King in the City of London, in the office of Alderman in the Ward of
N, wherein you are chosen Alderman, and shall lawfully treat and
inform the people of the same Ward of such things as unto them
pertain to do, for keeping the City, and for maintaining the peace
within the City; and that the laws, usages, and franchises of the
said City you shall keep and maintain, within town and without,
according to your wit and power. And that attentive you shall be to
save and maintain the rights of orphans, according to the laws and
usages of the said City. And that ready you shall be, and readily
shall come, at the summons and warning of the Mayor and ministers of
the said City, for the time being, to speed the Assizes, Pleas, and
Judgments of the Hustings, and other needs of the said City, if you
be not hindered by the needs of our lord the King, or by other
reasonable cause; and that good lawful counsel you shall give for
such things as touch the common profit in the same City. And that
you shall sell no manner of victuals by retail; that is to say,
bread, ale, wine, fish or flesh, by you, your apprentices, hired
servants, or by any other; nor profit shall you take of any such
manner of victuals sold during your office. And that well and
lawfully you shall (behave) yourself in the said office, and in
other things touching the City. So God you help, and the Saints.
JACK CADE IN LONDON (1450).
The rebellion headed by Cade was a manifestation of discontent at the
incompetence of the Government. An expensive and unsuccessful war had
been carried on in France, and there was very little disposition in
England to aid the inadequate resources of the royal treasury, or to
relieve the King from the load of debt which had been contracted. The
King's Ministers were forced to have recourse to arbitrary measures, and
the affections of the people were completely estranged. Cade was able,
by holding out the prospect of redress of grievances, to collect about
him a formidable body of malcontents. They were admitted into the City,
where at first they conducted themselves with comparative moderation;
but very soon indications of violence showed themselves, and the
citizens realised their danger and were able to hold the rebels at bay
until, dispirited by the opposition which they encountered, they
dispersed.
=Source.=—Hall's _Chronicle_.
The captain being advised of the King's absence, came first into
Southwark, and there lodged at the White Hart, prohibiting to all
men, Murder, Rape, or Robbery: by which colour he allured to him the
hearts of the common people. But after that he entered into London,
and cut the ropes of the drawbridge, sticking his sword on London
stone, saying: Now is Mortimer lord of this city, and rode in every
street like a lordly Captain. And after a flattering declaration
made to the Mayor of the city of his thither coming, he departed
again to Southwark. And upon the third day of July, he caused Sir
James Fynes, Lord Say, and Treasurer of England, to be brought to
the Guildhall of London, and there to be arraigned: which being
before the King's justices put to answer, desired to be tried by his
peers, for the longer delay of his life.
The captain perceiving his dilatory plea, by force took him from the
officers, and brought him to the standard in Cheape, and there
before his confession ended, caused his head to be cut off, and
pitched it on a high pole, which was openly borne before him through
the streets. And this cruel tyrant not content with the murder of
the Lord Say, went to Mile end, and there apprehended Sir James
Cromer, then sheriff of Kent, and son in law to the said Lord Say,
and him without confession or excuse heard, caused there likewise to
be beheaded, and his head to be fixed on a pole, and with these two
heads, this bloody butcher entered into the city again, and in
despite caused them in every street to kiss together, to the great
detestation of all the beholders.
