London and the Kingdom Volume I Part 18

Some months before the close of Twyford's mayoralty, Richard had succeeded in gaining his independence (May, 1389), which he was induced by Lancaster, on his return after a prolonged absence abroad, to exercise at length in favour of Northampton, by permitting him once more to return to London, although only as a stranger.(704) This was in July. In December, letters patent granting him a free pardon were issued, containing no such restriction.(705) His re-appearance in the streets of the city revived the old party spirit, and Adam Bamme, who had succeeded Venour in the mayoralty, found it expedient to forbid all discussion of the rights and the wrongs of the several parties of Northampton and Brembre on pain of imprisonment.(706) Four more years elapsed before Northampton was re-instated in the freedom of the city.(707)

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For some years Richard governed not unwisely. In 1392, however, he quarrelled with the city. Early in that year he called upon every inhabitant, whose property for the last three years was worth 40 in land or rent, to take upon himself the honour of knighthood. The sheriffs, Henry Vanner and John Shadworth, made a return that all tenements and rents in the city were held of the king _in capite_ as fee burgage at a fee farm (_ad feodi firmam_); that by reason of the value of tenements varying from time to time, and many of them requiring repair from damage by fire and tempest, their true annual value could not be ascertained, and that, therefore, it was impossible to make a return of those who possessed 40 of land or rent as desired.(708)

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This answer was anything but agreeable to the king. But he had other cause just now for being offended with the city. Being in want of money, he had offered a valuable jewel to the citizens as security for a loan, and the citizens had excused themselves on the plea that they were not so well off as they used to be, since foreigners had been allowed to enjoy the same privileges in the city as themselves. Having failed in this quarter, the king had resorted to a Lombard, who soon was able to accommodate him; but when the king learnt on enquiry that the money so obtained had been advanced to the Lombard merchant by the very citizens who had refused to lend it to the king himself, his anger knew no bounds,(709) and he summoned John Hende, the mayor, the sheriffs, the aldermen, and twenty-four of the chief citizens(710) of the City to attend him in June, at Nottingham. They accordingly set out on their journey on the 19th June, and arrived in Nottingham on the 23rd; the government of the city being left in the meanwhile in the hands of William Staundon. On the 25th they appeared before the lords of the council, when the chancellor rated them roundly for paying so little attention to the king's writ-the writ touching knighthood-and complained of the defective manner in which the city was governed.(711)

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He thereupon dismissed the mayor from office, committing him to Windsor Castle. The sheriffs were likewise dismissed, one being sent to Odyham Castle, and the other to the Castle of Wallingford. The rest of the citizens were ordered to return home.(712)

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At nine o'clock in the morning of the 1st July, Sir Edward Dalyngrigge appeared in the Guildhall, and there, before an immense a.s.sembly of the commons, read the king's commissions appointing him warden of the city and the king's escheator. The deposed sheriffs were succeeded by Gilbert Maghfeld, or Maunfeld, and Thomas Newton, who remained in office, by the king's appointment,(713) until the end of the year, when they were re-elected, the one by the warden and the other by the citizens.(714) Dalyngrigge was soon afterwards succeeded in the office of warden by Sir Baldwin de Radyngton.(715)

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By way of inflicting further punishment upon the citizens, Richard had already removed the King's Bench and Exchequer from London to York;(716) but the removal proved so much more prejudicial to the nation at large than to the City of London that the courts were soon brought back.(717) He would even have waged open war on them had he dared.(718) Instead of proceeding to this extremity, he summoned the aldermen and 400 commoners to Windsor(719) and fined the City 100,000. This was in July (1392). In August the king notified his intention of pa.s.sing through the city on his way from Shene to Westminster. The citizens embraced the opportunity of giving him a magnificent reception, which the king acknowledged in the following month by restoring to them their liberties and setting free their late mayor and sheriffs.(720) The fine of 100,000 recently imposed, as well as other moneys which the king considered to be due to him from the city, were also remitted.(721)

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Once more restored to their liberties, the citizens in the following year (1393), with the a.s.sent of parliament, effected a reform in the internal government of the city which the increasing population had rendered necessary. The Ward of Farringdon Within and Without had increased so much in wealth and population that it was deemed advisable to divide it into two parts, each part having its own alderman. Accordingly, in the following March (1394), Drew Barantyn was elected Alderman of Farringdon Within, whilst John Fraunceys was elected for Farringdon Without. A more important reform effected at the same time was the appointment of aldermen for life instead of for a year only.(722)

