London and the Kingdom Volume I Part 23

The proposed alliance with Burgundy was far from being distasteful to the merchants of the city, inasmuch as it was likely to open up trade with those states of the Low Countries which the Burgundian dukes had consolidated as a barrier against France. When the Princess Margaret was about to start (June, 1468) for her future husband's dominions, the mayor and aldermen of London testified their appreciation of the alliance by presenting her with a pair of silver gilt dishes, weighing 19 lbs. 8 oz., besides the sum of 100 in gold, by way of a wedding gift.(918)

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Disgusted with the king's unhandsome conduct towards him, Warwick found an ally in Clarence, the king's brother, gave him one of his daughters in marriage, and even encouraged him to hope for the succession to the crown.

Edward's extravagant and luxurious life had lost him much of his popularity. He had ceased, moreover, to possess the goodwill of the citizens for having allowed the arrest of Sir Thomas Cooke or c.o.ke,(919) an alderman of the city, on a false charge of treason. Notwithstanding his acquittal, Cooke had been committed to prison and only regained his liberty on payment of an extortionate fine to the king and queen.(920) Warwick and Clarence made use of the general discontent that prevailed to further their own designs, and the civil war was renewed. The City endeavoured to steer a middle course. In June (1469) it lent the king the sum of 200, but in the following month it lent Warwick and Clarence just five times that amount on the sole security of some jewels of little value.(921) In May, 1470, when there seemed little hope of the jewels being redeemed, as Warwick and Clarence had been obliged to flee to France, the Common Council entertained the thought of selling them for what they were worth. The sale did not take place, however, but they were kept some in the "Treasury," and some in the custody of William Taillour, late mayor, on the express understanding that he was not to be held responsible in the event of their being stolen or taken by force.(922) In February, 1471, when the wheel of fortune had once more placed Henry VI on the throne from which he had been driven by Edward, and Warwick and Clarence were again in power, the mayor and aldermen caused it to be placed on record that the loan on the jewels had been made by agreement of the whole court, with the a.s.sistance of certain commoners who had been called in to contribute. What their object was in so doing is not clear.

Perhaps they felt some qualms as to what Edward might say or do in respect of the loan, should he again return to power. They, at the same time, extended the time for the repayment of the loan, at the desire of the dukes of Clarence and Warwick. If the jewels were not redeemed by Whitsuntide at the latest, they were to be sold.(923)

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Whilst Warwick and Clarence were in France in 1470, they concerted measures with Queen Margaret for effecting another revolution. By September matters were ready for execution. On the 13th Warwick landed in England; and before the end of the month the Kentish men so threatened the City and Westminster, that the newly-elected sheriffs had to be escorted by an armed force in order to be sworn in at the Exchequer, whilst a constant patrol was kept in the streets.(924) On the 1st October it was made known in the city that the king had taken flight. His queen took sanctuary at Westminster, leaving the Tower in the hands of the mayor and aldermen and members of the council of Warwick and Clarence. The unfortunate Henry was quickly removed from the wretched cell in which he had so long been confined to a commodious and handsomely furnished apartment which the queen herself, being _enceinte_ at the time, purposed occupying when she should be brought to bed. A garrison was placed in the Tower by order of the Common Council, sitting, for safety's sake, in the church of St. Stephen, Walbrook. On the 5th October Archbishop Nevill, Warwick's brother, entered the city with a strong force and relieved the civic authorities of the custody of the Tower, and on the following day Warwick himself appeared, accompanied by Clarence and a large following, and removed Henry from the Tower to the Bishop of London's palace.(925) Two days later (9 Oct.) he obtained from the Common Council the sum of 1,000 for the defence of his stronghold, Calais, besides a loan of 100 from the aldermen of the city for his own private use.(926) On the 18th the Earl of Worcester, Edward's constable and minister of his cruelties,(927) was beheaded on Tower Hill, the ground being kept by the Sheriffs of London and a contingent from the several wards.(928)