After this shameful murder, succeeded open rapine and manifest
robbery in divers houses within the City, and in especial in the
house of Philip Malpas, Alderman of London, and divers others: over
and beside ransoming, and fining of divers notable merchants, for
the security of their lives and goods, as Robert Horne alderman, who
paid 500 marks, and yet neither he, nor any other person was either
of life or substance in a surety or safeguard. He also put to
execution in Southwark divers persons, some for infringing his rules
and precepts, because he would be seen indifferent, others he
tormented of his old acquaintance, lest they should blaze and
declare his base birth, and lousy lineage, disparaging him from his
usurped surname of Mortimer, for the which, he thought and doubted
not, both to have friends and fautors, both in London, Kent, and
Essex. The wise Mayor, and sage magistrates of the City of London,
perceiving themselves neither to be sure of goods nor of life well
warranted, determined with fear to repel and expulse this
mischievous head, and his ungracious company. And because the Lord
Scales was ordained Keeper of the Tower of London, with Matthew
Gough, the often named captain in Normandy, (as you have heard
before), they purposed to make them acquainted both of their intent
and enterprise. The Lord Scales promised them his aid, with shooting
of ordinance, and Matthew Gough was by him appointed to assist the
Mayor and the Londoners; because he was both of manhood, and
experience greatly renowned and noised. So the Captains of the City
appointed, took upon them in the night to keep the bridge of London,
prohibiting the Kentish men, either to pass or approach. The rebels,
which never soundly slept, for fear of sudden chances, hearing the
bridge to be kept and manned, ran with great haste to open their
passage, where between both parties was a fierce and cruel
encounter. Matthew Gough, more expert in martial feats than the
other chieftains of the City, perceiving the Kentish men better to
stand to their tackling than his imagination expected, advised his
company no further to proceed, toward Southwark, till the day
appeared: to the intent, that the citizens hearing where the place
of the jeopardy rested, might occur their enemies, and relieve their
friends and companions. But this counsel came to small effect: for
the multitude of the rebels drave the citizens from the staples at
the bridge foot, to the draw bridge, and began to set fire in divers
houses. Alas what sorrow it was to behold that miserable chance: for
some desiring to eschew the fire, leapt on his enemies weapon, and
so died; fearful women with children in their arms, amazed and
appalled, leapt into the river: others doubting how to save
themselves between fire, water, and sword, were in their houses
suffocated and smouldered. Yet the Captains nothing regarding these
chances, fought on the draw bridge all the night valiantly, but in
conclusion, the rebels held the draw bridge, and drowned many, and
slew John Sutton alderman, and Robert Heysande a hardy citizen, with
many other, beside Matthew Gough, a man of great wit, much
experience in feats of chivalry, the which in continual wars, had
valiantly served the King and his father, in the parts beyond the
sea (as before you have heard). But it is often seen that he, which
many times hath vanquished his enemies in strange countries, and
returned again as a conqueror, hath of his own nation afterward been
shamefully murdered, and brought to confusion. This hard and sore
conflict endured on the bridge, till 9 o'clock in the morning, in
doubtful chance, and fortunes balance: for some time the Londoners
were beaten back to the stulpes at Saint Magnes corner, and suddenly
again the rebels were repulsed and driven back, to the stulpes in
Southwark, so that both parties, being faint, weary and fatigued,
agreed to desist from fight, and to leave battle till the next day,
upon condition: that neither Londoners should pass into Southwark,
nor the Kentishmen into London.
After this abstinence of war agreed, the lusty Kentish Captain,
hoping on more friends, broke up the gaols of the Kings Bench and
Marshalsea, and set at liberty a swarm of galants, both meet for his
service and apt for his enterprise. The Archbishop of Canterbury,
being then Chancellor of England, and for his surety lying in the
Tower of London, called to him the Bishop of Winchester, which also
for fear, lurked at Halywell. These two prelates seeing the fury of
the Kentish people, by reason of their beating back, to be mitigate
and minished, passed the River of Thames from the Tower, into
Southwark, bringing with them under the King's great seal, a general
pardon unto all the offenders: which they caused to be openly
proclaimed and published. Lord how glad the poor people were of this
pardon (the more than of the Jubilee of Rome) and how they accepted
the same, in so much that the whole multitude, without bidding
farewell to their captain, retired the same night, every man to his
own home, as men amazed, and stricken with fear.
But John Cade desperate of help, which by the friends of the duke of
York, were to him promised, and seeing his company thus without his
knowledge suddenly depart, mistrusting the sequel of the matter,
departed secretly in habit disguised into Sussex: but all his
metamorphoses or transfiguration little prevailed. For after a
Proclamation made, that whosoever could apprehend the aforesaid Jack
Cade should have for his pains a thousand marks, many sought for
him, but few espied him, till one Alexander Iden, esquire of Kent
found him in a garden, and there in his defence, manfully slew the
catiff Cade, and brought his dead body to London, whose head was set
on London Bridge. This is the success of all rebels, and this
fortune chanceth ever to traitors. For where men strive against the
stream, their boat never cometh to his pretenced port.
