London and the Kingdom Volume I Part 27

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When the Feast of St. Edward (13 Oct.) came round, George Monoux, alderman and draper, who had already (1514-15) once filled the office of mayor of the city, was re-elected; but refusing to accept the call of his fellow-citizens he was fined 1,000. It was thereupon declared by the Court of Aldermen that anyone who in future should be elected mayor, and refused to take up office, should be mulcted in a like sum.(1125) Monoux's fine was remitted the following year, and he was discharged from attendance, although keeping his aldermanry, on account of ill health. In return for this favour he made over to the Corporation his brewhouse situate near the Bridgehouse in Southwark.(1126)

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Before the close of the year (3 Dec., 1523) the king pledged himself by letters patent to repay the loan of 20,000 which the City had advanced for his defence of the realm and maintenance of the wars against France and Scotland.(1127)

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The disappointment experienced by Wolsey in not being selected to fill the Papal chair on the death of Adrian VI induced him to take measures for transferring his master's power from the imperial court to the court of France. In the meantime a league was formed between Henry, the emperor, and Charles, Duke of Bourbon, for the conquest and part.i.tion of France.

During the formation of this league some correspondence between England and the Continent appears to have been lost in a remarkable manner, to judge from the following proclamation,(1128) made the 10th July, 1524:-

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_"My lorde the maire streitly chargith and commaundith on the king or soveraigne lordis behalf that if any maner of person or persons that have founde a hat with certeyn lettres and other billes and writinges therin enclosed which lettres been directed to o__r__ said soveraigne lorde from the parties of beyond the see let hym or theym bryng the said hat lettres and writinges unto my said lorde the maire in all the hast possible and they shalbe well rewarded for their labour and that no maner of person kepe the said hat lettres and writinges nor noon of them after this proclamacioun made uppon payn of deth and G.o.d save the king."_

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The news of the defeat and capture of the French king at Pavia (24 Feb., 1525) was hailed by Henry with great delight. The crown of France was now, he thought, within his grasp. On Sat.u.r.day, the 11th March, a triumph was made in the city to celebrate "the takynge of the Frenche kyng in Bataill by Themporer and his alies."(1129) Bonfires were lighted at different places, one being in Saint Paul's Churchyard near the house where lay the foreign amba.s.sadors. The Chamberlain was ordered to provide a hogshead of wine at every fire. The city minstrels filled the air with music, and the parish clerks attended with their singing children, who sat about the bonfires and sang ballads and "other delectable and joyfull songs." On the Sunday following the king and queen and officers of state attended a _Te Deum_ at St. Paul's, the legate himself p.r.o.nouncing the benediction.(1130)

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Henry's first impulse was to take advantage of the French king's misfortune; the cardinal, on the other hand, saw danger in the predominating influence of Charles in Europe, and would gladly have seen his master join hands with Francis against the emperor. He was nevertheless bound to carry out the king's wishes as if they were his own, and money was necessary for the purpose. Instead of resorting to a benevolence-a mode of raising money already declared by parliament to be illegal-he suggested that the people should be asked for what was called an Amicable Loan, on the old feudal ground that the king was about to lead an expedition in person. The citizens were among the first to whom Wolsey made application. Were they of opinion, he asked, that the king should undertake the expedition to France in person? If so, he could not go otherwise than beseemed a prince, and this he could not do without the city's aid. The sum they were asked to subscribe did not, he said, amount to half their substance, which the king might very well have demanded.

When it was objected that trade had been bad, Wolsey lost his temper and declared that it was better that some citizens should suffer rather than that the king should be in want, and that if they refused to pay it might "fortune to cost some their heddes."(1131) At length the citizens agreed to grant the king a sixth part of their substance, which Henry graciously acknowledged by letter (25 April),(1132) saying that it was not his wish to overburden them, for he valued their prosperity more than ten such realms as France. The letter was read, by Wolsey's express wish, to the Common Council on the 28th, when it was agreed to ask for a fortnight's grace before sending an answer to so important a missive.(1133) A deputation was forthwith despatched to Hampton Court to solicit the cardinal's mediation, but not being able to obtain an interview they returned, and steps were taken to raise the money required.

When the cardinal was informed later on that the alderman of each ward was holding an enquiry as to the means of the inhabitants he affected to be very angry. "They had no right to examine anyone," he said; "I am your commissioner, I will examine you one by one myself." The mayor (Sir William Bailey) thereupon threw himself at the cardinal's feet beseeching him that since it was by Act of Common Council that the aldermen had sat in their respective wards for the purpose of taking the benevolence-a procedure which he now perceived to be against the law-the Act should by the Common Council be revoked. "Well," said Wolsey "I am content," and he then proceeded to ask how much the mayor and aldermen then present were prepared to give. When the mayor incautiously remarked that if he made any promise there and then it might perhaps cost him his life, Wolsey again became furious. What! the mayor's life threatened for obeying the king's orders! He would see to that.

