CHAPTER XII.

[pg 307]CHAPTER XII.The accession of King Edward IV, March, 1461.The new king made himself very popular with the citizens. He was not less a favourite with them because he joined their ranks and became a trader like themselves, or because he took a wife from among his own subjects and made her a sharer of his crown. At the coronations, both of Edward and his queen, which took place after an interval of three years, the City was fully represented, and its claim to services at the king's coronation banquet duly acknowledged.909At the latter ceremony no less than four citizens, among them being Ralph Josselyn, the mayor, were created Knights of the Bath.910The citizens had previously shown their respect to Elizabeth Woodville by riding forth to meet her and escorting her to the Tower on her first arrival to London, and by presenting her with a gift of 1,000 marks or £750.911Edward's first charter to the city, 26 Aug., 1461.If the young and handsome prince who now ascended the throne occasionally carried his familiarity with the wives of city burgesses beyond the limits of strict propriety, much could be forgotten and forgiven for the readiness he showed to confirm and enlarge the City's privileges and to foster the trade of the country. Before he had been on the throne many months he granted the citizens, by charter, the right[pg 308]of package and scavage, as well as the office of gauger of wines.912Second charter of Edward IV, 25 March, 1462.In the following March (1462) he confirmed the charter granted to the City by Henry IV, whereby the citizens obtained the right of taking toll and custom at Billingsgate, Smithfield and elsewhere, as well as the right oftronageor weighing wool at the Tron.913City Loans, 1462.In August, 1462 Calais was again in danger, and the king wanted money. The Earl of Worcester and others of the council were sent into the city to ask for a loan of £3,400. After considering the matter, the civic authorities agreed to lend him £1,000. The money was to be raised by assessment on the wards, but Dowgate ward being at the time very poor, was not to be pressed.914In the following October the City again came to the king's assistance with a further loan of 2,000 marks,915and on the 9th November the City obtained (in return, shall we say?) a charter confirming its jurisdiction over the Borough of Southwark,916originally granted by Edward III. Again, the coincidence of a charter granted by the king to the City, with a loan or gift from the City to the king, is remarkable.The king's reception in the city on his return from the North, Feb., 1463.When Edward returned in February, 1463, from the North, where he had succeeded with the assistance afforded him by the Londoners in re-capturing most of the castles which the restless Margaret had taken,[pg 309]the City resolved to give him a befitting reception. Preparations were made for the mayor, aldermen and commons to ride forth to meet him in their finest liveries, but the king having expressed his intention of coming from Shene to the city by water, the citizens went to meet him in their barges, with all the pomp and ceremony of a Lord Mayor's day.917Estrangement of Warwick, 1464-1468.Edward now gave himself up to a life of luxury and pleasure. In 1464 he married the young widow of Sir John Grey, better known by her maiden name of Elizabeth Woodville. His marriage to her gave offence to the nobility, more especially to the Earl of Warwick, who was planning at the time a match with France or Burgundy, and to whom the news of the marriage with one so beneath the king in point of dignity came as an unpleasant surprise. The earl was still more offended when he learnt that the young king had secretly effected a marriage treaty between his sister Margaret (whom Warwick had destined for one of the French princes) and the Duke of Burgundy. These matrimonial alliances, combined with the inordinate favour Edward displayed towards his wife's family, led to an estrangement between the king and his powerful subject.Alliance between England and Burgundy, 1468.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[pg 310]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.918Renewal of the civil war, 1469.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 Coke,919an 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.920Warwick 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.921In 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.[pg 311]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.922In 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 assistance 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.923Flight of Edward and restoration of Henry VI, Oct., 1470.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.924On the 1st October it was made known in the city that the king had taken flight.[pg 312]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, beingenceinteat 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.925Two 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.926On the 18th the Earl of Worcester, Edward's constable and minister of his cruelties,927was beheaded on Tower Hill, the ground being kept by the Sheriffs of London and a contingent from the several wards.928Sir Thomas Cooke or Coke, late alderman.In November Henry was made to hold a parliament, and Sir Thomas Cooke, the deposed alderman,[pg 313]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."929John 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 assumed 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.Edward recovers the throne, April, 1471.That the aldermen and the better class 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.930Two days later, having recruited his forces, Edward[pg 314]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 crushing defeat inflicted upon her at Tewkesbury (4 May) left Edward once more master of the kingdom.The Kentish rising under "bastard" Fauconberg, May, 1471.Attack made on the City.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 leadership of Thomas Fauconberg or Falconbridge, generally spoken of as the "bastard," 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 1454,931assumed the title 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 pass 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[pg 315]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 pass through the city. They hesitated to accept his assurance 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 assured 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 assured 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 pass through the city, that was out of the question.932Having 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[pg 316]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 Basset, alderman of Aldgate Ward, showed conspicuous valour in the fight which took place in that quarter.933The city was never again troubled by Fauconberg. After much wandering he was taken prisoner at Southampton, and thence conveyed to Middleham, in Yorkshire, where he was beheaded. His head was afterwards sent to London and set up on London Bridge, "looking into Kentward."934Edward's return to London, and death of Henry VI, May, 1471.On the night after Edward's return935in 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.936Edward 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,[pg 317]but the aldermen937besides, 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.938Birth of Edward V.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.939The invasion of France, 1475.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, passing 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.940The expedition ended without a blow, Edward allowing[pg 318]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.941Edward and the citizens.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,942and in the following month the City returned the compliment by a loan of 5,000 marks.943This 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.944A famine threatened, 1482.