THE MAYOR'S DIGNITY (1464).
One of the privileges of the Mayor which has been very jealously guarded
is that upon which is founded his claim to supremacy in the City; only
the Sovereign takes precedence, and from very early times the Mayors
have insisted upon this pre-eminence. It was not often that their right
was challenged in the City itself, but occasionally there was friction
concerning the Mayor's position in places which were supposed to be
outside his jurisdiction. The instance mentioned below is interesting,
as showing the importance which a fifteenth-century Mayor attached to
his office.
=Source.=—Gregory's _Chronicle_.
Thys yere (1464) abute mydsomyr, at the royalle feste of the
Sargentys of the Coyfe, the Mayre of London was desyride to be at
that feste. And at denyr time he come to the feste with his
offecers, agreyng and acordyng to hys degre. For withyn London he ys
next unto the Kyng in all maner thynge. And in tyme of waschynge the
Erle of Worseter was take before the mayre and sette down in the
myddis of the hy tabelle. And the mayre seynge that hys place was
occupyd hylde hym contente, and went home agayne with-out mete or
drynke or any thonke, but rewarde hym he dyd as hys dygnyte requyred
of the cytte. And toke with hym the substance of hys bretheryn the
aldyrmen to his place, and were sette and servyd also sone as any
man couthe devyse, bothe of sygnet and of othyr delycatys i-nowe,
that alle the howse mervelyd howe welle alle tynge was done in soo
schorte a tyme, and prayde alle men to be mery and gladde hit shulde
be a-mendyd a-nothyr tyme.
Thenn the offesers of the feste, fulle evylle a-schamyd, informyd
the maysters of the feste of thys mysse-happe that ys be-falle. And
they consyderynge the grete dygnyte and costys and change that
longgyd unto the cytte, and anon sende unto the mayre a present of
mete, brede, wyne, and many dyvers sotelteys. But whenn they that
come with the presentys saw alle the gyftys, and the sarvyse that
was at the borde, he was fulle sore a-schamyd that shulde doo the
massage, for the present was not better thenn the servyse of metys
was byfore the mayre, and thoroughe-owte the hyghe tabylle. But hys
demenynge was soo that he hadde love and thonke for hys massage, and
a grette rewarde with-alle. And thys the worschippe of the cytte was
kepte, and not loste for hym. I truste that nevyr hyt shalle, by the
grace of God.
REGULATIONS CONCERNING STRANGERS (1485).
These regulations are taken from Henry VII.'s charter, which cost the
citizens no less than five thousand marks. The main object of the
charter was to protect the City from the encroachments of foreigners and
strangers, who appear to have been unusually active about this time in
their attempts to gain a footing in the rapidly expanding trade of
London. Their efforts met with great hostility on the part of the
citizens, and these enactments are indicative of the general attitude of
the Londoners towards strangers either from other towns or from across
the sea.
=Source.=—From the Charter of Henry VII.
Of all time, of which the memory of man is not to the contrary, for
the commonweal of the realm and city aforesaid, it hath been used,
and by authority of parliament approved and confirmed, that no
stranger from the liberty of the city may buy or sell, from any
stranger from the liberties of the same city, any merchandise or
wares within the liberties of the same city, upon forfeiture of the
same. The said mayor and commonalty, and citizens, and their
predecessors by all the time aforesaid, have had and received, and
have been accustomed to receive, perceive, and have, to the use of
the said mayor, commonalty, and citizens, all and all manner of
merchandises and wares bought and sold within the liberties of the
same city as aforesaid, and forfeitures of the same merchandises and
wares, until of late past time they were troubled or molested.
