Feasts of Easter and St. Michael 5d., and in the other half year
4d.; and their labourers are to take the same as the labourers of
the tilers.
Also,—that the sawiers shall take in the same manner as the masons
and carpenters take.
Also,—that no one shall pay more to the workmen aforesaid, on pain
of paying 40s. to the Commonalty, without any release therefrom; and
he who shall take more than the above, shall go to prison for forty
days....
Also,—that one person of every company may see that the vessel into
which their wine is drawn is clean, and from what tun their wine is
drawn; on pain of imprisonment, and of paying to the Chamber, for
the first time, half a mark; for the second time, one mark; for the
third time, 20s.; and every other time a person shall be found in
like default, let his fine be increased by half a mark.
Also,—that the measures shall be standing upright, and sealed with
the seal of the Alderman of the Ward; and he who shall sell by other
measures, let him go to prison, and further, be amerced in half a
mark.
Also,—that the pelterers shall make their furs according to the
ancient ordinances, of olden time ordained, and according to the
purport of their Charter; on pain of forfeiture and punishment for
the same, as of old ordained.
Also,—that no one should go to meet those who are bringing victuals
or other wares by land or by water to the City for sale, for the
purpose of buying them or bargaining for them, before that they
shall have come to certain places assigned thereto, where they ought
to be sold; on pain of forfeiture of the victuals and other wares,
and of their bodies being committed to prison, until they have been
sufficiently punished, at the discretion of the Mayor and Aldermen.
THE CHARTER TO THE DRAPERS (1364).
"Draper" originally meant a cloth-maker, not, as now, a dealer in cloth.
In the Middle Ages the drapers both made it and sold it, but gradually
their particular work was confined to supervising the manufacture and
selling the finished article. The Drapers' Gild must have been one of
the earliest associations of craftsmen, and was incorporated by royal
charter in 1364. One of the most important features of this charter
seems to be the instruction that the mistery of drapery should be
definitely separated from those of the tenterers, tellers, and fullers;
it appears to have been impossible to exercise proper supervision in a
trade which involved so many different operations, and the remedy was
obviously to split it up into several trades, each of which might have
its own organisation.
=Source.=—Herbert, _Livery Companies_, vol. i., p. 480.
The King, to the Mayor and Sheriffs of London, greeting. Whereas,
amongst other things ordained in our last parliament, it was for
certain causes proposed, and in the same parliament ordained, that
no English merchant should use merceries or merchandizes by himself
or another by any manner of covine, unless one only, and which he
should choose before the feast of Candlemas last past, as in the
said ordinances is more fully contained.
* * * * *
And whereas it has been shown to us and to our council, that people
of divers misteries of the city of London intermix themselves with
the mistery of Drapery, and cause divers deceits and frauds in the
use of the same mistery,—to the great damage of us and of our
people, and contrary to the ordinances aforesaid.
We, willing the said ordinances should be kept and maintained in all
points, accordingly have, by the assent of the great and others of
our council, ordained and granted, that none shall use the Mistery
of Drapery in the city of London, nor in the suburbs of the same,
unless he has been apprenticed in the same mistery, or in other due
manner been admitted by the common assent of the same mistery. And
that each of the misteries of tenterers, tisters, and fullers, keep
himself to his own mistery, and in no way meddle with the making,
buying, or selling of any manner with cloth or drapery, on pain of
imprisonment and loss of all the cloth so by them made, bought, or
sold, or the value thereof to us.
And that none who has cloth to sell in the said city, or in the
suburbs, do sell the same unless to drapers enfranchised in the said
mistery of drapery, or that it be in gross to the lords and others
of the commons, who will buy the same for themselves or servants by
retail, under the same penalty.
And that the drapers enfranchised in the mistery of drapery in the
said city, may elect each year four of their own mistery, who may be
sworn twice a year in the presence of the Mayor, to oversee that no
default or deceit be used or committed in the mistery aforesaid, and
to rule and govern the said mistery of drapery in the same city, to
the common profit of the people, and that due punishment be done on
them in whom defaults shall be found, according to the advice and
discretion of the said four persons, by the aid of the Mayor and
Sheriffs when need is; the which Mayor and Sheriffs we will shall be
intendants to the said four persons, when they shall be required by
them.
