar school,
17
Oligarchy, the ruling, alliance of guilds with burghers against,
167-168, 184;
powers assumed by, in Ipswich, 240-241, 252;
Lincoln, 244;
Lynn, 242-243;
Norwich, 241-242;
Oxford, 244;
government by, its beginnings in towns, 240-246, 255-257;
its character, 256-257, 264-265
Orgram, John, of Nottingham, 337, _note_ 1
Orwellstow, owned by Lydd, 237
Oxford, marriage contract of cook’s daughter at, 61, _note_ 4;
craft guilds, 142;
charges brought against governing body, 244-245;
aldermen, 245, _note_ 2, 278, _note_ 2;
charter, 278, _note_ 2;
formation of second council, 278;
common lands, 237;
mayor, 244, 278, _note_ 2;
Provisions of, 253
P
Palmers, guild of, at Ludlow, its school, 13, _note_ 2
Paper takes place of parchment, 259
Parchment, use of, ordered at Worcester in 1467, 259, _note_ 6
Paris, Jacques Cœur at, 81;
mill-stones brought from, 406, _note_ 1
Parliament forbids use of fulling mills 90;
its laws about hired workers, 121;
Acts of, copied by town clerks, 259;
Act for fixing apprentices’ fees in Norwich, 102, _note_ 2;
for deepening Stour, 435;
members of, their election in Lynn, 420, _note_ 1;
in Norwich, 379;
in Shrewsbury, 285
Parr, Sir William, 78
Paston, Edmund, 79-80
Paston, John, 77;
his marriage, 80
Paston, Margery, her marriage, 80
Paston, William, 390, _note_ 1, 391
Paving, grant for, to Liverpool, 32, _note_ 3
Paviours, appointment of, 32, _note_ 3
Payne, Thomas, his trade with Zealand, 291, _note_ 3
Peasant revolt, 213, _note_ 3, 265
Pepperers’ Company of London, founding of, 144, _note_ 2;
laws to protect consumer against, 139-140;
replace Jews at King’s exchange, 69, _note_ 1
Percyvale, Sir John, endows school at Macclesfield, 16
Perkins, Robert, 210, _note_ 2
Philip, Archduke, treaty with, 311
Piece-work, disputes about, 88;
in Newcastle and London, 121, _note_ 5
Plate stored in merchants’ houses, 74;
left by grocer of Bristol, 74, _note_ 1;
pawning of, 78
Pledges, capital, of Norwich, 362, 381
Plumpton, Sir William, his marriage, 78, 79, _note_ 2;
joins fraternity of S. Christopher at York, 205, _note_ 1
Plumpton, Lady, joins fraternity of S. Christopher at York, 205,
_note_ 1