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In the following year (1394) the queen-Anne of Bohemia-died. She had always shown a friendly disposition towards the city, and it was mainly owing to her intercession that Richard had restored its liberties.(723) Her death removed one good influence about Richard, and marks a change of policy or of character.(724) His second marriage in 1396 did not improve matters. In that year the mayor, Adam Bamme, died in office, and instead of allowing the citizens freely to elect a successor, he thrust upon them Richard Whitington.(725) He arrested the Duke of Gloucester and the Earls of Warwick and Arundel, and otherwise behaved so outrageously as to raise doubts as to his sanity. He gave out that he was afraid to appear in public for fear of the Londoners; but this was only a ruse for the purpose of raising money.(726) Like Edward II, he borrowed money from anybody and everybody, and often resorted to unconst.i.tutional measures to fill his purse. He made the n.o.bles and his wealthier subjects sign blank cheques for him to fill up at his pleasure.(727) These cheques, or "charters" as they were called, were afterwards burnt by order of his successor on the throne.

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A crisis was fast approaching. The Duke of Hereford, whom the king had banished, and who, on the death of his father "time honoured Lancaster,"

succeeded to the t.i.tle early in 1399, was prevailed upon to return to England and strike a blow for the recovery of his inheritance which Richard had seized. Richard, as if infatuated, took this inopportune moment to sail to Ireland. Before setting out he made a last bid for the favour of the citizens by again granting them permission to rule the fish trade according to ancient custom.(728) It was too late; they had already resolved to throw in their lot with Henry of Lancaster.

As soon as Henry had landed at Ravenspur (4th July) a special messenger was despatched to the city with the news. The mayor was in bed, but he hurriedly rose and took steps to proclaim Henry's arrival in England. "Let us apparel ourselves and go and receive the Duke of Lancaster, since we agreed to send for him," was the resolution of those to whom the mayor conveyed the first tidings; and accordingly Drew Barentyn, who had succeeded Whitington in October, 1398, and 500 other citizens, took horse to meet the duke, whom they escorted to the city. The day that Henry entered the city was kept as a holiday, "as though it had been the day for the celebration of Easter."

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When Richard heard of Henry's landing he hurried back from Ireland. He was met by the duke with a large force, which comprised 1,200 Londoners, fully armed and horsed.(729) Finding resistance hopeless, the king made submission, craving only that he might be protected from the Londoners, who, he was convinced, bore him no good will. He was, in consequence, secretly conveyed to the Tower under cover of night. Articles were drawn up accusing him of misgovernment, and publicly read in the Guildhall. Four of his advisers and supporters, whose names he gave up, hoping to gain favour for himself thereby, were executed at a fishmonger's stall in Cheapside. Sentence of deposition was pa.s.sed against him, and Lancaster proclaimed king in his stead under the t.i.tle of King Henry IV.

CHAPTER X.

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The sentence pa.s.sed on the late king proved his death warrant; his haughty spirit broke down, and he died at Pontefract the following year. According to Henry's account he died of wilful starvation. There were many, however, who believed him to have been put to death by Henry's orders; whilst others, on the contrary, refused to believe his death had actually taken place at all, notwithstanding the fact of the corpse having been purposely exposed to public view throughout its journey from Pontefract to London.(730) This belief that Richard was still alive was fostered by many, and, among others, by William Serle. He had been at one time the late king's chamberlain, and he kept up the delusion of Richard being still in the land of the living, by exhibiting the late king's signet, which had come into his possession. Serle was eventually arrested in the north of England and brought to London, to be executed at Tyburn.(731)

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Sixteen years later (1416), a certain Thomas Warde, called "Trumpyngtone,"

personated the late king, and a scheme was laid for placing him on the throne with the aid of Sigismund, king of the Romans Sigismund, however, refused to have anything to do with the plot, which was hatched within the city's liberties by Benedict Wolman and Thomas Bekering. The conspiracy having been discovered, its authors were thrown into prison. One died before trial, the other paid the penalty for his rashness with his head.(732) In August, 1420, long after Trumpington was dead, two others, Thomas Cobold and William Bryan, endeavoured still to keep up the delusion in the city. The mayor, Whitington, himself ordered their arrest. Bryan had time to escape from the house of William Norton, a barber given to Lollardry, where he and his fellow conspirator were lodged. Cobold tried to hide himself, but was discovered cunningly concealed in the house, and taken before the mayor and aldermen. Being questioned as to the ident.i.ty of Trumpington and the late king, he gave an evasive reply, adding, that the question of ident.i.ty had become immaterial since Trumpington had been dead some time. Cobold was thought to be too dangerous a man to be allowed at large, so he was committed to prison.(733)

