connected with London Bridge; and you are to remember that we are yet
in the reign of King Henry VI., though we have mentioned a multitude of
dates since the commencement of our digression: and the next event in
its Chronicles, relates to the destruction of a considerable portion of
it in the year 1437. I have already cited to you some of the writings
of William of Worcester, and in another work of which he was also
the author, entitled ‘_Annales Rerum Anglicarum_,’ he gives a slight
notice of this event, which you will find in the edition printed in
Hearne’s ‘_Liber Niger_,’ volume ii. page 458, taken from an autograph
manuscript in the Library of the College of Arms. The best accounts,
however, are furnished by Fabyan, on page 433, of his Chronicle, and by
Stow in his ‘_Annals_,’ page 376. From these we learn that on Monday,
January the 14th, the Great Stone Gate, and Tower standing upon it,
next Southwark, fell suddenly down into the River, with two of the
fairest arches of the same Bridge: ‘and yet,’ adds the habitually
pious Stow, ‘no man perished in body, which was a great worke of God.’
“In the year 1440, the Annals of London Bridge became again interwoven
with the great historical events of the kingdom, which impart such
dignity to its own records, inasmuch as the Bridge-Street, by which is
meant as well the passage over the Thames as the main street beyond it
on each side, was one scene of the public penance of Eleanor Cobham,
Duchess of Gloucester, for Witchcraft. The inflexible honesty of
the Duke, who was Protector of England during the minority of Henry
VI., and presumptive heir to the crown, had created a violent party
against him, the heads of which were Cardinal Henry Beaufort, Bishop
of Winchester, and William de la Pole, first Duke of Suffolk. With
regard to his Sovereign, however, not all the spies, which were placed
about Humphrey Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, by these powerful
and inveterate enemies, could find even a pretence for the slightest
charge; though that which they were unable to discover in him, they
found in his Duchess, who was then accused of Witchcraft and High
Treason: it being asserted that she had frequent conferences with one
Sir Roger Bolinbroke, a Priest, who was supposed to be a necromancer,
and Margaret Jourdain, a witch, of Eye, near Westminster; assisted
and advised by John Hum, a Priest, and Thomas Southwell, Priest, and
Canon of St. Stephen’s, Westminster. Shakspeare, in his ‘_Second Part
of Henry the Sixth_,’ Act i. Scenes 2 and 4, and Act ii. Scenes 1 and
4, has recorded several particulars of this circumstance; and makes
the Duchess ask some questions concerning the King’s fate; though she
was, in reality, charged with having his image made of wax, which,
being placed before a slow fire, should cause his strength to decay
as the wax melted. The result of the enquiry was, that Jourdain was
burned in Smithfield; Southwell died before his execution, in the
Tower; Bolingbroke was hanged, drawn, and quartered, at Tyburn; and, on
November the 9th, the Duchess was sentenced to perform public penance
at three open places in London. On Monday the 13th, therefore, she
came by water from Westminster, and, landing at the Temple-bridge,
walked, at noon-day, through Fleet-street, bearing a waxen taper of two
pounds weight to St. Paul’s, where she offered it at the High Altar.
On the Wednesday following she landed at the Old Swan, and passed
through Bridge-street and Grace-Church-street to Leadenhall, and at
Cree-Church, near Aldgate, made her second offering: and on the ensuing
Friday, she was put on shore at Queen-Hythe, whence she proceeded to
St. Michael’s Church, Cornhill, and so completed her penance. In each
of these processions her head was covered only by a kerchief, her feet
were bare; scrolls, containing a narrative of her crime, were affixed
to her white dress, and she was received and attended by the Mayor,
Sheriffs, and Companies of London.