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 nobles 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[pg 319]Edward's last parliament, 1483.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.946In 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.947Some difficulty was experienced in raising the money, and the names of eleven persons who had refused to contribute were forwarded to the king.948A little more than a month elapsed and Edward was dead.Preparations for the coronation of Edward V.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.949On the 14th May they rode out[pg 320]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 assist the chief butler at the banquet950according 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,951it 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.Shaw's sermon at Paul's Cross, Sunday, 22 June, 1483.In order to do this he called to his assistance 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,[pg 321]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.The Duke of Buckingham at the Guildhall, 24 June, 1483.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 Shore,952one 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[pg 322]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 "worshipful citizens of the metropolis of the kingdom."953Buckingham'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 assent 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 assembly—would they have the Protector assume the crown?—a cry of assent 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 petition Gloucester to accept the crown.The deposition of Edward V, 26 June, 1483.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 assented, and, having assented, 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.[pg 323]The coronation of Richard III, 6 July, 1433.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.954The claim of the mayor and citizens to assist the chief butler at the coronation banquet was made and allowed,955the king, sitting crowned inle 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.956Concerning 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[pg 324]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 ofhonorariumwas, 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.Rebellion of the Duke of Buckingham, 1483.His execution, 2 Nov.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.The king's reception in the city, Nov., 1483.Bold speech of the Londoners.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.958His policy was one of conciliation, and he lent a ready ear to a[pg 325]Petition 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 God and man, and the liberty and laws of this realm wherein every Englishman is inherited."959Richard's Parliament, Jan., 1484.Richard met this appeal by summoning parliament to meet in January (1484), when various acts were passed 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 assist them in their occupation, and otherwise imposed great restrictions upon the merchant stranger.960This 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 unconstitutional.961Expected invasion of Henry of Richmond, 1484.In the summer he was welcomed wherever he went, yet he knew that danger threatened. Richmond was preparing for an invasion and the nobles 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.962In August they had promised[pg 326]Richard a loan of £2,400, each alderman contributing £100;963and in the following November the mayor and aldermen rode out to Kennington to meet him and escort him to the Wardrobe, near Blackfriars.964Richard defeated and slain at Bosworth, 22 Aug., 1485.Matters became more serious as time went on. In June, 1485, the City advanced another sum of £2,000 to assist Richard against the "rebels," who were daily expected to land in England.965Extraordinary precautions were taken to guard the city.966At last the blow fell. On the 7th August Henry landed at Milford Haven, and on the 22nd the battle of Bosworth was fought and Richard killed.Henry VII escorted to the city.From Bosworth field Henry set out for London. He was met at Shoreditch by a deputation from the City, accompanied by the Recorder, and was presented with a gift of 1,000 marks.967The standards taken on the field of battle were deposited with much pomp and ceremony in St. Paul's Church, where aTe Deumwas sung, and for a few days Henry took up his residence in the bishop's palace in St. Paul's Churchyard.968The sweating sickness, Sept.-Oct., 1485.A cloud soon overshadowed the rejoicings which followed Henry's accession. An epidemic hitherto unknown in England, although visitations of it followed at intervals during this and the succeeding reign, made its appearance in the city towards the close of September. The "sweating sickness," as this deadly[pg 327]pestilence was called, carried off two mayors and six aldermen within the space of a week969—so sudden and fatal was its attack. Sir Thomas Hille, who was mayor at the time of its first appearance, fell a victim to it on the 23rd September, and was succeeded by William Stocker, appointed on the following day.970Within four days Stocker himself was dead. There remained little more than a month before the regular day of election of a mayor (28 Oct.)971for the year ensuing, and John Warde was called upon to take office during the interval.972He appears to have entertained but little affection for the city, and the civic authorities had some difficulty in getting him to reside in London,973where his duties required his presence. When the mayoralty year expired he was not put in nomination for re-election. He probably went back into the country, glad to get away from the pestilential city, and Hugh Brice was elected in his stead.974Fortunately for the city, the epidemic departed as suddenly and unexpectedly as it came. By the end of October it had entirely disappeared, and allowed of Henry's coronation taking place on the 30th of that month.A City loan of £2,000.Within a fortnight of his arrival in London Henry issued a writ of summons for his first parliament. It was not so much for the purpose of obtaining supplies that he was anxious that parliament should meet at the earliest opportunity; he was desirous of[pg 328]obtaining as soon as possible a parliamentary title to the crown. As for his immediate necessities, he preferred to apply to the City. He asked for a loan of 6,000 marks, or £4,000; but the citizens would not advance more than half that sum. The loan was repaid the following year—"every penie to the good contentation and satisfying of them that disbursed it."975Henry's marriage with Elizabeth of York, Jan., 1486.In January, 1486, Henry married the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV, and heiress of the Yorkist family. He had previously taken the precaution of committing to the Tower the Earl of Warwick, son of Clarence, for fear lest he might set up a title to the crown.976After his marriage he set out on a progress through the country, and on his return to London, in June, was met by the mayor and citizens at Putney, and escorted by them down the river to Westminster.977The insurrection of Lambert Simnel, 1487.City gifts to the king, June and July, 1487.A rumour that the Earl of Warwick had escaped from the Tower gave an opportunity for an imposter, Lambert Simnel, to personate the earl. In order to satisfy the Londoners that the rumour of Warwick's escape was a fabrication, Henry caused his prisoner to be paraded through the streets of the city, and exposed to public view at St. Paul's. After Simnel's defeat (16 June, 1487), the Common Council agreed (28 June) to send a deputation, consisting of two aldermen, the recorder, and four commoners, with a suite of 24 men, to meet[pg 329]the king at Kenilworth, and at the same time voted the king a present of £1000.978This gift was quickly followed (11 July) by the grant of another loan of £2,000 to be levied on the civic companies as before.979The king escorted to London, Oct., 1487.The City's gift to the queen at her coronation, 25 Nov., 1487.In October Henry was expected in London,980and the Common Council again showed their loyalty