The same lord Henry the seventh, by his letters patent as aforesaid,
for pacifying and taking away from henceforth controversies and
ambiguities in that behalf, and to fortify and by express words to
explain and declare the liberty and custom aforesaid to them the
said mayor and commonalty and citizens, and their heirs and
successors, and willing the said liberties to be peaceably and
quietly had, possessed, and enjoyed to the said mayor and commonalty
and citizens, and their successors, with the forfeitures aforesaid,
against the said late lord King Henry, his heirs and successors
granted, and by his said charter confirmed to the same mayor and
commonalty and citizens, and their successors, that no stranger from
the liberties of the same city may buy or sell from any other
stranger to the liberty of the same city, any merchandises or wares
within the liberties of the same city; and if any stranger to the
liberty of the same city shall sell or buy any merchandises or wares
within the liberty of the same city of any other stranger to the
liberty of the same city, that the same mayor, commonalty and
citizens, and their successors, may have, hold, and receive all and
all manner of such like merchandises and wares, so bought and to be
bought, sold or to be sold, within the liberty of the said city,
between whatsoever strangers to the liberty of the same city, as
forfeited; and all the forfeitures of the same, and also the
penalties, fines, and redemptions whatsoever anyways forfeited, lost
or to be lost, or to be forfeited or due thereon, to the use and
profit of the same mayor and commonalty and citizens, and their
heirs and successors, without hindrance of the same late king, his
heirs or successors, and without any account or any other thing to
be rendered or paid thereof to the late king, his heirs and
successors, any statute, act, or ordinance of us or our progenitors
made to the contrary notwithstanding; although the same mayor and
commonalty, and citizens of the said city, or their predecessors,
have before that time used, abused, or not used those customs and
liberties: Saving always, that the great men, lords, and nobles, and
other English and strangers, of what condition they shall be, may
freely buy whatsoever merchandises in gross for their families and
proper uses within the liberties of the said city, without any
forfeiture, loss, or hindrance whatsoever, so that they do not sell
again the said merchandises to any other.
And further, the same late king, of his ample grace, by his said
letters patent, amongst other things, did give and grant to the
mayor, commonalty, and citizens of the same city of London, and
their successors, the office of gauger within the said city, and the
disposing, ordering, surveying, and correcting of the same, to have,
hold, exercise, and occupy the said office, and other premises, with
all fees, profits, and emoluments to the said office in any manner
belonging or appertaining, to the same mayor and commonalty, and
citizens, by themselves, or by their sufficient deputy or deputies,
from the twenty-second day of August, in the first year of his
reign, for ever, without any account to be made thereof, or any
other thing rendering or paying to the said lord Henry the seventh,
his heirs or successors, as by the said letters patent doth more
plainly appear.
THE MARCHING WATCH (1510).
The Marching Watch was a kind of annual military muster of the citizens,
embodying all the companies, for the purpose of forming a regular guard
for the City during the ensuing year. The contest for magnificence on
the occasion described in the following extract created an expense so
great and detrimental that Henry VIII. prohibited the show, and confined
the citizens to the proper object of the assembly. It was afterwards
revived on a more economical plan, and continued under the name of the
"Standing Watch," till the force was finally superseded by the City
Trained Bands.
=Source.=—Stow's _Survey_, p. 102.
Besides the standing watches all in bright harness, in every ward
and street in this city and suburbs, there was also a marching watch
that passed through the principal streets thereof, to wit, from the
little conduit by Paul's gate to West Cheap, by the stocks through
Cornhill by Leadenhall to Aldgate, then back down Fenchurch Street
by Grace Church, about Grace church conduit and up Gracechurch
Street into Cornhill, and through it into West Cheap again, and so
broke up. The whole way ordered for this marching watch extendeth to
three thousand two hundred taylor's yards of assize; for the
furniture whereof with lights, there were appointed seven hundred
cressets, five hundred of them being found by the Companies, the
other two hundred by the Chamber of London.