And we also will and give power to the said four persons who may be
elected and sworn, to take an oath of all those who shall be
received into the said mistery of drapery in the same city, to use
and do whatever appertains to the same mistery well and lawfully,
without fraud, evil design, or subtle management against the points
and ordinances aforesaid.
Saving always to our beloved in God the prior of St. Bartholomew, in
Smithfield, and other lords who have fairs in the said suburbs by
grant of our progenitors, their fairs, franchises, and free-customs,
which they have exercised in their said fairs, from the time of the
said grants, so that no damage or prejudice shall be done to them in
any way under colour of this our ordinance and grant; and saving the
franchises by us granted to the merchants, vintners of England and
Gascoigny, which we will shall remain in force in all points in
manner as in our letters patent to the said drapers is more fully
contained.
* * * * *
Wherefore we command and firmly enjoin you forthwith that at your
peril you cause to be proclaimed and published in the said city and
suburbs, and all places where it should be done, that all the said
things so by us granted may be firmly held and kept in form
aforesaid.
And hereof in no manner fail.
Given at Westminster the 14th day of July (1364).
A LETTER FROM EDWARD III. (1365).
The Battle of Crecy had first demonstrated the immense superiority of
archers over mounted knights in battle. It became necessary to insist
that Englishmen should be fully and properly trained in the use of the
bow and arrow, if this superiority was to be maintained. The youths of
London appear to have been addicted at this time to more exciting and
less serviceable sports than the old exercise of archery, and Edward
III.'s letter is at once a reprimand and an instruction.
The King to the Sheriffs of London, greeting.
Because the people of our realm, as well of good quality as mean,
have commonly in their sports before these times exercised the skill
of shooting arrows; whence it is well known, that honour and profit
have accrued to our whole realm, and to us, by the help of God, no
small assistance in our warlike acts; and now the said skill being,
as it were, wholly laid aside, the same people please themselves in
hurling of stones and wood and iron; and some in hand-ball,
foot-ball, bandy-ball, and in Cambuck, or Cock fighting; and some
also apply themselves to other dishonest games, and less profitable
or useful: whereby the said realm is likely, in a short time, to
become destitute of archers.
We, willing to apply a seasonable remedy to this, command you, that
in places in the foresaid City, as well within the liberties as
without, where you shall see it expedient, you cause public
proclamation to be made, that every one of the said City, strong in
body, at leisure times on holidays, use in their recreations bows
and arrows, or pellets, or bolts, and learn and exercise the art of
shooting; forbidding all and singular on our behalf, that they do
not after any manner apply themselves to the throwing of stones,
wood, iron, hand-ball, foot-ball, bandy-ball, cambuck, or
cock-fighting, nor such other like vain plays, which have no profit
in them, or concern themselves therein, under pain of imprisonment.
Witness the King at Westminster, the twelfth day of
June (1365).
A LEASE TO GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1374).
Modern English poetry may be said to have begun in London. Chaucer was
born in London, was the descendant of a long line of Londoners, and
lived in London the greater part of his life. Many of his
contemporaries, including Gower, Occleve, and Lydgate, were connected
with London, and spent much of their time there.
Chaucer's father was a citizen and vintner of London, and owned a house
in Thames Street, close to Walbrook. Geoffrey Chaucer was in all
probability born in this house; it became his own property, and he
parted with it in 1380. Six years before this he acquired the lease of
the dwelling-house above the city-gate of Aldgate, on condition that he
kept it in good repair; he seems to have made this his usual residence
till 1385. In it he must have composed several of his poems, including
_The Parlement of Foules_, _The House of Fame_, and _Troilus_. He did
not commence the _Canterbury Tales_ until the following year.
=Source.=—Riley's _Memorials_, p. 377.