by agreeing that the mayor and aldermen should ride forth to meet his highness, clad in cloaks of scarlet, and accompanied by a suite of servants clothed in medley, at the cost of the "Chamber." With them also rode a contingent from the various civic guilds, clothed in violet, and numbering over 400 horsemen. The Mercers, the Grocers, the Drapers, the Fishmongers, and the "Taillours," each sent 30 mounted representatives of their guild; the Goldsmiths sent 24, whilst the rest sent contingents varying from one to twenty.981On the occasion of the queen's coronation, which took place the following month (25 Nov.), she was made the recipient of a gift of 1,000 marks by the City.982Henry VII and Brittany, 1488-1492.The king would willingly have remained at peace if he were allowed, from motives of economy if for no other reason. England, however, could not sit still and see Brittany overwhelmed by the French king. Before assistance could be sent to the Duchess Anne, it was imperative that money should be raised. At the close of 1488 the Common Council voted the king a loan of £4,000. The money was ordered to be raised by assessment on the companies, but the practice was not to be drawn into precedent. The king,[pg 330]like a good paymaster as he always was, whatever other defects he may have had, repaid the money in the following year.983Parliamentary supplies and City loans.Early in the following year parliament984granted large supplies which enabled Henry to despatch 6,000 Englishmen to Anne's assistance, but which caused much discontent among the "rude and beastlie" people of Yorkshire and Durham.985In June, 1491, another loan of £3,000 was raised, this time by assessment on the wards;986and in October Henry declared to parliament his intention of invading France in person. A grant of two fifteenths and two tenths was immediately made to assist him in his expedition by parliament; whilst the City contributed a "great benevolence," the fellowship of Drapers contributing more than any other fellowship, and every alderman subscribing, whether he wished it or no, the sum of £200. The amount contributed by the commonalty exceeded £9,000.987Thus furnished with supplies, the king crossed over to Calais on the 6th October, 1492. The campaign, however, had scarcely opened before Henry gladly accepted the liberal terms offered him by the French king, and peace was signed at Etaples (3 Nov.).[pg 331]Perkin Warbeck conspiracy, 1496-1497.The success which, brief as it was, had attended Simnel's enterprise was sufficient to encourage a hope that a better planned project might end in overturning the throne. A report was accordingly blazed abroad that Richard, Duke of York, brother of King Edward V, was yet alive, not having been murdered in the Tower, as had been supposed; and a man called Perkin Warbeck or Warboys, a native of Tournay, assumed the name of Richard Plantagenet and succeeded in getting a large number of people in Ireland and Scotland to believe that in his person they in fact saw Richard, Duke of York, the rightful heir to the crown. James IV of Scotland not only gave him in marriage the lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntley, but led an army into England in hopes that the appearance of the pretended prince might raise an insurrection in the northern counties. Instead, however, of joining the invaders the English prepared to repel them, and James retreated into his own country. This took place in 1496. Parliament granted large supplies to enable the king to meet the danger, but the inhabitants of Cornwall, sick of the constant demands made of them for money, and aware of the large treasure which Henry had already amassed, openly resisted any attempt at further taxation and determined to march on London.The city put into a state of defence.The Londoners, who not only abstained from opposing the new demand for money, but volunteered a loan to the king (15 Nov.) of £4,000,988lost no time in putting their city into a state of defence. Six[pg 332]aldermen and a number of representatives from the livery companies were deputed to attend to the city's ordnance.989The mayor was to be allowed twelve armed men in addition to his usual suite, and the sheriffs forty sergeants and forty valets in order to assist them in keeping the peace within the city. Communication was to be kept up at least once in the day between the mayor and the Lord Chancellor. Houses which had been set up on the city's walls, or within sixteen feet of them, were to be abated. John Stokker, who filled the not unworthy office of Common Hunt,990was ordered daily to ride out to learn the king's pleasure and report thereon to the mayor and aldermen. Among those appointed to guard the city's gates and Temple Bar was Alderman Fabyan, the chronicler.991The state of anxiety which prevailed in the city at this crisis is illustrated by "Jesus Mercy" at the head of one side of the page of the City's record, on which the above orders are entered, whilst on the other side are the wordsvigilie temporis turbacionis.992The rebels defeated at Blackheath, 22 June, 1497.Perkin Warbeck in Cornwall.Surrenders to the king's forces and is brought prisoner to London, Oct., 1498.Is executed at Tyburn, 1499.By the 22nd June, 1497, all immediate danger had passed, the rebels being on that day utterly defeated at Blackheath. Their leaders were taken and executed; the rest were for the most part made prisoners, but were soon afterwards dismissed without further punishment. The leniency displayed towards them by Henry was[pg 333]ill-repaid by their afterwards flocking to the standard of thesoi-disantRichard IV, King of England, who availed himself of their mutinous disposition and appeared in their midst at Bodmin. The news of Perkin Warbeck having arrived in Cornwall from Ireland was brought to the mayor and aldermen of the City of London by letter from the king, which was read to the Common Council on Saturday, the 16th September.993The rebels made an unsuccesful attempt to get possession of Exeter, but hearing of the approach of the king's forces, Perkin Warbeck withdrew to Taunton, leaving his followers to take care of themselves. From Taunton he went to "Mynet" (Minehead) accompanied by less than sixty adherents,994and by the 12th October the king was able to inform the Mayor that Peter "Warboys" had voluntarily submitted himself and had confessed to his being a native of Tournay.995The king had him conveyed to London and paraded through the streets on horseback, in a species of mock triumph, and caused his confession to be printed and scattered over the country that people might see the real character of the man. For a time he appears to have been detained in lax custody about the court, but after he had made an attempt to escape and reach the sea-coast, and been re-captured, he was sent to the Tower. There he got into communication with the unfortunate Earl of Warwick, and entered into a plot for effecting his own and the earl's liberty. A charge was formulated against the earl on the most trivial grounds, of a conspiracy to seize the Tower, and Warbeck was indicted as an accomplice. The former, being found[pg 334]guilty by his peers, was beheaded on Tower Hill, while Perkin and three of his accomplices were hanged at Tyburn.996Visit of Henry VIII as a boy to the city, 30 Oct., 1498.In the meantime Prince Henry, who afterwards succeeded his father on the throne as King Henry VIII, but was at the time a child of seven years, paid a visit to the city (30 Oct., 1498), where he received a hearty welcome and was presented by the Recorder, on behalf of the citizens, with a pair of gilt goblets. In reply to the Recorder, who in presenting this "litell and powre" gift, promised to remember his grace with a better at some future time, the prince made the following short speech:—997His speech."Fader Maire, I thank you and your Brethern here present of this greate and kynd remembraunce which I trist in tyme comyng to deserve. And for asmoche as I can not give unto you according thankes, I shall pray the Kynges Grace to thank you, and for my partye I shall not forget yorkyndnesse."In anticipation