Besides the which lights every constable in London, in number more
than two hundred and forty, had his cresset; the charge of every
cresset was in light two shillings and fourpence, and every cresset
had two men, one to bear or hold in, another to bear a bag with
light, and to serve it, so that the poor men pertaining to the
cressets, taking wages, besides that every one had a straw hat, with
a badge painted, and his breakfast, amounted in number to almost two
thousand. The marching watch contained in number about two thousand
men, part of them being old soldiers, of skill to be captains,
lieutenants, serjeants, corporals, etc., wiflers, drummers, and
fifes, standard and ensign bearers, demilances on great horses,
gunners with hand guns, or half hakes, archers in coats of white
fustian, signed on the breast and back with the arms of the city,
their bows bent in their hands, with sheafs of arrows by their
sides; pikemen in bright corslets, burganets, etc. halbards, the
like the billmen in almain rivets, and aprons of mail in great
number. There were also divers pageants, morris dancers, constables,
the one-half which was one hundred and twenty on Saint John's Eve,
the other half on St. Peter's Eve, in bright harness, some over
gilt, and every one a jornet of scarlet thereupon, and a chain of
gold, his henchman following him, his minstrels before him, and his
cresset light passing by him, the waits of the city, the Mayor's
officers for his guard before him, all in a livery worsted, or sea
jackets parti-coloured, the Mayor himself well mounted on horseback,
the sword-bearer before him in fair armour well mounted also, the
Mayor's footmen, and the like torch bearers about him, henchmen
twain upon great stirring horses following him. The Sheriffs'
watches came one after the other in like order, but not so large in
number as the Mayor's; for where the Mayor had, besides his giant,
three pageants, each of the Sheriffs had, besides their giants, but
two pageants; each their morris dance, and one henchman, their
officers in jackets of worsted or sea, parti-coloured, differing
from the Mayor's and each from other, but having harnessed men a
great many.
This midsummer watch was thus accustomed yearly, time out of mind,
until the year 1539, the 31st of Henry VIII., in which year, on the
8th of May, a great muster was made by the citizens at the Mile's
End, all in bright harness, with coats of white silk; or cloth and
chains of gold, in three great battels, to the number of fifteen
thousand, which passed through London to Westminster, and so through
the Sanctuary, and round about the Park of St. James, and returned
home through Oldborne. King Henry, then considering the great
charges of the citizens for the furniture of this unusual muster,
forbad the Marching watch provided for at midsummer for that year;
which being once laid down, was not raised again till the year 1548,
the 2nd of Edward VI., Sir John Gresham then being Mayor, who caused
the marching watch, both on the eve of St. John Baptist and of St.
Peter the Apostle, to be revived and set forth in as comely order as
it hath been accustomed, which watch was also beautified by the
number of more than three hundred demilances and light horsemen,
prepared by the citizens to be sent into Scotland for the rescue of
the town of Haddington, and others kept by the Englishmen.
DESTRUCTION OF FENCES ABOUT THE
CITY (1514).
It has already been noticed that the City was surrounded by
ecclesiastical manors in the time of Domesday, and this was still the
case at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It would appear from the
following extract that the practice of enclosure, which at this time was
being extensively adopted in many parts of England, was being attempted
in the neighbourhood of London itself, greatly to the disgust of the
Londoners, who naturally resented the proposed restrictions on their
accustomed liberty.
=Source.=—Hall's _Chronicle_.
Before this time the towns about London as Islington, Hoxton,
Shoreditch and other, had so enclosed the common fields with hedges
and ditches, that neither the young men of the city might shoot, nor
the ancient persons might walk for their pleasure in the fields
except either their bows and arrows were broken or taken away, or
the honest and substantial persons arrested or indited, saying that
no Londoner should go out of the city but in the highways. This
saying sore grieved the Londoners, and suddenly this year a great
number of the city assembled themselves in a morning, and a turner
in a fool's coat came crying in the city, Shovels and spades, and so
many people followed that it was wonder, and within a short space
all the hedges about the towns were cast down, and the ditches
filled, and every thing made plain, the workmen were so diligent.
The King's Council hearing of this assembly came to the Gray Friars,
and sent for the mayor and the council of the city to know the
cause, which declared to them the nusiance done to the Citizens, and
their commodities and liberties taken from them, though they would
not yet the commonalty and young persons which were dampnified by
the nusiance would pluck up and remedy the same. And when the King's
council had heard the answer, they dissimuled the matter and
commanded the Mayor to see that no other thing were attempted, and
to call home the citizens, which when they had done their
enterprise, came home before the King's council and the Mayor
departed without any more harm doing, and so after, the fields were
never hedged.
MORE'S DESCRIPTION OF LONDON (1517).
Although the City of Amaurote in "Utopia" is not to be identified
exactly with London, it seems very likely that More had London in his
mind while he was writing this description, which is generally regarded
as drawn, to some extent, from the capital as it was in his day.
=Source.=—More's _Utopia_.