“The leading features of these events are of course in all the numerous
volumes of English History, but for the more particular circumstances
I must refer you to Stow’s ‘_Annals_,’ pages 381, 382; to folio
lxiiii. a, of the Chronicle of Edward Hall, an eminent Lawyer who
died in 1547, and whose work is entitled ‘_The Vnion of the two Noble
Houses of Lancastre and Yorke_,’ London, 1550, folio; and, finally,
to the Harleian Manuscript No. 565, page 96 a. Of which latter most
curious work we now take leave, for soon after recording this event it
terminates imperfectly; though I may observe, that when speaking of the
fate of Roger Bolingbroke, on page 96 b, it adds, concerning him, that
the same day on which he was condemned at Guildhall, he ‘was drawe fro
y^e Tower of London to Tiborn and there hanged, hedyd, and quartered,
and his heed set up on London Bridge.’ His quarters were disposed of at
Hereford, Oxford, York, and Cambridge.
“In 1444, William de la Pole, whom I have just mentioned, was one
of the King’s Ambassadors in France, when, with his usual lofty and
impetuous spirit, he suddenly proposed a marriage between Henry VI.,
and Margaret, daughter of Réné, Duke of Anjou, and titular King of
Jerusalem, Sicily, Arragon, Valence, &c. without any instructions
from his Sovereign, or even acquainting his fellow-commissioners with
his design. Notwithstanding the Duke of Gloucester opposed this union
at the Council Board in England, yet the Earl managed his proposal
so skilfully, that he procured himself to be created a Duke, and
despatched into France to bring over the Queen: and on Thursday,
the 22nd of April, 1445, she was consequently married to Henry at
Tichfield Abbey, Southwick, in the County of Southampton. It was,
probably, in her way from Eltham Palace to Westminster, before her
Coronation, that she was greeted by the famous pageants prepared for
her on London Bridge, on Friday, the 28th of May; for you will remember
that she was crowned at Westminster Abbey, on Sunday, the 30th of
the month, by John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury. However it
might be, she was met at several places by many persons of rank, with
numerous attendants having their sleeves embroidered, or decorated in
the most costly manner, with badges of beaten goldsmith’s work; and
especially by the Duke of Gloucester, who received her with 500 men
habited in one livery. At Blackheath, according to custom, the Mayor,
Sheriffs, and Aldermen, clothed in scarlet, attended her with the
several City companies, all mounted and dressed in blue gowns, having
embroidered sleeves and red hoods: and in this manner Queen Margaret
and her followers were conducted through Southwark and the City, ‘then
beautified,’--says Stow in his ‘_Annals_,’ page 384, where he relates
all these particulars,--‘with pageants of diuers histories, and other
showes of welcome, maruellous costly and sumptuous.’ He gives, however,
but a very brief statement of them in his printed book; though in his
Manuscripts, several of which are extant in the Harleian Collection
in the British Museum, there are the very verses spoken to the Queen
on the Bridge, composed, as he says, by John Lydgate. The Manuscript
I allude to, is one to which I have already made a reference, being
No. 542, a small quarto volume written on antique paper, in Stow’s own
plain, but minute hand-writing. In this volume, therefore, article
16, on page 101 a, is entitled, ‘_The speches in the pagiaunts at y^e
cominge of Qwene Margaret wyfe to Henry the syxt of that name Kynge of
England, the 28th of Maye, 1445, y^e 23rd of his reigne_.’ The first
pageant, which was an allegorical representation of Peace and Plenty,
was erected at the foot of London Bridge, and the motto attached to
it was ‘_Ingredimini et replete Terram_,’--Enter ye and replenish the
earth,--taken from Genesis ix. according to the Vulgate Latin. The
verses addressed to Queen Margaret were as follow:--
‘Most Christian Princesse, by influence of grace,
Doughter of Jherusalem, owr plesáunce
And joie, welcome as ever Princess was,
With hert entier, and hoole affiáunce:
Cawser of welthe, ioye, and abundáunce,
Youre Citee, yowr people, your subgets all,
With hert, with worde, with dede, your highnesse to aváunce,
Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! vnto you call.’