In the country the loan met with so much opposition that a rebellion was feared. At length, finding it was impossible to collect the money, Wolsey sent (19 May) for the mayor and aldermen and informed them that the king had given up all thoughts of his expedition to France, and that they were pardoned of all that had been demanded of them.(1134)

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Before many weeks elapsed Wolsey saw with satisfaction a truce made between Henry and the queen regent of France.(1135) Early in 1526 the French king regained his liberty by virtue of a treaty which he at once repudiated, and war between him and the emperor was renewed, but England remained virtually at peace. In the following year (1527) the cardinal himself paid a visit to the French king and superintended the drawing up of articles for a permanent peace. By September all was settled, and Wolsey returned to England. Amba.s.sadors from France shortly afterwards arrived, and were lodged in the Bishop of London's palace in St. Paul's Churchyard. The City made them valuable presents at the instance of the lord cardinal.(1136)

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The election of Paul Wythypol,(1137) a merchant-tailor, as alderman of the Ward of Farringdon Within, in 1527, again brought Henry and the citizens into variance. The king desired Wythypol's discharge, at least for a time.

The Court of Aldermen hesitated to accede to the request and consulted Wolsey.(1138) He recommended them an interview with the king at Greenwich.

To Greenwich they accordingly went (24 Feb.) by water, where they arrived in time to give a formal reception to the cardinal, who landed soon afterwards from his barge. After a few words had pa.s.sed between the cardinal and the munic.i.p.al officers, the former entered the palace, whilst the latter waited in the king's great chamber till dinner time. When that hour arrived they were bidden to go down to the hall, where the mayor was entertained at the lord steward's mess, and the aldermen received like attention from the comptroller and other officers of state. The city's Counsel who had accompanied the mayor and aldermen were entertained at the table of "master coferer." Dinner over, the company returned to the great chamber, where they were kept waiting till the evening. At length the mayor and aldermen were bidden to the king's presence in his secret chamber. What took place there the writer of the record declares himself unable to say,(1139) and, although the mayor afterwards made a report of the matter to the court, no particulars are recorded in the City's archives. The practical outcome of the interview appears to have been that Wythypol was left unmolested for a whole twelve-month. When that time had elapsed he was again summoned before the Court of Aldermen either to accept office or take the oath prescribed.(1140) Refusing both these propositions he was committed to Newgate.(1141) This took place on the 6th February, 1528. On the 3rd March he appeared in person before the Court of Aldermen and desired a respite from office, or to be allowed to pay a fine. Being asked the amount of fine he was prepared to pay, he offered 40, and at the same time asked to be discharged from office for a period of three years. This offer was declined, and Wythypol was again ordered to take the oath prescribed for his discharge.(1142) Nearly three months were allowed to elapse before any further steps were taken, when, on the 22nd May, the court again ordered Wythypol to appear at its next meeting, and to take up office, or else take the oath, or pay such fine as should be a.s.sessed by the mayor, aldermen and common council.(1143) It is certain that he did not take office, so the conclusion must be that he availed himself of one or other of the alternatives open to him. John Brown was elected alderman of Farringdon Within shortly afterwards, but he was discharged by the Common Council, and the aldermanry was subsequently filled by John Hardy being translated to it from Aldersgate Ward.(1144)

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In addition to an epidemic of sickness,(1145) the city was threatened the following year with a famine, notwithstanding the fact that large quant.i.ties of grain had been stored up in various parts of the city by order of the munic.i.p.al authorities. The country had suffered recently by heavy rains, and large tracts of land had been inundated. In antic.i.p.ation of trouble, a large stock of wheat had been laid in, but when it came to the point of disposing of it, the bakers of the city and the bakers of Stratford-at-Bow declined to take it except at their own price, until compelled by threats and, in some cases, imprisonment.(1146)

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For some years past Henry had been meditating a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, his brother's widow, but it was not until 1529 that the a.s.sent of the Pope was at last obtained to try the validity of the marriage. The legatine court sat in the city at the house of the Blackfriars, where every arrangement was made to add dignity to the proceedings. At its head sat the two cardinals, Campeggio and Wolsey, on chairs covered with cloth of gold, and on their right sat Henry himself.(1147) The sudden suspension of all proceedings after the court had sat for some weeks, and the revocation of the cause to the Court of Rome, led to Wolsey's downfall. In October the seals were taken from him and given to Sir Thomas More, his furniture and plate were seized, and he himself ordered to remove from London.