of the prince's visit, a proclamation had been made by the civic authorities with the view of purging the city of infectious disease, to the effect that all vagabonds and others affected with the "greate pockes" should vacate the city on pain of imprisonment.998Negotiations for a marriage between Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon.Preparations for reception of the princess, Nov., 1499.The removal of Warwick—"the one judicial murder of Henry's reign"—if not suggested by Spain, was an act which could not be otherwise than grateful to the Spanish king. For five years past negotiations[pg 335]had been proceeding for a marriage between Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon. Warwick's death cleared away the last of Henry's serious competitors, and "not a doubtful drop of royal blood" remained in the kingdom to oppose Arthur's claim to the succession. The princess was expected shortly to arrive in England, and a committee composed of aldermen and commoners was appointed (Nov. 1499) to consult with the king's commissioners as to the preparations to be made for her reception.999Nearly two years, however, elapsed before she set foot in England. In May, 1500, there were again rumours of her approach, and the Common Council voted a sum of money to be levied on the wards to defray the expenses of her reception.1000Death of an infant prince, June, 1500.The "garnysshyng of the pagents" for the festive occasion1001was interrupted by the death of Edmund, the king's infant son. On the 19th June the members of the various craft guilds were ordered to line the streets of Old Bailey and Fleet Street, through which the funeral procession was to pass on its way to Westminster. The mayor and aldermen were to stand, clad in their violet gowns, near Saint Dunstan's Church, and the next morning to go to Westminster by barge to attend the solemn requiem.1002The marriage of Prince Arthur with Catherine of Aragon, 14 Nov., 1501.There was no necessity for hurry in regard to the pageants. More than a twelvemonth was yet to elapse before they were wanted. At length—on the 2nd October,10031501—the princess landed at Plymouth,[pg 336]and five days later the City received notice from the king of her approach to London. The marriage was solemnized at St. Paul's on the 14th November, the princess being presented with silver flagons by the City in honour of the occasion.1004Five months later (2 April, 1502) the bride was a widow, Prince Arthur having died at the early age of fifteen.More rejoicings in the city, March, 1503In 1503 the streets of the city were again put into mourning, for in February of that year Henry lost his queen. A long account of the manner of "receyvyng of the corps of the most noble princes Quene Elizabeth" is given in the City's Archives.1005In the following month the streets presented a very different appearance, the occasion being the solemnization of the league made between Henry and the King of the Romans. Bonfires were ordered to be lighted at nine different places, and at each of them was to be placed a hogshead of wine, with two sergeants and two sheriffs' yeomen to prevent disturbance; but seeing that it was the Lenten season and that the queen had so recently died, there was to be no minstrelsy. The City Chamberlain was instructed to provide a certain quantity of "Ipocras," claret, Rhenish wine and Muscatel, besides comfits and wafers, and two pots of "Succade" and green ginger, to be presented on the City's behalf to the ambassadors of the King of the Romans, lying at "Pasmer Howse"; a similar gift being presented the following day on behalf of the sheriffs.1006[pg 337]Charter of Henry VII to the Tailors of London, 6 June 1503.Henry's chief merit was that he established order, and for this the citizens were grateful. This improvement on the weak government of his immediate predecessors had only been carried out, however, at the cost of extension of royal power, and the City was made to suffer with the rest of the kingdom. In 1503 the civic authorities were deprived by statute of their control over the livery companies,1007and in the same year the Tailors of London obtained a charter which gave umbrage to the mayor and aldermen of the City, as ousting them of their jurisdiction. The Tailors maintained their independence, and their wardens are expressly mentioned as refusing to join the Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths and other fraternities in a petition to parliament (1512) for placing them formally under the rule of the mayor and aldermen, from which they were frequently breaking away.1008Henry's charter to the City, 23 July, 1505.It was not until 1505 that the City succeeded in getting its charter1009from Henry, and then only on payment of the sum of 5,000 marks. The terms of the charter, moreover, were far from satisfactory, and an attempt was made to get them altered and obtain an abatement of the fine,1010but to no purpose.Henry's high-handed policy towards the City, 1506-1509.Henry continued his high-handed policy towards the City up to the day of his death, and thereby greatly increased his treasure. His chief instruments were Empson and Dudley, who took up their residence in the city, occupying two houses in Walbrook,[pg 338]whence each had a door into a garden of the Earl of Oxford's house in St. Swithin's Lane.1011There they used to meet and concert measures for filling the king's purse and their own. In 1506 Henry removed Robert Johnson, a goldsmith, from the shrievalty within three days of his election, and put William Fitz-William in his place. Johnson took the matter so much to heart that he died.1012In the same year Thomas Kneseworth, the late mayor, was committed to the Marshalsea, together with the sheriffs who had served under him, and only regained his liberty on payment of a large sum of money.1013In 1507 Sir William Capel, Alderman of Walbrook Ward, who had already fallen a victim to Empson and been heavily fined under an obsolete statute, was again attacked and fined £2,000 for supposed negligence during his mayoralty. Rather than submit to such extortion he went to prison, and remained there until the king's death, when he obtained his freedom and was soon afterwards re-elected mayor.1014Lawrence Aylmer, another mayor, was also a victim of Henry's tyranny, and was committed to the compter, where he remained for the rest of the reign.1015Marriage of the Princess Mary, Dec., 1508.In the meantime the Archduke Philip happened to fall into Henry's hands (Jan., 1506). Whilst crossing the sea to claim the kingdom of Castile[pg 339]in right of his wife, he was driven by stress of weather into Weymouth. Henry was too shrewd a politician not to make the most of so lucky an event, and detained him in a species of honourable captivity, until Philip had promised him the hand of his sister Margaret with a large dower. This marriage alliance was destined never to be realised. Another scheme, however, was subsequently proposed and met with more success. This was a marriage of Henry's own daughter with Philip's son Charles, Prince of Castile. News of their engagement was conveyed to the mayor and aldermen of the City by a letter from the king himself (25 Dec., 1507), in which he expatiated on the benefits, political and commercial, likely to arise from the match.1016This letter was followed by another from the king, dated from Greenwich, the 23rd June following, in which the Corporation was informed that for the assurance of execution of the marriage treaty both parties had given pledges, and that the City of London was, among other cities and towns, included in letters obligatory to that effect, which letters he begged should be sealed without delay with the Common Seal of the City.1017And so, after the manner of the times, the boy of eight was married (by proxy) to the girl of twelve, amid great rejoicings in London (17 Dec., 1508).1018Henry's taste for the fine arts.If Henry amassed wealth, it was not from any miserly motive. He well knew the value of the money, and that peace at home was never better secured than by a full treasury. He made, moreover, a princely use