“Upon the Bridge itself appeared a pageant representing Noah’s Ark,
bearing the words ‘_Jam non ultra irascar super terram_,’--Henceforth
there shall no more be a curse upon the earth,--Genesis viii. 21. and
the following verses were delivered before it:--
‘So trustethe your people, with assuráunce
Throwghe yowr grace, and highe benignitie.--
’Twixt the Realmes two, England and Fraunce,
Pees shall approche, rest and vnité:
Mars set asyde with all his crueltyé,
Whiche too longe hathe trowbled the Realmes twayne;
Bydynge yowr comforte, in this adversité,
Most Christian Princesse owr Lady Soverayne.
Right as whilom, by God’s myght and grace,
Noé this arké dyd forge and ordayne;
Wherein he and his might escape and passe
The flood of vengeaunce cawsed by trespasse:
Conveyed aboute as god list him to gye.
By meane of mercy found a restinge place
Aftar the flud, vpon this Armonie.
Vnto the Dove that browght the braunche of peas,--
Resemblinge yowr symplenesse columbyne,--
Token and signé that the flood shuld cesse,
Conducte by grace and power devyne;
Sonne of comfort ’gynneth faire to shine
By yowr presence whereto we synge and seyne
Welcome of ioye right extendet lyne
Moste Christian Princesse, owr Lady Sovereyne.’
“We shall here take our leave of the poet Lydgate, by whose descriptive
verses we have illustrated three splendid scenes in the history of
London Bridge; and I pray you, if it be but in gratitude for this
single circumstance, reject, as malignant and untrue, the character
given of him by Ritson, when he calls him a ‘voluminous, prosaick,
and drivelling Monk.’ Warton is not only more liberal, but more just,
in his estimate, when he says that ‘no poet had greater versatility
of talents, and that he moves with equal ease in every mode of
composition.’ He admits that he was naturally verbose and diffuse,
tedious and languid: but he asserts, also, that he had great excellence
in flowery description; that he increased the power of the English
language; and that he was the first of our writers whose style is
clothed with modern perspicuity. ‘His Muse was of universal access,’ he
continues, ‘and he was not only the poet of his monastery, but of the
world.’ Alike happy in composing a Masque, a Disguising, a May-game,
a Pageant, a Mummery, or a Carol, for Ritson’s list of his poems,
amounting to 251, embraces all these, and numerous other subjects.
“The year 1450 was made memorable by the daring insurrection of
Jack Cade and the commons of Kent, which arose, partly, out of the
popular belief that the Duke of Suffolk had caused the loss of a
great portion of France to the English Crown; and, partly, from the
pretensions of Richard, Duke of York, to the throne; in consequence
of the haughtiness, despotism, and usurpation of Queen Margaret, and
William De la Pole, her favourite. After some vain attempts to satisfy
the commons concerning the Duke of Suffolk, King Henry banished him
from the realm for five years; when after his embarkation his vessel
was chased by an English ship called the Nicholas, belonging to the
Constable of the Tower, by which it was captured, the Duke seized,
and his head struck off on the side of a boat in Dover-roads; after
which, it was carelessly cast with the body upon the sands. This
murder, however, did not restore quietness to England, for the Duke of
York being thus relieved from a powerful enemy, immediately proceeded
in his own designs upon the Crown. By his instigation, therefore,
one John Cade assumed the name of Sir John Mortimer, of the house
of March, who, in reality, had been beheaded in 1425, on a charge
of treason. Cade was a native of Ireland, and formerly a servant to
Sir Thomas Dacre, Knight, of Sussex; but having cruelly murdered a
pregnant woman, he took sanctuary, and forsware the kingdom. With