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In November Henry was made to hold a parliament, and Sir Thomas Cooke, the deposed alderman, lost no time in presenting a bill for the restoration of his lands, which had been seized by the queen's father, Lord Rivers. He would probably have been successful had fortune continued to favour King Henry, for, besides being a member of parliament, he was, writes Fabyan (a brother alderman), "a man of great boldnesse in speche, and well spoken and syngulerly wytted and well reasoned."(929) John Stokton had recently been elected mayor, but there is reason for believing that he, like other aldermen, preferred Edward on the throne, licentious and extravagant as he was, to an imbecile like Henry. He fell ill, or, as Fabyan puts it, feigned sickness and took to his bed, and Cooke a.s.sumed the duties of the mayoralty. At Edward's restoration Cooke had to seek refuge in France, but he was taken at sea before he could reach the continent. The same fate might have awaited Stokton had he shown himself less cautious at that critical time.

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That the aldermen and the better cla.s.s of citizens favoured Edward, is shown by the ease with which he effected an entry into the city when he returned to England in the spring of the following year (1471). The gates, we are told, were opened to him by Urswyk, the Recorder, and certain aldermen (their names are not mentioned), who took advantage of the inhabitants being at dinner to let in Edward.(930) Two days later, having recruited his forces, Edward marched out of the city, with Henry in his train, to meet Warwick. He encountered him on Easter Day (14 April) at Barnet, and totally defeated him, both the earl and his brother being left dead on the field. By this time Margaret had landed with a fresh army; but a crus.h.i.+ng defeat inflicted upon her at Tewkesbury (4 May) left Edward once more master of the kingdom.

(M502) (M503)

For a short time the city lay in some peril whilst Edward was engaged with Warwick and Margaret. The men of Kent again became troublesome. They affected not to believe that Warwick had actually fallen at Barnet. Under the leaders.h.i.+p of Thomas Fauconberg or Falconbridge, generally spoken of as the "b.a.s.t.a.r.d," being a natural son of William Nevill, first Lord Fauconberg, Earl of Kent, they marched to London, with the intention of releasing Henry from confinement and placing him again on the throne.

Fauconberg, who had been made a freeman of the City in 1454,(931) a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of captain of King Henry's people in Kent, and on the 8th May wrote from Sittingbourne to inform the inhabitants of the city that he had undertaken the cause of Henry against the "usurper" Edward, and to ask to be allowed to pa.s.s through the city with his followers, whom he promised to hold in restraint and prevent doing any mischief. He had written to the mayor and aldermen to the same effect, and had desired to have a reply sent to him at Blackheath by a certain day and hour. To this letter the mayor and aldermen sent an answer on the following day, to the effect that when Edward left the city, after the battle of Barnet, to follow the movements of Margaret and endeavour to bring about an action before she could completely rally her forces, he had charged them on their allegiance to hold the city of London for him, and for none other. For that reason they dared not, neither would they, suffer him to pa.s.s through the city.

They hesitated to accept his a.s.surance as to the peaceable behaviour of his followers, judging from past experience. As for the statement he had caused to be published, that he held a commission as captain of the Navy of England and men of war by sea and land under the Earl of Warwick, whom he still supposed to be alive, they a.s.sured him that the earl was dead, and that his corpse, as well as the corpse of Montague, the earl's brother, had been exposed to view for two days in St. Paul's. They gave him the names of some of the chief men who had fallen at Tewkesbury, obtained, they a.s.sured him, not from hearsay but from eye-witnesses-special war correspondents, whom the City had despatched for the express purpose of reporting on the state of the field, and they concluded by exhorting him to do as they themselves had done, and to acknowledge Edward IV as the rightful king. They would even plead for royal favour on his behalf, but as to letting him and his host pa.s.s through the city, that was out of the question.(932) Having despatched this answer to Fauconberg, the civic fathers at once set to work to fortify the river's bank from Castle Baynard to the Tower, where lay the rebels' fleet. On Sunday, the 12th May, the Kentish men tried to force London Bridge and set fire to some beer-houses near Saint Katherine's Hospital. The attack was renewed on the following Tuesday, whilst portions of the rebel force, amounting it was said to 5,000 persons, were told off to try and force the gates of Aldgate and Bishopsgate. There, however, they were repulsed, and nearly 300 of them met their death, either in actual fight or in their endeavours to get on board their boats at Blackwall. Urswyk, the city's Recorder, as well as Robert Ba.s.set, alderman of Aldgate Ward, showed conspicuous valour in the fight which took place in that quarter.(933) The city was never again troubled by Fauconberg.