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A few days after Wolsey's disgrace a banquet was held at the Guildhall on the occasion of the swearing in of Ralph Dodmer, the newly-elected mayor.

It is the first lord mayor's banquet of which any particulars have come down to us, and they are interesting as recording the names of the chief guests. The mayor's court, the scene of the feast, was boarded and hung with cloth of Arras for the occasion. One table was set apart for peers of the realm, at the head of which sat the new lord chancellor and at the bottom the lords Berkeley and Powis. At either side of the table sat nine peers, among whom were the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, the one being the treasurer and the other the marshal of England, Sir Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset, the Earl of Oxford, high chamberlain, and the Earl of Shrewsbury, lord steward of England, Tunstal, Bishop of London, Sir Thomas Boleyn, Lord Rochford, whose daughter Anne was shortly to experience the peril of sharing Henry's throne, Lord Audley, and others. At two other tables, placed between the court of orphans and the mayor's court, were entertained a number of knights and other gentlemen, whose names are not recorded.(1148)

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It was not long before further proceedings were taken against the king's late minister. On the 3rd November (1529), after the lapse of six years, parliament met in the city at the palace of Bridewell. The City was represented by Thomas Seymer, an alderman and ex-mayor, John Baker, the City's Recorder, John Petyte, grocer, and Paul Wythypol,(1149) the merchant-tailor whose election as alderman had recently created no little trouble. Among other members was Thomas Cromwell,(1150) a friend of Wolsey, and destined soon to take his place as the king's chief adviser. A bill for disabling the cardinal from being restored to his former dignities was carried by the Lords and sent down to the Commons (1 Dec.).

There it is said to have met with the strenuous opposition of Cromwell. Of this, however, there is some doubt, as it is uncertain whether the bill provoked any discussion, parliament being shortly afterward prorogued (17 Dec.) and the unhappy cardinal left in suspense as to what fate was in store for him.(1151) At Christmas he fell ill, and the king's heart became so far softened towards his old favourite that early in the following year (Feb., 1530) he was restored to the archbishopric of York with all its possessions except York-place (Whitehall) in Westminster, which Henry could not bring himself to surrender. His colleges were seized; the college he had founded at Ipswich was sold; but his college at Oxford, known as Cardinal College, was afterwards re-established under the name of Christ Church. He himself was not allowed to rest long in peace. He was summoned to London on a charge of treason, for which there was little or no foundation, but the troubles of the last two years had rendered him so infirm that he died on the way.

CHAPTER XIV.

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Although Wolsey was no more, his works followed him. He it was, and not Henry, who first conceived the idea of church reform, towards which some steps had been taken in Wolsey's lifetime. It was left for Henry to carry out the design of his great minister. When the king laid his hand on the monasteries, he only followed the example set by the cardinal in 1525, when some of the smaller religious houses in Kent, Suss.e.x and Ess.e.x were suppressed for his great foundation of Oxford. To a.s.sist him in carrying out his design he turned to parliament. Relieved as they now were of the oppression of the great n.o.bles, the Commons were ready to use their newly-acquired independence against the clergy, who exacted extravagant fees and misused the powers of the ecclesiastical courts. Acts were pa.s.sed regulating the payment of mortuary fees and the fees for probate, whilst another Act restricted the holding of pluralities and the taking of ferms by church-men.(1152) The clergy threatened to appeal to Rome, but were warned that such action would be met with pains and penalties as opposed to the royal prerogative.(1153)

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In the city the question of t.i.thes payable to the clergy had been always more or less a vexed question. Before the commencement of the thirteenth century the city clergy had been supported by casual dues in addition to their glebe land. These casual payments were originally personal, but subsequently became regulated by the amount of rent paid by paris.h.i.+oners for their houses. A question arose as to whether the citizens were also liable to pay personal t.i.thes on their gains, and it was eventually decided that they were so liable.(1154)

On the 31st August, 1527, a committee, which had been specially appointed to enquire into matters concerning the city's welfare, reported, among other things, upon the t.i.the question as it then stood in the city.(1155) The "curates," they said, had purchased a Bull of Pope Nicholas, on the 6th August, 1453, and this Bull had been confirmed by Act of Common Council on the 3rd March, 1475. Not only was the amount of the t.i.the payable fixed by the Bull, but the Bull itself was to be publicly read by the curates four times a year, so that no doubt should exist in the minds of the paris.h.i.+oners. This the curates had failed to do, and had caused their paris.h.i.+oners heavy legal expenses in disputing demands for t.i.thes.