such a character, he began his work of reformation in Kent, in May,
1450; assuming also, as some tell us, the title of John Amendall, and
easily drew so many malcontents together, that, in a few days, he
was enabled to approach London, and to encamp with his rebel forces
upon Blackheath. When Henry marched against him, he retired into a
wood near Sevenoaks; where he remained, until the King, supposing
his followers dispersed, returned to London, and contented himself
with despatching after them a detachment of his army commanded by
Sir Humphrey Stafford; which division falling into the ambush, was
cut in pieces, and its leader slain. Elated by this success, Cade
again marched towards London, whilst Henry and his Court retreated to
Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire; leaving a garrison in the Tower,
under command of the Lord Scales. The rebels, however, now became
increased by multitudes, which joined them from all parts; and on
Wednesday, the 1st of July, Cade arrived in Southwark, where he lodged
at the Hart, for, says Alderman Fabyan, in his ‘_Chronicle_,’ from whom
Stow almost verbally copies this story, ‘he might not be suffered to
enter the Citie.’ Jack Cade, however, had but too many friends within
the gates of London. The Commons of Essex were already in arms, and
were mustered in a field at Mile-end; and upon a discussion in the
Court of Common-Council on the propriety of admitting the rebels over
the Bridge, the loyal-hearted Alderman Robert Horne so incensed the
populace, by speaking warmly against the motion, that they were not
reduced to order until he was committed to Newgate. About five o’clock
then, on the afternoon of Thursday, July 2nd, London stained her Annals
by opening the Bridge-gates to Cade, and his rabble rout. As he crossed
the Draw-bridge, he cut with his sword the ropes which supported it;
and on entering into the City, so beguiled the inhabitants, and even
Nicholas Wilford, or Wyfold, the Lord Mayor, that he procured a free
communication between his followers and London, though he himself again
withdrew to his lodging in Southwark.
“In Shakspeare’s vivid scenes of this rebellion, in his ‘_Second Part
of King Henry the Sixth_,’ Act iv., Scene 4th, a messenger tells King
Henry,--
‘Jack Cade hath gotten London Bridge; the Citizens
Fly and forsake their houses:’--
and in the next scene a Citizen says, ‘they have won the Bridge,
killing all that withstand them.’ In Scene 6th, Cade cries, ‘Go and
set London-Bridge on fire;’ and Edmund Malone, in his note upon this
passage, tells us, what we certainly cannot find by any other history,
that ‘at that time London Bridge was built of _wood_;’ adding, from
Hall, that ‘the houses on London Bridge were, in this rebellion,
burnt, and many of the inhabitants perished.’ This note you may see
in the Variorum edition of ‘_Shakspeare’s Plays_,’ by Isaac Reed,
London, 1803, 8vo., volume xiii., page 341. London Bridge, however,
was not even yet entirely captured, and two robberies which Cade had
committed in the City, speedily roused the wealthier inhabitants to a
sense of his outrage, and their own danger. Whereupon, ‘what do they,’
as honest John Bunyan says of the Captains in Mansoul, ‘but like so
many Samsons shake themselves?’ and send unto the Lord Scales, and
the valiant Matthew Gough, at the Tower, for assistance. The latter
of these commanders was appointed to aid the City, whilst the former
supported him with a frequent discharge of ordnance; and on the night
of Sunday, July 5th, Cade being then in Southwark, the City Captains,
the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of London mounted guard upon the
Bridge. ‘The rebelles,’ says Hall in his ‘_Chronicle_,’ folio lxxviii.