After much wandering he was taken prisoner at Southampton, and thence conveyed to Middleham, in Yorks.h.i.+re, where he was beheaded. His head was afterwards sent to London and set up on London Bridge, "looking into Kentward."(934)

(M504)

On the night after Edward's return(935) in triumph to London, Henry VI ended his life in the Tower, murdered, in all probability, at the instance of the Duke of Gloucester, the king's brother, afterwards King Richard III. His remains lay in state at St. Paul's and at the Blackfriars a short while, and were then carried to Chertsey to be buried.(936) Edward distributed honours among his supporters in the city with a lavish hand.

Not only did the Lord Mayor-the cautious Stokton-receive the honour of knighthood, but the aldermen(937) besides, whilst the city's doughty Recorder was soon afterwards raised to be Baron of the Exchequer. The City was so pleased with its Recorder that it voted him a pipe of wine annually, but the gift was not to be drawn into precedent.(938)

(M505)

The rest of Edward's reign was undisturbed by any attempt to unseat the new dynasty, and his position was rendered the more secure by the birth of a son (afterwards Edward V) in the sanctuary of Westminster, whither his wife Elizabeth had fled for refuge. Before the young Prince of Wales was five years old he received the honour of knighthood at Westminster. The mayor and aldermen went to meet him on his way from the city to Westminster on that occasion, clad in scarlet robes, whilst the streets from Bishopsgate to Saint Paul's were thronged with the commons in their livery.(939)

(M506)

Edward was now free to carry out his foreign policy. Parliament voted supplies to enable him to make war with France, but these were not sufficient, and he had recourse to a system of "benevolences" or free gifts, which few, however, dared to refuse. On the 30th May, 1475, he left the Bishop of London's palace in St. Paul's Church-yard, and, pa.s.sing through Cheapside to London Bridge, took boat to Greenwich for the purpose of crossing over to France. The livery companies turned out to do him honour.(940) The expedition ended without a blow, Edward allowing himself to be bought off with a sum of 75,000 crowns paid down and a pension of 50,000 more. On his return he was met at Blackheath by the mayor and aldermen in scarlet gowns, with their servants in gowns of "musterdevilers," accompanied by more than 600 members of the companies in gowns of bright murrey.(941)

(M507)

By resorting again to benevolences and exacting money from the City in return for charters, Edward avoided the necessity of summoning parliament between the years 1478 and 1483. On the 25th May, 1481, the king granted the City a general pardon,(942) and in the following month the City returned the compliment by a loan of 5,000 marks.(943) This loan was not only repaid, but the king in the next year extended his hospitality to the City by giving a large number of citizens a day's hunting in Waltham forest, and afterwards regaling them and their wives with venison and wine.(944)

(M508)

The close of the year 1482 witnessed such a dearth of cereals that the exportation of wheat or other grain was absolutely forbidden. It was feared that a famine might arise in the City of London, so vast had its population become, both from the influx of n.o.bles who had taken up their quarters within its walls as well as of strangers from foreign lands.

Merchants were therefore encouraged to send their grain to London by a promise that it should not be intercepted by the king's purveyors.(945)

(M509)

The names of the City's representatives who attended the parliament which met in January, 1483, are not recorded, but we have the names of four aldermen and five commoners, who were appointed in the previous month of December to confer with the City members on matters affecting the City.(946) In addition to parliamentary grants of a fifteenth and tenth, and a renewal of the tax on aliens, the citizens agreed to lend the king the sum of 2,000, each alderman to lay down 50 marks and 80 commoners to subscribe 15 a piece.(947) Some difficulty was experienced in raising the money, and the names of eleven persons who had refused to contribute were forwarded to the king.(948) A little more than a month elapsed and Edward was dead.