of his money, encouraging scholarship,[pg 340]music, and architecture, and dazzled the eyes of foreign ambassadors with the splendour of his receptions. That he had a fine taste in building no one can deny who has once seen the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, or the chapel that bears his name at Westminster.The King's Chapel and Chantry at Westminster.Originally intended by Henry as a resting place for the remains of his uncle, Henry VI, the last mentioned edifice was diverted from its purposes and became the chantry as well as the tomb of Henry VII himself. Anxiety for his soul caused him to bind the Abbot of Westminster by heavy penalties to the due observance of his obit. These penalties were set out in six books or deeds, sealed with the Common Seal of the City of London, and formally delivered to the king by a deputation of the mayor and aldermen, who received in return a seventh book to remain in their custody. In 1504—the year that Pope Julius sanctioned the removal of the remains of Henry VI from Windsor to Westminster—the mayor and citizens formally sealed the "books" before the Master of the Rolls at the Guildhall. Two years later certain livery companies undertook to keep the king's obit on the day that the mayor for the time being went to take his oath at the Exchequer.1019The king's death, 22 April, 1509.The king died at his palace of Shene, recently renamed in his honour "Richmond," on the 22nd April,1020[pg 341]1509. Just before his death he granted a general pardon and paid the debts of prisoners committed to the compters of London and to Ludgate for debts amounting to forty shillings or less.1021His corpse was conveyed from Richmond to St. Paul's on the 9th May, being met on its way at St. George's Bar, in Southwark, by the mayor, aldermen and a suite of 104 commoners, all in black clothing and all on horseback. The streets were lined with other members of the companies bearing torches, the lowest craft occupying the first place. Next after the freemen of the city came the "strangers"—Easterlings, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Venetians, Genoese, Florentines and "Lukeners"—on horseback and on foot, also bearing torches.1022These took up their position in Gracechurch Street. Cornhill was occupied by the lower crafts, ordered in such a way that "the most worshipful crafts" stood next unto "Paules." A similar order was preserved the next day, when the corpse was removed from Saint Paul's to Westminster. The lowest crafts were placed nearest to the Cathedral, and the most worshipful next to Temple Bar, where the civic escort terminated. The mayor and aldermen proceeded to Westminster by water, to attend the "masse and offering." The mayor, with his mace in his hand, made his offering next after the Lord Chamberlain; those aldermen who had passed the chair1023offered next after the Knights of the Garter, and before all "knights for the body"; whilst the aldermen who had not yet served as mayor made their offering after the knights.1024[pg 342]When King Henry VIII was about to make an expedition to France in 1544, the Court of Aldermen gave notice to the Bishop of London that the obit of Henry VII would be kept on Friday, the 16th May, on which day there would be a general procession, and that the observance would be continued until the king departed out of the realm, and then on every Friday and Wednesday until his return.1025

[pg 307]CHAPTER XII.The accession of King Edward IV, March, 1461.The new king made himself very popular with the citizens. He was not less a favourite with them because he joined their ranks and became a trader like themselves, or because he took a wife from among his own subjects and made her a sharer of his crown. At the coronations, both of Edward and his queen, which took place after an interval of three years, the City was fully represented, and its claim to services at the king's coronation banquet duly acknowledged.909At the latter ceremony no less than four citizens, among them being Ralph Josselyn, the mayor, were created Knights of the Bath.910The citizens had previously shown their respect to Elizabeth Woodville by riding forth to meet her and escorting her to the Tower on her first arrival to London, and by presenting her with a gift of 1,000 marks or £750.911Edward's first charter to the city, 26 Aug., 1461.If the young and handsome prince who now ascended the throne occasionally carried his familiarity with the wives of city burgesses beyond the limits of strict propriety, much could be forgotten and forgiven for the readiness he showed to confirm and enlarge the City's privileges and to foster the trade of the country. Before he had been on the throne many months he granted the citizens, by charter, the right[pg 308]of package and scavage, as well as the office of gauger of wines.912Second charter of Edward IV, 25 March, 1462.In the following March (1462) he confirmed the charter granted to the City by Henry IV, whereby the citizens obtained the right of taking toll and custom at Billingsgate, Smithfield and elsewhere, as well as the right oftronageor weighing wool at the Tron.913City Loans, 1462.In August, 1462 Calais was again in danger, and the king wanted money. The Earl of Worcester and others of the council were sent into the city to ask for a loan of £3,400. After considering the matter, the civic authorities agreed to lend him £1,000. The money was to be raised by assessment on the wards, but Dowgate ward being at the time very poor, was not to be pressed.914In the following October the City again came to the king's assistance with a further loan of 2,000 marks,915and on the 9th November the City obtained (in return, shall we say?) a charter confirming its jurisdiction over the Borough of Southwark,916originally granted by Edward III. Again, the coincidence of a charter granted by the king to the City, with a loan or gift from the City to the king, is remarkable.The king's reception in the city on his return from the North, Feb., 1463.When Edward returned in February, 1463, from the North, where he had succeeded with the assistance afforded him by the Londoners in re-capturing most of the castles which the restless Margaret had taken,[pg 309]the City resolved to give him a befitting reception. Preparations were made for the mayor, aldermen and commons to ride forth to meet him in their finest liveries, but the king having expressed his intention of coming from Shene to the city by water, the citizens went to meet him in their barges, with all the pomp and ceremony of a Lord Mayor's day.917Estrangement of Warwick, 1464-1468.Edward now gave himself up to a life of luxury and pleasure. In 1464 he married the young widow of Sir John Grey, better known by her maiden name of Elizabeth Woodville. His marriage to her gave offence to the nobility, more especially to the Earl of Warwick, who was planning at the time a match with France or Burgundy, and to whom the news of the marriage with one so beneath the king in point of dignity came as an unpleasant surprise. The earl was still more offended when he learnt that the young king had secretly effected a marriage treaty between his sister Margaret (whom Warwick had destined for one of the French princes) and the Duke of Burgundy. These matrimonial alliances, combined with the inordinate favour Edward displayed towards his wife's family, led to an estrangement between the king and his powerful subject.Alliance between England and Burgundy, 1468.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[pg 310]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.918Renewal of the civil war, 1469.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 Coke,919an 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.920Warwick 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.921In 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.[pg 311]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.922In 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 assistance 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.923Flight of Edward and restoration of Henry VI, Oct., 1470.