a, which contains the best version of the story,--‘the rebelles, which
neuer soundly slepte, for feare of sodayne chaunces, hearing the Bridge
to be kept and manned, ran with greate haste to open the passage,
where betwene bothe partes was a ferce and cruell encounter. Matthew
Gough, more experte in marciall feates than the other Cheuetaynes of
the Citie, perceiuing the Kentishmen better to stand to their tacklyng
than his ymagination expected, aduised his company no farther to
procede toward Southwarke, till the day appered; to the entent, that
the Citizens hearing where the place of the ieopardye rested, might
occurre their enemies and releue their frendes and companions. But this
counsail came to smal effect: for the multitude of the rebelles drave
the Citizens from the stoulpes,’--wooden piles,--‘at the Bridge foote,
to the Drawe-bridge, and began to set fyre in diuers houses. Alas! what
sorow it was to beholde that miserable chaunce: for some desyringe
to eschew the fyre lept on hys enemies weapon, and so died: fearfull
women, with chyldren in their armes, amased and appalled lept into the
riuer; other, doubtinge how to saue them self betwene fyre, water, and
swourd, were in their houses suffocate and smoldered, yet the Captayns
nothyng regarding these chaunces, fought on this Draw-Bridg all the
nyghte valeauntly, but in conclusion the rebelles gat the Draw-Bridge
and drowned many, and slew John Sutton, Alderman, and Robert Heysande,
a hardy Citizen, with many other, besyde Matthew Gough, a man of greate
wit, much experience in feates of chiualrie, the which in continuall
warres had valeauntly serued the King, and his father, in the partes
beyond the sea. But it is often sene, that he which many tymes hath
vanquyshed his enemies in straunge countreys, and returned agayn as a
conqueror, hath of his owne nation afterward been shamfully murdered
and brought to confusion. This hard and sore conflict endured on the
Bridge till ix. of the clocke in the mornynge in doubtfull chaunce and
Fortune’s balaunce: for some tyme the Londoners were bet back to the
stulpes at Sainct Magnes Corner; and sodaynly agayne the rebelles were
repulsed and dryuen back to the stulpes in Southwarke, so that both
partes beynge faynte, wery, and fatygate, agreed to desist from fight,
and to leue battayll till the next day, vpon condition that neyther
Londoners shoulde passe into Southwarke, nor the Kentish men into
London.’ William Rastall, who produced his curious Chronicle, called
‘_The Pastimes of People_,’ in the year 1529, adds to this account,
that ‘the Kentysshemen brent the Brydge;’ see page 265 of the excellent
edition of that work, by the Rev. T. F. Dibdin, D. D. &c. London, 1811,
quarto.
“During the truce that followed this most valiant defence of London
Bridge, and which nearly effaced the deep stain of the Citizens opening
their gates to a rebel, a general pardon was procured for Cade and
his followers, by John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord High
Chancellor. Upon which, some accepted of the King’s grace, and all
began, by degrees, to withdraw from Southwark with their spoil, whilst
Cade himself was soon after slain by Alexander Iden, Esquire, of Kent,
in consequence of a reward being offered for his apprehension. His dead
body was brought to London, and his head erected on the Bridge-gate,
where he had so recently placed that of one of his greatest victims,
Sir James Fynes, Lord Say, Treasurer of England. Concerning these
events see also Shakspeare’s ‘_Second Part of King Henry the Sixth_,’
Act iv., Scenes 7th and 10th; Fabyan’s ‘_Chronicle_,’ pages 451-453;
and Stow’s ‘_Annals_,’ pages 391, 392.
“I have but little more to subjoin to close the history of this
rebellion; but I may add, that in January 1451, twenty-six of the
Kentish rebels were tried before the King and his Justices Itinerant,
and executed at Dover, and other places in the County; and that on
Tuesday, February 23rd, as Henry returned to London, great numbers more
met him on Blackheath, dressed in their shirts only, and imploring his
clemency on their knees, were all pardoned. Against his entering the
City, nine heads of those who had been executed were erected on London
Bridge, that of their leader standing in the centre. ‘This,’ says Hall,
in closing his account of Cade’s insurrection, ‘is the successe of all
rebelles, and this fortune chaunceth ever to traytors: for where men
striue against the streame, their bote neuer cometh to his pretensed
porte.’