To all persons to whom this present writing indented shall come,
Adam de Bury, Mayor, the Aldermen, and the Commonalty of the City of
London, greeting. Know ye that we, with unanimous will and assent,
have granted and released by these presents unto Geoffrey Chaucer
the whole of the dwelling-house above the Gate of Aldgate, with the
rooms built over, and a certain cellar beneath, the same gate, on
the South side of that gate, and the appurtenances thereof; to have
and to hold the whole of the house aforesaid, with the rooms so
built over, and the said cellar, and the appurtenances thereof, unto
the aforesaid Geoffrey, for the whole life of him, the same
Geoffrey. And the said Geoffrey shall maintain and repair the whole
of the house aforesaid, and the rooms thereof, so often as shall be
requisite, in all things necessary thereto, competently and
sufficiently, at the expense of the same Geoffrey, throughout the
whole life of him, the same Geoffrey. And it shall be lawful for the
Chamberlain of the Guildhall of London, for the time being, so often
as he shall see fit to enter the house and rooms aforesaid, with
their appurtenances, to see that the same are well and competently,
and sufficiently, maintained and repaired, as aforesaid. And if the
said Geoffrey shall not have maintained or repaired the aforesaid
house and rooms competently and sufficiently, as is before stated,
within forty days after the time when by the same Chamberlain he
shall have been required to do so, it shall be lawful for the said
Chamberlain wholly to oust the before-named Geoffrey therefrom, and
to re-seise and resume the same house, rooms, and cellar, with their
appurtenances, into the hand of the City, to the use of the
Commonalty aforesaid; and to hold the same in their former state to
the use of the same Commonalty, without any gainsaying whatsoever
thereof. And it shall not be lawful for the said Geoffrey to let the
house, rooms, and cellar, aforesaid, or any part thereof, or his
interest therein, to any person whatsoever. And we, the Mayor,
Aldermen, and Commonalty aforesaid, will not cause any gaol to be
made thereof, for the safe-keeping of prisoners therein, during the
life of the said Geoffrey; but we and our successors will warrant
the same house, rooms, and cellar, with their appurtenances unto the
before-named Geoffrey, for the whole life of him, the said Geoffrey,
in form aforesaid: this however excepted, that in time of defence of
the city aforesaid, so often as it shall be necessary, it shall be
lawful for us and our successors to enter the said house and rooms,
and to order and dispose of the same, for such time, and in such
manner, as shall then seem to us to be most expedient. And after the
decease of the same Geoffrey, the house, rooms and cellar aforesaid,
with their appurtenances, shall wholly revert unto us and our
successors. In witness whereof, as well the Common Seal of the City
aforesaid as the seal of the said Geoffrey, have been to these
present indentures interchangeably appended.
Given in the Chamber of the Guildhall of the city
aforesaid, the 10th day of May, in the 48th year
of the reign of King Edward, after the Conquest
the Third.
THE CITY ARMS (1375).
Beneath Pierce's statue of Walworth in Fishmongers' Hall is an
inscription:
"Brave Walworth, Knight, Lord Mayor, y^t slew
Rebellious Tyler in his alarmes;
The King, therefore, did give in liew
The dagger to the City armes.
"In the 4th year of Richard II., Anno Domini 1381."
It seems that it has always been a popular belief that the weapon
represented in the arms of the City is "Walworth's dagger"; but, as Stow
points out, it is intended to represent the sword of St. Paul, who was
the patron saint of this Corporation.
=Source.=—Stow's _Survey_, p. 222.