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In the meantime Wycliffe had died (1384), and Lollardry had become only another name for general discontentment. The clergy made strenuous efforts to suppress the Lollards. Pope Boniface had invoked the a.s.sistance of the late king (1395) to destroy these "tares" (_lolium aridum_) that had sprung up amidst the wheat which remained constant to church and king, and called upon the mayor and commonalty of the city to use their interest with Richard to the same end.(734) Besides seeking the support of the commonalty against the powerful n.o.bles, the new king sought the support of the church, and he had not been long on the throne before he issued commissions for search to be made in the city for Lollards, and for the arrest of all preachers found sowing the pestilential seed of Lollardry (_s.e.m.e.n pestiferum lollardrie_).(735) Early in 1401 a price was put upon the head of the captain and leader of the sect, Sir John Oldcastle, otherwise known as Lord Cobham. Public proclamation was made in the city, that any one giving information which should lead to his arrest should be rewarded with 500 marks; any one actually arresting or causing him to be arrested should receive double that amount, whilst the citizens and burgesses of any city or borough who should take and produce him before the king, should be for ever quit of all taxes, talliages, tenths, fifteenths and other a.s.sessments.(736) Not only were conventicles forbidden, but no one was allowed to visit the ordinary churches after nine o'clock at night or before five o'clock in the morning.(737)

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Still the clergy were not satisfied. The ecclesiastical courts could condemn men as heretics, but they had no power to burn them. Accordingly, a statute was pa.s.sed this year (1401), known as the statute of heresy (_de haeretico comburendo_), authorising the ecclesiastical courts to hand over to the civil powers any heretic refusing to recant, or relapsing after recantation, so that he might pay the penalty of being publicly burnt before the people.(738) It was the first English law pa.s.sed for the suppression of religious opinion, and its first victim is said to have been one William Sautre, formerly a parish priest of Norfolk.(739)

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Henry had other difficulties to face besides opposition from the n.o.bles.

France had refused to acknowledge his t.i.tle to the crown, and demanded the restoration of Richard's widow, a mere child of eleven. The Scots(740) and the Welsh were on the point of engaging in open insurrection. Invasion was imminent; the exchequer was empty, and the Londoners appealed to could offer no more than a paltry loan of 4,000 marks.(741)

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As time went on, Henry had to try new methods for raising money. The parliament which met at the opening of 1404, granted the king a 1_s._ in the pound on all lands, tenements and rents, besides 20_s._ for every knight's fee. The money so raised was not, however, to be at the disposal of the king's own ministers, but was to be placed in the hands of four officials to be known as treasurers of war (_Guerrarum Thesaurarii_). The names of the treasurers elected for the purpose are given as John Owdeby, clerk, John Hadley, Thomas Knolles, and Richard Merlawe, citizens of London.(742) Three of these were citizens of note. Hadley had already served as mayor in 1393, Knolles had filled the same office in 1399, and was re-elected in 1410, whilst Merlawe was destined to attain that honour both in 1409 and 1417.

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It was during Merlawe's first mayoralty that the citizens advanced to the king the sum of 7,000 marks,(743) to enable him to complete the reduction of Wales, which his son, the Prince of Wales, had already nearly accomplished. In 1412 they advanced a further sum of 10,000 marks.(744) At the beginning of that year a commission was addressed by Henry to Robert Chichele, the mayor, brother of the archbishop of the same name, to the sheriffs of the city, to Richard Whitington and Thomas Knolles, the late mayor, instructing them to make a return of the amount of land and tenements held in the city and suburbs, with the view of levying 6_s._ 8_d._ on every 20 annual rent by virtue of an act pa.s.sed by the late parliament.(745) A return was made to the effect that it was very difficult to discover the true value of lands and tenements in the city and suburbs, owing to absence of tenants and dilapidations by fire and water, but that they had caused enquiry to be made, and the names of men, women and other persons (_hominum, feminarum et aliarum personarum_) mentioned in the commission were forwarded by them in the following a, b, c (_in sequenti a, b, c_). What lands and tenements the "men, women and other persons" had elsewhere they had no means of discovering.(746) The schedule, or "a, b, c," is not entered in the City Letter Book, but is to be found among the Exchequer Rolls, preserved at Her Majesty's Public Record(747) Office. The gross rental was returned at 4,220, and the sum paid into the exchequer at 6_s._ 8_d._ for every 20, under the provisions of the act amounted to 70 6_s._ 8_d._ The mayor and commonalty of the city are credited as possessing lands, tenements and rents of an annual value of no more than 150 9_s._ 11_d._, whilst the Bridge House Estate was returned at 148 15_s._ 3_d._ Of the livery companies, the Goldsmiths appear as the owners of the largest property, their rental of city property amounting to 46 10_s._ 1/2_d._, the Merchant Tailors following them closely with 44 3_s._ 7_d._ The Mercers had but a rental of 13 18_s._ 4_d._ whilst the Skinners had 18 12_s._ 8_d._ Robert Chichele, the mayor, was already a rich man, with an annual rental of 42 19_s._ 2_d._, derived from city property, or nearly double the amount (25) with which Richard Whitington was credited.