One man was known to have spent as much as 100 in his own defence. The committee suggested that the whole question should be referred to the Bishop of London, and that a translation of the Bull should be exhibited in every church. The citizens were the more aggrieved because many parsonages and vicarages were let to ferm.(1156)

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The curates made their defence in a book of eighteen articles touching t.i.thes and other oblations, the chief point being that every householder, time out of mind, had been bound to pay to G.o.d and the Church one farthing out of every 10_s._ of rent, a half-penny out of 20_s._ and so forth, on 100 days of the year; amounting in all to 2_s._ 1_d._ for every 10_s._ rent _per annum_. This manner of payment proving tedious, the curates and their paris.h.i.+oners came to an agreement that 1_s._ 2_d._ should be paid on every 6_s._ 8_d._ or n.o.ble, and this sum the curates had been receiving time out of mind, none reclaiming or denying. But, inasmuch as this payment by occupiers of houses was only ordained for a "dowry" to the parish churches of London which had no glebe lands, the curates demanded that all merchants and artificers, with other occupiers of the city, should pay personal t.i.thes of their "lucre or encrece" according to the common law, and as "well conscyoned" men had been in the habit of paying in times past.(1157) The book of articles was laid before the Court of Common Council on the 16th February, 1528, by Robert Carter and six other priests, on behalf of their entire body. On the following 16th March the Court of Aldermen for themselves agreed to pay t.i.the at the forthcoming Easter according to the Bull of Pope Nicholas, and not after the rate of 1_s._ 2_d._ on the n.o.ble,(1158) whilst four days later the Common Council decided that, for the sake of convenience, bills should be posted in every parish church within the city showing the number of offering days (viz., eighty-two) and the amount to be offered by inhabitants of the city.(1159)

So matters continued until, early in 1534, it was agreed to submit the whole question to the lord chancellor and other members of the council, who made their award a few days before Easter.(1160) It decreed that at the forthcoming festival every subject should pay to the parson or curate of his parish after the rate of 2_s._ 9_d._ in the pound, and 16 pence half-penny in the half-pound, and that every man's wife, servant, child and apprentice receiving the Holy Sacrament should pay two pence. These payments were to continue to be paid "without grudge or murmur" until such time as the council should arrive at a final settlement.(1161)

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In the meanwhile the city had been made to feel the heavy hand of the king and of his new minister, Thomas Cromwell. In May, 1530, Elsing Spital, a house established by William Elsing, a charitable mercer, for the relief of the blind, but which had subsequently grown into a priory of Augustinian canons of wealth and position, was confiscated by the Crown.

What became of the blind inmates is not known. In the following year (1531) the Priory of Holy Trinity, Aldgate, shared the same fate. The priory had existed since the time of Henry I and the "good queen"

Matilda,(1162) and its prior enjoyed the singular distinction of being _ex__ officio_ an alderman of the city. The canons were now removed to another place and the building and site bestowed by Henry upon his chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley.(1163)

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Between 1531 and 1534 the City enjoyed some respite from attack. It even recovered some of its lost privileges. In 1521 Henry had deprived the City of its right to the Great Beam, and of the issues and profits derived from it, and had caused a conveyance of it to be made to Sir William Sidney. In 1531 the beam was re-conveyed to the City.(1164) The Grocers' Company were scarcely less interested in the beam than the City, for to them was deputed the choice of weighers, who were afterwards admitted and sworn before the Court of Aldermen. Both the City and the company used their best endeavours to recover their lost rights, the former going so far as to sanction the distribution of the sum of 23 6_s._ 8_d._ between the king's sergeant, the king's attorney, and one "Lumnore,"(1165) a servant of "my lady Anne,"(1166) with the view of gaining their object the easier.(1167) A compromise was subsequently effected by which Sir William Sidney continued to hold the beam at an annual rent payable to the City,(1168) until, in 1531, he consented to a surrender, and it became again vested in the Corporation.

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Finding it hopeless to obtain the Pope's sanction to his divorce from Catherine, Henry at last lost all patience, and on the 25th January, 1533, was privately married to Anne Boleyn. The match was unpopular with the citizens, who took occasion of a sermon preached on Easter-day to show their dissatisfaction. According to Chapuys, the Spanish amba.s.sador, who sent an account of the affair to the emperor, the greater part of the congregation got up and left the church when prayers were desired for the queen. When Henry heard of the insult thus offered to his new bride he was furious, and forthwith sent word to the mayor to see that no such manifestation should occur again. Thereupon, continues Chapuys, the mayor summoned the guilds to a.s.semble in their various halls and commanded them to cease murmuring against the king's marriage on pain of incurring the royal displeasure, and to order their own journeymen and servants, "and, a still more difficult task, their own wives," to refrain from speaking disparagingly about the queen.(1169)