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.924On the 1st October it was made known in the city that the king had taken flight.[pg 312]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, beingenceinteat 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.925Two 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.926On the 18th the Earl of Worcester, Edward's constable and minister of his cruelties,927was beheaded on Tower Hill, the ground being kept by the Sheriffs of London and a contingent from the several wards.928Sir Thomas Cooke or Coke, late alderman.In November Henry was made to hold a parliament, and Sir Thomas Cooke, the deposed alderman,[pg 313]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."929John 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 assumed 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.Edward recovers the throne, April, 1471.That the aldermen and the better class 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.930Two days later, having recruited his forces, Edward[pg 314]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 crushing defeat inflicted upon her at Tewkesbury (4 May) left Edward once more master of the kingdom.The Kentish rising under "bastard" Fauconberg, May, 1471.Attack made on the City.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 leadership of Thomas Fauconberg or Falconbridge, generally spoken of as the "bastard," 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 1454,931assumed the title 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 pass 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[pg 315]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 pass through the city. They hesitated to accept his assurance 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 assured 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 assured 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 pass through the city, that was out of the question.932Having 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[pg 316]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 Basset, alderman of Aldgate Ward, showed conspicuous valour in the fight which took place in that quarter.933The city was never again troubled by Fauconberg. After much wandering he was taken prisoner at Southampton, and thence conveyed to Middleham, in Yorkshire, where he was beheaded. His head was afterwards sent to London and set up on London Bridge, "looking into Kentward."934Edward's return to London, and death of Henry VI, May, 1471.On the night after Edward's return935in 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.936Edward 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,[pg 317]but the aldermen937besides, 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.938Birth of Edward V.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.939The invasion of France, 1475.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, passing 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.940The expedition ended without a blow, Edward allowing[pg 318]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.941Edward and the citizens.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,942and in the following month the City returned the compliment by a loan of 5,000 marks.943This 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.944A famine threatened, 1482.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 nobles 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[pg 319]Edward's last parliament, 1483.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.946In 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.947Some difficulty was experienced in raising the money, and the names of eleven persons who had refused to contribute were forwarded to the king.948A little more than a month elapsed and Edward was dead.Preparations for the coronation of Edward V.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.949On the 14th May they rode out[pg 320]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 assist the chief butler at the banquet950according 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,951it 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.Shaw's sermon at Paul's Cross, Sunday, 22 June, 1483.In order to do this he called to his assistance 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,[pg 321]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.The Duke of Buckingham at the Guildhall, 24 June, 1483.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 Shore,952one 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[pg 322]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 "worshipful citizens of the metropolis of the kingdom."953Buckingham'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 assent 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 assembly—would they have the Protector assume the crown?—a cry of assent 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 petition Gloucester to accept the crown.The deposition of Edward V, 26 June, 1483.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 assented, and, having assented, 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.[pg 323]The coronation of Richard III, 6 July, 1433.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.954The claim of the mayor and citizens to assist the chief butler at the coronation banquet was made and allowed,955the king, sitting crowned inle 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.956Concerning 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[pg 324]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 ofhonorariumwas, 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.Rebellion of the Duke of Buckingham, 1483.His execution, 2 Nov.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.The king's reception in the city, Nov., 1483.Bold speech of the Londoners.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.958His policy was one of conciliation, and he lent a ready ear to a[pg 325]Petition 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 God and man, and the liberty and laws of this realm wherein every Englishman is inherited."959Richard's Parliament, Jan., 1484.Richard met this appeal by summoning parliament to meet in January (1484), when various acts were passed 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 assist them in their occupation, and otherwise imposed great restrictions upon the merchant stranger.960This 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 unconstitutional.961Expected invasion of Henry of Richmond, 1484.In the summer he was welcomed wherever he went, yet he knew that danger threatened. Richmond was preparing for an invasion and the nobles 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.962In August they had promised[pg 326]Richard a loan of £2,400, each alderman contributing £100;963and in the following November the mayor and aldermen rode out to Kennington to meet him and escort him to the Wardrobe, near Blackfriars.964Richard defeated and slain at Bosworth, 22 Aug., 1485.Matters became more serious as time went on. In June, 1485, the City advanced another sum of £2,000 to assist Richard against the "rebels," who were daily expected to land in England.965Extraordinary precautions were taken to guard the city.966At last the blow fell. On the 7th August Henry landed at Milford Haven, and on the 22nd the battle of Bosworth was fought and Richard killed.Henry VII escorted to the city.From Bosworth field Henry set out for London. He was met at Shoreditch by a deputation from the City, accompanied by the Recorder, and was presented with a gift of 1,000 marks.967The standards taken on the field of battle were deposited with much pomp and ceremony in St. Paul's Church, where aTe Deumwas sung, and for a few days Henry took up his residence in the bishop's palace in St. Paul's Churchyard.968The sweating sickness, Sept.