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Whitington had already three times occupied the mayoralty chair; once (in 1396) at the word of a king, and twice (in 1397 and 1406) at the will of his fellow citizens. On the occasion of his third election a solemn ma.s.s was for the first time introduced into the proceedings, the mayor, aldermen and a large body of commoners attending the service at the Guildhall Chapel, before proceeding to the election.(748) The custom which then sprang up continues in a modified form to this day, the election of a mayor being always preceded by divine service. Its origin may perhaps be ascribed in some measure to the spirit of Lollardry which, in its best sense, found much favour with the citizens.

The enormous wealth which he succeeded in ama.s.sing was bestowed in promoting the cause of education, and in relieving the sufferings of the poor and afflicted. He built a handsome library in the house of the Grey Friars and also the Church of Saint Michael in the "Riole." He is credited by some writers with having purchased and presented to the corporation the advowson of the Church of St. Peter upon Cornhill. But this is probably a mistake arising from the fact of a license in mortmain having been granted by Henry IV to Richard Whitington, John Hende, and others, to convey the manor of Leadenhall, together with the advowsons of the several churches of Saint Peter upon Cornhill and Saint Margaret Patyns, held of the king in free burgage, to the mayor and commonalty of the City of London and their successors.(749)

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On the accession of Henry V, Archbishop Arundel, whom Walsingham describes as the most eminent bulwark and indomitable supporter of the church,(750) renewed his attack on the Lollards, and endeavoured to serve Oldcastle with a citation. Failing to accomplish this he caused him to be arrested.

The bold defence made by the so-called heretic, when before his judges, gained additional weight from the reputation he enjoyed for high moral character. Nevertheless he was adjudged guilty of the charges brought against him. A formal sentence of excommunication was pa.s.sed, and he was remitted to the Tower for forty days in the hope that at the expiration of that time he might be found willing to retract. This, however, was not to be.

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He contrived to make his escape from prison,(751) and shortly afterwards appeared at the head of a number of followers in St. Giles's Fields. Great disappointment was felt at not receiving the a.s.sistance that had been expected from city servants and apprentices. According to Walsingham, no less than 5,000 men, comprising masters as well as servants, from the city, were prepared to join the insurgents, had not the king taken precautions to secure the gates. As soon as it was discovered that the young king had made ample preparations to meet attack, the Lollards took to flight. Many, however, failed to make good their escape, and nearly forty paid the penalty of their rashness with their lives.(752) Walsingham was probably misinformed as to the number of the persons who were prepared to a.s.sist the Lollards. The fact is that, to the respectable City burgess, Lollardism was a matter of less moment than was the scandalous life led by the chantry priest and other ministers of religion, and this the civic authorities were determined to rectify as far as in them lay. Between the years 1400 and 1440, some sixty clerks in holy orders were taken in adultery and clapt into prison by ward beadles.(753) Nevertheless the clergy, and more especially the chantry priest, continued to live a life of luxury and sloth, oftentimes spending the day in dicing, card playing, c.o.c.k fighting and frequenting taverns.

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The recent abortive attempt of Oldcastle gave rise to another Statute against the Lollards,(754) by which the secular power, no longer content with merely carrying into execution the sentences p.r.o.nounced by ecclesiastical courts, undertook, where necessary, the initiative against heretics. Archbishop Arundel, the determined enemy of the Lollards, had had no hand in framing this Statute-the last that was enacted against them.(755) He had died a few months before parliament met, and had been succeeded by Henry Chichele.

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