It hath also been, and is now grown to a common opinion, that in
reward of this service done, by the said William Walworth against
the rebel, King Richard added to the arms of this City, (which was
argent, a plain cross gules) a sword or dagger, (for so they term
it) whereof I have read no such record, but to the contrary. I find
that in the fourth year of Richard the second in a full assembly
made in the upper chamber of the Guildhall, summoned by this William
Walworth, then Mayor, as well of Aldermen as of the common Council
in every ward, for certain affairs concerning the king, it was there
by common consent agreed and ordained, that the old seal of the
office of the Mayoralty of the city being very small, old,
unsuitable, and uncomely for the honour of the city, should be
broken, and one other new should be had, which the said Mayor
commanded to be made artificially, and honourable for the exercise
of the said office thereafter in place of the other: in which new
Seal, besides the images of Peter, and Paul, which of old were
rudely engraven, there should be under the feet of the said images,
a shield of the arms of the said City perfectly graved, with two
lions supporting the same with two sergeants of arms, on either part
one, and two tabernacles, in which above should stand two Angels,
between whom above the said images of Peter and Paul, shall be set
the glorious virgin: this being done, the old seal of the office was
delivered to Richard Odiham Chamberlain, who brake it, and in place
thereof, was delivered the new seal to the said Mayor to use in his
office of Mayoralty, as occasion should require. This new seal
seemeth to be made before William Walworth was knighted, for he is
not here entitled Sir, as afterwards he was: and certain it is that
the same new seal then made, is now in use and none other in that
office of the Mayoralty, which may suffice to answer the former
fable, without shewing of any evidence sealed with the old seal,
which was the Cross, and sword of Saint Paul, and not the dagger of
William Walworth.
WAT TYLER IN LONDON (1381).
Froissart's description of the Peasants' Revolt is one of our main
sources of information concerning this important event, and seems likely
to be fairly accurate. He himself was, of course, an aristocrat, and was
in no way disposed to be favourable to the "wicked rebels"; but he seems
anxious to represent their case as fairly as possible, although he is
plainly out of sympathy with the ideas and arguments of the rebels. It
is noteworthy that the rising was almost simultaneous in many parts of
the country, but its chief headquarters were in Kent, one of the most
prosperous counties in the kingdom, where actual distress was least
likely to be prevalent; and it is probable that the peasants in this
county had benefited to no small extent by the economic changes which
succeeded the Pestilence of 1349, and had improved both their material
conditions and their intellectual outlook. The ideas of liberty which
formed the motive of the revolt were somewhat vague, but were
strengthened by numerous concrete instances of injustice and injury; and
the concentration of the insurgents upon London forms one of a long
series of indications of the importance of the city as the determining
factor in vital issues.
=Source.=—Froissart's _Chroniques_.
In the mean season there fell in England great mischief and
rebellion of the common people, by which deed England was at a point
to have been lost without recovery....
It was a marvellous thing, and of poor foundation, that this
mischief began in England, and to give ensample to all manner of
people, I will speak thereof as it was done, as I was informed, and
of the incidents thereof. There was an usage in England, and yet is
in divers countries, that the noblemen have great franchises over
the commons, and keep them in servage, that is to say, their tenants
ought by custom to labour their lords' lands, to gather and bring
home their corn, and some to thresh and to fan, and by servage to
make their hay and to hew their wood and bring it home. All these
things they ought to do by servage, and there be more of these
people in England than in any other realm. Thus the noblemen and
prelates are served by them, and specially in the counties of Kent,
Essex, Sussex, and Bedford. These unhappy people of these said
counties began to stir, because they said they were being kept in
great servage, and in the beginning of the world, they said, there
were no bondmen, wherefore they maintained that none ought to be
bond, without he did treason to his lord, as Lucifer did to God....
And of this imagination was a foolish priest in the county of Kent,
called John Ball, for which foolish words he had been three times in
the Bishop of Canterbury's prison: for this priest used oftentimes
on the Sundays, after mass, when the people were going out of the
minster, to go into the cloister and preach, and made the people to
assemble about him, and would say thus: "Ah, ye good people, the
matters goeth not well to pass in England, nor shall not do till
everything be common, and that there be no villains nor gentlemen,
but that we may be all united together, and that the lords be no
greater masters than we be. What have we deserved, or why should we
be kept thus in servage? We be all come from one father and from one
mother, Adam and Eve: whereby can they say or show that they be
greater lords than we be, saving by that they cause us to win and
labour for that they dispend.