-Oct., 1485.A cloud soon overshadowed the rejoicings which followed Henry's accession. An epidemic hitherto unknown in England, although visitations of it followed at intervals during this and the succeeding reign, made its appearance in the city towards the close of September. The "sweating sickness," as this deadly[pg 327]pestilence was called, carried off two mayors and six aldermen within the space of a week969—so sudden and fatal was its attack. Sir Thomas Hille, who was mayor at the time of its first appearance, fell a victim to it on the 23rd September, and was succeeded by William Stocker, appointed on the following day.970Within four days Stocker himself was dead. There remained little more than a month before the regular day of election of a mayor (28 Oct.)971for the year ensuing, and John Warde was called upon to take office during the interval.972He appears to have entertained but little affection for the city, and the civic authorities had some difficulty in getting him to reside in London,973where his duties required his presence. When the mayoralty year expired he was not put in nomination for re-election. He probably went back into the country, glad to get away from the pestilential city, and Hugh Brice was elected in his stead.974Fortunately for the city, the epidemic departed as suddenly and unexpectedly as it came. By the end of October it had entirely disappeared, and allowed of Henry's coronation taking place on the 30th of that month.A City loan of £2,000.Within a fortnight of his arrival in London Henry issued a writ of summons for his first parliament. It was not so much for the purpose of obtaining supplies that he was anxious that parliament should meet at the earliest opportunity; he was desirous of[pg 328]obtaining as soon as possible a parliamentary title to the crown. As for his immediate necessities, he preferred to apply to the City. He asked for a loan of 6,000 marks, or £4,000; but the citizens would not advance more than half that sum. The loan was repaid the following year—"every penie to the good contentation and satisfying of them that disbursed it."975Henry's marriage with Elizabeth of York, Jan., 1486.In January, 1486, Henry married the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV, and heiress of the Yorkist family. He had previously taken the precaution of committing to the Tower the Earl of Warwick, son of Clarence, for fear lest he might set up a title to the crown.976After his marriage he set out on a progress through the country, and on his return to London, in June, was met by the mayor and citizens at Putney, and escorted by them down the river to Westminster.977The insurrection of Lambert Simnel, 1487.City gifts to the king, June and July, 1487.A rumour that the Earl of Warwick had escaped from the Tower gave an opportunity for an imposter, Lambert Simnel, to personate the earl. In order to satisfy the Londoners that the rumour of Warwick's escape was a fabrication, Henry caused his prisoner to be paraded through the streets of the city, and exposed to public view at St. Paul's. After Simnel's defeat (16 June, 1487), the Common Council agreed (28 June) to send a deputation, consisting of two aldermen, the recorder, and four commoners, with a suite of 24 men, to meet[pg 329]the king at Kenilworth, and at the same time voted the king a present of £1000.978This gift was quickly followed (11 July) by the grant of another loan of £2,000 to be levied on the civic companies as before.979The king escorted to London, Oct., 1487.The City's gift to the queen at her coronation, 25 Nov., 1487.In October Henry was expected in London,980and the Common Council again showed their loyalty by agreeing that the mayor and aldermen should ride forth to meet his highness, clad in cloaks of scarlet, and accompanied by a suite of servants clothed in medley, at the cost of the "Chamber." With them also rode a contingent from the various civic guilds, clothed in violet, and numbering over 400 horsemen. The Mercers, the Grocers, the Drapers, the Fishmongers, and the "Taillours," each sent 30 mounted representatives of their guild; the Goldsmiths sent 24, whilst the rest sent contingents varying from one to twenty.981On the occasion of the queen's coronation, which took place the following month (25 Nov.), she was made the recipient of a gift of 1,000 marks by the City.982Henry VII and Brittany, 1488-1492.The king would willingly have remained at peace if he were allowed, from motives of economy if for no other reason. England, however, could not sit still and see Brittany overwhelmed by the French king. Before assistance could be sent to the Duchess Anne, it was imperative that money should be raised. At the close of 1488 the Common Council voted the king a loan of £4,000. The money was ordered to be raised by assessment on the companies, but the practice was not to be drawn into precedent. The king,[pg 330]like a good paymaster as he always was, whatever other defects he may have had, repaid the money in the following year.983Parliamentary supplies and City loans.Early in the following year parliament984granted large supplies which enabled Henry to despatch 6,000 Englishmen to Anne's assistance, but which caused much discontent among the "rude and beastlie" people of Yorkshire and Durham.985In June, 1491, another loan of £3,000 was raised, this time by assessment on the wards;986and in October Henry declared to parliament his intention of invading France in person. A grant of two fifteenths and two tenths was immediately made to assist him in his expedition by parliament; whilst the City contributed a "great benevolence," the fellowship of Drapers contributing more than any other fellowship, and every alderman subscribing, whether he wished it or no, the sum of £200. The amount contributed by the commonalty exceeded £9,000.987Thus furnished with supplies, the king crossed over to Calais on the 6th October, 1492. The campaign, however, had scarcely opened before Henry gladly accepted the liberal terms offered him by the French king, and peace was signed at Etaples (3 Nov.).[pg 331]Perkin Warbeck conspiracy, 1496-1497.The success which, brief as it was, had attended Simnel's enterprise was sufficient to encourage a hope that a better planned project might end in overturning the throne. A report was accordingly blazed abroad that Richard, Duke of York, brother of King Edward V, was yet alive, not having been murdered in the Tower, as had been supposed; and a man called Perkin Warbeck or Warboys, a native of Tournay, assumed the name of Richard Plantagenet and succeeded in getting a large number of people in Ireland and Scotland to believe that in his person they in fact saw Richard, Duke of York, the rightful heir to the crown. James IV of Scotland not only gave him in marriage the lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntley, but led an army into England in hopes that the appearance of the pretended prince might raise an insurrection in the northern counties. Instead, however, of joining the invaders the English prepared to repel them, and James retreated into his own country. This took place in 1496. Parliament granted large supplies to enable the king to meet the danger, but the inhabitants of Cornwall, sick of the constant demands made of them for money, and aware of the large treasure which Henry had already amassed, openly resisted any attempt at further taxation and determined to march on London.The city put into a state of defence.The Londoners, who not only abstained from opposing the new demand for money, but volunteered a loan to the king (15 Nov.) of £4,000,988lost no time in putting their city into a state of defence. Six[pg 332]aldermen and a number of representatives from the livery companies were deputed to attend to the city's ordnance.989The mayor was to be allowed twelve armed men in addition to his usual suite, and the sheriffs forty sergeants and forty valets in order to assist them in keeping the peace within the city. Communication was to be kept up at least once in the day between the mayor and the Lord Chancellor. Houses which had been set up on the city's walls, or within sixteen feet of them, were to be abated. John Stokker, who filled the not unworthy office of Common Hunt,990was ordered daily to ride out to learn the king's pleasure and report thereon to the mayor and aldermen. Among those appointed to guard the city's gates