(M510)

The coronation of the young prince who now succeeded to his father's throne, only to occupy it however for a few weeks, was fixed to take place on the first Sunday in May; and on the 19th April the City was busy making arrangements for the prince's reception. It was decided that the mayor and aldermen should ride forth to meet the king, clad in gowns of scarlet, their attendants being provided with gowns of the colour of lion's-foot (_pied de lyon_), at the public cost. Five sergeants-at-mace belonging to the mayor, and nineteen sergeants-at-mace in the service of the sheriffs, were also to ride out to meet the king, clad in gowns of the last-mentioned colour. The sword-bearer was to be provided with a gown of murrey, and a deputation from the civic guilds, to the number of 410 persons, clad in gowns of the same colour, was to join the cavalcade.(949) On the 14th May they rode out to Hornsey, where they met the prince and his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, and escorted them to the city. The duke was the same day appointed Protector, to the great disappointment of the queen, who again took sanctuary at Westminster. She was induced shortly afterwards to give up possession of her younger son, the Duke of York, and he and Prince Edward were lodged in the Tower by order of Gloucester, who took up his quarters at Crosby Palace, the mansion house of Sir John Crosby, in Bishopsgate Street.

Although preparations had been made for the coronation, and the City had appointed representatives from the livery companies to a.s.sist the chief butler at the banquet(950) according to custom, that ceremony never took place. Gloucester feared that if once the young king was crowned, the project which he had already begun to entertain of transferring the crown to his own head would be less capable of realization. Although he took an oath of allegiance to the new king,(951) it was not long before he determined to feel the pulse of the citizens as to their feelings towards himself as a claimant of the crown.

(M511)

In order to do this he called to his a.s.sistance Dr. Shaw, an eminent preacher, whose brother, Sir Edmund Shaa, or Shaw, happened to be mayor at the time. Acting upon instructions from Gloucester, Shaw preached a sermon at Paul's Cross on Sunday, the 22nd June (1483), in which he charged the late king with bigamy, Edward IV having, as he declared, made a contract of marriage with one of his mistresses before he married Elizabeth Woodville, and this being the case the late king's children by her were illegitimate, and Gloucester was the rightful heir to the throne. It was arranged that at this point in his discourse Gloucester himself should appear on the scene, coming up, as if by chance, from his lodgings at Castle Baynard. By some mischance the duke failed to appear at the proper moment, and the effect was lost. The citizens sat stolidly silent, not a single cry being raised in favour of Gloucester.

(M512)

Nothing daunted by this dismal failure, Gloucester made another and more successful attempt to win over the citizens. On the following Tuesday (24 June) he sent the Duke of Buckingham to harangue the citizens at the Guildhall. The duke began by reminding his hearers of the danger to which their wives and daughters had been exposed under the late king; of the undue influence exercised at court by Jane Sh.o.r.e,(952) one only of a number of respectable women whom Edward, he said, had seduced; of the excessive taxes and illegal extortions by way of "benevolences" they had recently suffered, and of the cruel treatment of their own alderman, Cooke. He then went on to repeat the remarks of Dr. Shaw touching the illegitimacy of the princes, and spoke of the dangers of having a boy king on the throne, concluding by saying that although it were doubtful if Gloucester would accept the crown if asked, he would certainly be greatly influenced by any request proceeding from the "wors.h.i.+pful citizens of the metropolis of the kingdom."(953) Buckingham's eloquence was lost on the citizens, who were as little influenced by what their new Recorder, Thomas Fitz-William, had to say on the matter. At length the duke lost patience and plainly told them that the matter lay entirely with the lords and commons, and that the a.s.sent of the citizens, however desirable in itself, was not a necessity. By this time the back of the hall was packed with Gloucester's partisans, so that when Buckingham put the question pointedly to the a.s.sembly-would they have the Protector a.s.sume the crown?-a cry of a.s.sent arose from this quarter and was taken up by a few lads and apprentices. This was enough; the voice of the few was accepted as the voice of the many, and the citizens were bidden to attend on the morrow to pet.i.tion Gloucester to accept the crown.

(M513)

Accordingly, on the morrow, a deputation from the city waited on the Duke of Gloucester at Baynard's Castle and invited him to accept the crown.

After a considerable show of affected reluctance, Richard a.s.sented, and, having a.s.sented, lost no time in carrying out his pre-conceived purpose.