"They are clothed in velvet and camlet furred with grise, and we be
vestured with poor cloth: they have their wines, spices, and good
bread, and we have the rye, the bran, and the straw, and drink
water: they dwell in fair houses, and we have pain and travail, rain
and wind in the fields: and by that that cometh of our labours they
keep and maintain their estates: we be all called their bondmen,
and, without we do readily them service, we be beaten: and we have
no sovereign to whom we may complain, nor that will hear us, nor do
us right. Let us go to the king, he is young, and show him what
servage we be in, and show him how we will have it otherwise, or
else we will provide us of some remedy; and if we go together, all
manner of people that be now in any bondage will follow us to the
intent to be made free; and when the king seeth us, we shall have
some remedy, either by fairness or otherwise."
Thus John Ball said on Sundays, when the people issued out of the
churches in the villages: wherefore many of the mean people loved
him, and such as intended to no goodness said, how true; and so they
would murmur one with another in the fields, and in the ways as they
went together, affirming how John Ball said truth.
Of his words and deeds there was much people in London informed,
such as had great envy at them that were rich and such as were
noble; and then they began to speak among them, and said how the
realm of England was right evil governed, and how that gold and
silver was taken from them by them that were named noblemen: so thus
these unhappy men of London began to rebel, and assembled them
together, and sent word to the foresaid counties that they should
come to London, and bring their people with them, promising them how
they should find London open to receive them, and the commons of the
city to be of the same accord, saying how they would do so much to
the king that there should not be one bondman in all England.
This promise moved so them of Kent, of Essex, of Sussex, of Bedford,
and of the counties about, that they rose and came towards London to
the number of 60,000. And they had a captain called Walter Tyler,
and with him in company was Jack Straw and John Ball: these three
were chief sovereign captains, but the head of all was Walter Tyler,
and he was indeed a tiler of houses, an ungracious patron. When
these unhappy men began thus to stir, they of London, except such as
were of their band, were greatly affrayed. Then the Mayor of London
and the rich men of the city took counsel together, and when they
saw the people thus coming in on every side, they caused the gates
of the city to be closed, and would suffer no man to enter into the
city. But when they had well imagined, they advised not so to do,
for they thought they should thereby put their suburbs in great
peril to be brent; and so they opened again the city, and there
entered in at the gates in some places a hundred, two hundred, by
twenty or thirty; and so when they came to London, they entered and
lodged: and yet, of truth, most of their people could not tell what
to ask or demand, but followed each other like beasts. In like wise
these villains and poor people came to London, a hundred miles off,
sixty mile, fifty mile, forty mile, and twenty mile off, and from
all counties about London, but the most part came from the counties
before named, and as they came they demanded ever for the king.
The gentlemen of the counties, knights and squires, began to doubt
when they saw the people began to rebel; so the gentlemen drew
together as well as they might.
This rebellion was well known in the king's court ere any of these
people began to stir out of their houses; but the king nor his
council did provide no remedy therefor, which was great marvel.
In the morning on Corpus Christi Day King Richard heard mass in the
Tower of London, and all his lords, and then he took his barge with
the Earl of Salisbury, the Earl of Warwick, the Earl of Oxford, and
certain knights, and so rowed down along the Thames to Rotherhithe,
where were descended down the hill 10,000 men to see the king and
speak with him. And when they saw the king's barge coming, they
began to shout, and made such a cry, as though all the devils of
hell had been among them. And they had brought with them Sir John
Newton, to the intent that, if the king had not come, they would
have stricken him all to pieces, and so they had promised him. And
when the king and his lords saw the demeanour of the people, the
best assured of them were in dread; and so the king was counselled
by his barons not to take any landing there, but so rowed on down
the river. And the king demanded of them what they would, and said
how he was come thither to speak with them, and they said all with
one voice: "We would that ye should come aland, and then we shall
show you what we lack." Then the Earl of Salisbury answered for the
king, and said: "Sirs, ye be not in such order nor array that the
king ought to speak with you." And so with these words no more was
said: and then the king was counselled to return to the Tower of
London, and so he did.