“In June 1461, previously to his Coronation, King Edward IV. crossed
London Bridge with some ceremony, on the way from his Palace of Sheen
to the Tower; whence it was anciently customary for the English
Sovereigns to ride to Westminster in solemn procession the day before
they were crowned. We have this information in an article printed
by Hearne, and attached to his ‘_Thomæ Sprotti Chronica_.’ Oxford,
1719, 8vo. It is entitled ‘_A remarkable Fragment of an old English
Chronicle, or History of the Affairs of King Edward the Fourth,
Transcrib’d from an old MS_.;’ and on page 288, we find the following
particulars. ‘The same xxvi^{th} of Juny, the King Edward movid from
Sheene towardis London, then being Thursday;’--in reality though it
was Friday, as this very extract subsequently shews--‘and upon the
way receyvid him the Maire and his brethirn all in scarle, with iiii
c commoners well horsid and cladde in grene, and so avauncing theime
self passid the Bridge, and thurgh the Cite they rode streigte unto
the Toure of London, and restid there all nigt.’ The day following,
King Edward made 32 Companions of the Bath. He then proceeded to
Westminster, attended by the new Knights habited in the white silk
dress of the Order; and on the morrow,--which was St. Peter’s day, and
Sunday,--he was crowned at Westminster by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop
of Canterbury.
“The revenues of London Bridge seem greatly to have flourished under
the reign of this Sovereign, for in his 5th year, 1465, the Wardens of
the same, Peter Alford and Peter Caldecot, paid, on account thereof,
the immense sum of £731. 10_s._ 1-1/2; as you may see in Maitland’s
‘_History_,’ volume i., page 48, which information he has quoted from
Stow’s ‘_Survey_.’ You, doubtless, remember, that although Edward IV.
was, at this period of our history, seated on the English throne,
yet that King Henry VI. was only deposed by the partizans of Edward
Plantagenet, Earl of March, and son to the late Duke of York, and the
Earl of Warwick, in March, 1461. In October 1470, therefore, Henry
was again restored to his crown, which he retained with a disturbed
sway for seven months only, and in April, 1471, was again imprisoned
in the Tower, whence he had been taken to remount the throne. There
were, however, not even then wanting some zealous adherents to the
declining House of Lancaster, who made several brave, though unavailing
efforts on the behalf of King Henry, Margaret of Anjou, and the
young Edward, Prince of Wales. Under the sanction of their cause an
impudent attack was made upon London in 1471, which forms an important
feature in the history of this Bridge; which being mentioned by Stow
in his ‘_Survey_,’ volume i., page 61, is thence copied by all who
have written its Annals. The Earl of Warwick had appointed to be
Vice-Admiral of the Channel, one Thomas Neville, an illegitimate son
to William, Lord Falconbridge, and thence called ‘the Bastard of
Falconbridge.’ When he lost this employment, as he was a man alike
devoid of morals and of money, he saw, says Rapin, with a very singular
expression, ‘no other way to subsist than turning Pirate;’ for which,
however, he probably required very little transmutation. As Edward was,
at this time, engaged in pursuit of Elizabeth, his Queen, Falconbridge
collected some ships, and a number of persons of desperate fortunes,
and landing on the coast of Kent, intended no less than to surprise
London, and enrich himself with the plunder of the City. He arrived in
Southwark in May, giving out that he came to free King Henry from his
captivity, and soon becoming possessed of that place, on Tuesday, the
14th, he ordered 3000 of his followers to cross the river in boats,
and assault Ald-Gate and Bishops-Gate, whilst he himself attempted to
force the Bridge. This he endeavoured to effect by firing it, by which
he destroyed sixty houses standing upon it; though the Citizens were so
well provided with ordnance, that even if the passage had been entirely
open, says an ancient Chronicler, ‘they should have had hard entering
that way.’ It is singular, however, that in this account of the number
of the houses burned on London Bridge, Stow should be so greatly at
variance with the earlier Historians; since they state it to be sixty,
whilst, in his ‘_Survey_,’ he says only that Falconbridge ‘burned
the Gate and all the houses to the Draw-Bridge, being at that time
_thirteen_ in number.’ It is, perhaps, possible that the old Citizen
is in the right; and that the other Annalists include some of those
buildings which were destroyed in the suburbs of Southwark.