The very next day he hastened to Westminster and, seating himself on the throne, declared himself king by inheritance and election.

(M514)

On the 6th July the last Angevin king that reigned over England was crowned-crowned with his wife Anne, widow of Prince Edward, killed at Tewkesbury, but after the battle not in it, and of whose blood Richard himself is thought to have been guilty. The City accepted the position and made the new king and queen a present of 1,000; two-thirds for the king and the remainder for the queen. The money was raised in the city by way of a fifteenth; the poor were not to be called upon to contribute, and the gift was not to form a precedent.(954) The claim of the mayor and citizens to a.s.sist the chief butler at the coronation banquet was made and allowed,(955) the king, sitting crowned in _le Whitehawle_, presented to the mayor and aldermen who were present on that occasion a gold cup set with pearls and precious stones, to be used by the commonalty at public entertainments in the Guildhall.(956) Concerning this cup there is the following curious entry made in the City's Records, under date 13th July, 1486, when Hugh Brice was mayor:-(957)

"Item it is aggreed this day by the Court that where Hugh Brice Mair of this Citie, hathe in his Kepyng a Cuppe of gold, garneised with perle and precious stone of the gifte of Richard, late in dede and not of right, Kyng of Englond, which gifte was to thuse of the Cominaltie of the said Citee, that if the saide Cuppe be stolen or taken away by thevys oute of his possession, or elles by the casualtie of Fire hereafter it shall hapne the same Cuppe to be brent or lost, that the same Hugh Brice hereafter shall not be hurt or impeched therfore."

This extract is interesting as showing that the coronation cup presented to the mayor of the City by way of _honorarium_ was, at this period at least, looked upon as a gift made to the City's use, and that the mayor could not claim it as his own perquisite, as mayors had been in the habit of doing in days gone by, and as they continued to do afterwards. William Estfeld, who, as mayor, attended the coronation of Henry VI (6 Nov., 1429), and received the customary gold cup and ewer, appropriated the gift to his own use, and, as we have already mentioned, bequeathed them to his grandson.

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Richard had scarcely been seated three months on the throne before the Duke of Buckingham, who had been rewarded for his late services by being appointed lord high constable, was in open rebellion, and Henry, Earl of Richmond, long an exile in France, was meditating an invasion.

Buckingham's conspiracy proved a failure, and he paid for his rashness with his head. The Earl of Richmond was detained in France by stress of weather, and danger from that quarter was averted at least for a time.

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On Richard's return to London after putting down his enemies, he was welcomed by over 400 members of the various civic companies, who rode out to meet him in gowns of murrey.(958) His policy was one of conciliation, and he lent a ready ear to a Pet.i.tion which the citizens presented to him setting forth the wrongs which they had suffered: "We be determined" said the citizens in forcible language, "rather to adventure and to commit us to the peril of our lives and jeopardy of death, than to live in such thraldom and bondage as we have lived some time heretofore, oppressed and injured by extortions and new impositions against the laws of G.o.d and man, and the liberty and laws of this realm wherein every Englishman is inherited."(959)

(M519)

Richard met this appeal by summoning parliament to meet in January (1484), when various acts were pa.s.sed affecting the trade and commerce of the city and the country, and among them one which forbade aliens keeping any foreign apprentices or workpeople to a.s.sist them in their occupation, and otherwise imposed great restrictions upon the merchant stranger.(960) This statute was scarcely less welcome to the citizens of London than that which declared the practice of exacting money under the guise of benevolences to be unconst.i.tutional.(961)

(M520)

In the summer he was welcomed wherever he went, yet he knew that danger threatened. Richmond was preparing for an invasion and the n.o.bles were not to be trusted. The citizens, too, were aware of the danger, and had in the early part of the year appointed a joint committee of aldermen and commoners to survey the city's ordnance, and to supply guns and gunpowder in place of that which had recently been destroyed by a fire.(962) In August they had promised Richard a loan of 2,400, each alderman contributing 100;(963) and in the following November the mayor and aldermen rode out to Kennington to meet him and escort him to the Wardrobe, near Blackfriars.(964)