and Temple Bar was Alderman Fabyan, the chronicler.991The state of anxiety which prevailed in the city at this crisis is illustrated by "Jesus Mercy" at the head of one side of the page of the City's record, on which the above orders are entered, whilst on the other side are the wordsvigilie temporis turbacionis.992The rebels defeated at Blackheath, 22 June, 1497.Perkin Warbeck in Cornwall.Surrenders to the king's forces and is brought prisoner to London, Oct., 1498.Is executed at Tyburn, 1499.By the 22nd June, 1497, all immediate danger had passed, the rebels being on that day utterly defeated at Blackheath. Their leaders were taken and executed; the rest were for the most part made prisoners, but were soon afterwards dismissed without further punishment. The leniency displayed towards them by Henry was[pg 333]ill-repaid by their afterwards flocking to the standard of thesoi-disantRichard IV, King of England, who availed himself of their mutinous disposition and appeared in their midst at Bodmin. The news of Perkin Warbeck having arrived in Cornwall from Ireland was brought to the mayor and aldermen of the City of London by letter from the king, which was read to the Common Council on Saturday, the 16th September.993The rebels made an unsuccesful attempt to get possession of Exeter, but hearing of the approach of the king's forces, Perkin Warbeck withdrew to Taunton, leaving his followers to take care of themselves. From Taunton he went to "Mynet" (Minehead) accompanied by less than sixty adherents,994and by the 12th October the king was able to inform the Mayor that Peter "Warboys" had voluntarily submitted himself and had confessed to his being a native of Tournay.995The king had him conveyed to London and paraded through the streets on horseback, in a species of mock triumph, and caused his confession to be printed and scattered over the country that people might see the real character of the man. For a time he appears to have been detained in lax custody about the court, but after he had made an attempt to escape and reach the sea-coast, and been re-captured, he was sent to the Tower. There he got into communication with the unfortunate Earl of Warwick, and entered into a plot for effecting his own and the earl's liberty. A charge was formulated against the earl on the most trivial grounds, of a conspiracy to seize the Tower, and Warbeck was indicted as an accomplice. The former, being found[pg 334]guilty by his peers, was beheaded on Tower Hill, while Perkin and three of his accomplices were hanged at Tyburn.996Visit of Henry VIII as a boy to the city, 30 Oct., 1498.In the meantime Prince Henry, who afterwards succeeded his father on the throne as King Henry VIII, but was at the time a child of seven years, paid a visit to the city (30 Oct., 1498), where he received a hearty welcome and was presented by the Recorder, on behalf of the citizens, with a pair of gilt goblets. In reply to the Recorder, who in presenting this "litell and powre" gift, promised to remember his grace with a better at some future time, the prince made the following short speech:—997His speech."Fader Maire, I thank you and your Brethern here present of this greate and kynd remembraunce which I trist in tyme comyng to deserve. And for asmoche as I can not give unto you according thankes, I shall pray the Kynges Grace to thank you, and for my partye I shall not forget yorkyndnesse."In anticipation of the prince's visit, a proclamation had been made by the civic authorities with the view of purging the city of infectious disease, to the effect that all vagabonds and others affected with the "greate pockes" should vacate the city on pain of imprisonment.998Negotiations for a marriage between Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon.Preparations for reception of the princess, Nov., 1499.The removal of Warwick—"the one judicial murder of Henry's reign"—if not suggested by Spain, was an act which could not be otherwise than grateful to the Spanish king. For five years past negotiations[pg 335]had been proceeding for a marriage between Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon. Warwick's death cleared away the last of Henry's serious competitors, and "not a doubtful drop of royal blood" remained in the kingdom to oppose Arthur's claim to the succession. The princess was expected shortly to arrive in England, and a committee composed of aldermen and commoners was appointed (Nov. 1499) to consult with the king's commissioners as to the preparations to be made for her reception.999Nearly two years, however, elapsed before she set foot in England. In May, 1500, there were again rumours of her approach, and the Common Council voted a sum of money to be levied on the wards to defray the expenses of her reception.1000Death of an infant prince, June, 1500.The "garnysshyng of the pagents" for the festive occasion1001was interrupted by the death of Edmund, the king's infant son. On the 19th June the members of the various craft guilds were ordered to line the streets of Old Bailey and Fleet Street, through which the funeral procession was to pass on its way to Westminster. The mayor and aldermen were to stand, clad in their violet gowns, near Saint Dunstan's Church, and the next morning to go to Westminster by barge to attend the solemn requiem.1002The marriage of Prince Arthur with Catherine of Aragon, 14 Nov., 1501.There was no necessity for hurry in regard to the pageants. More than a twelvemonth was yet to elapse before they were wanted. At length—on the 2nd October,10031501—the princess landed at Plymouth,[pg 336]and five days later the City received notice from the king of her approach to London. The marriage was solemnized at St. Paul's on the 14th November, the princess being presented with silver flagons by the City in honour of the occasion.1004Five months later (2 April, 1502) the bride was a widow, Prince Arthur having died at the early age of fifteen.More rejoicings in the city, March, 1503In 1503 the streets of the city were again put into mourning, for in February of that year Henry lost his queen. A long account of the manner of "receyvyng of the corps of the most noble princes Quene Elizabeth" is given in the City's Archives.1005In the following month the streets presented a very different appearance, the occasion being the solemnization of the league made between Henry and the King of the Romans. Bonfires were ordered to be lighted at nine different places, and at each of them was to be placed a hogshead of wine, with two sergeants and two sheriffs' yeomen to prevent disturbance; but seeing that it was the Lenten season and that the queen had so recently died, there was to be no minstrelsy. The City Chamberlain was instructed to provide a certain quantity of "Ipocras," claret, Rhenish wine and Muscatel, besides comfits and wafers, and two pots of "Succade" and green ginger, to be presented on the City's behalf to the ambassadors of the King of the Romans, lying at "Pasmer Howse"; a similar gift being presented the following day on behalf of the sheriffs.1006[pg 337]Charter of Henry VII to the Tailors of London, 6 June 1503.Henry's chief merit was that he established order, and for this the citizens were grateful. This improvement on the weak government of his immediate predecessors had only been carried out, however, at the cost of extension of royal power, and the City was made to suffer with the rest of the kingdom. In 1503 the civic authorities were deprived by statute of their control over the livery companies,1007and in the same year the Tailors of London obtained a charter which gave umbrage to the mayor and aldermen of the City, as ousting them of their jurisdiction. The Tailors maintained their independence, and their wardens are expressly mentioned as refusing to join the Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths and other fraternities in a petition to parliament (1512) for placing them formally under the rule of the mayor and aldermen, from which they were frequently breaking away.1008Henry's charter to the City, 23 July, 1505.It was not until 1505 that the City succeeded in getting its charter1009from Henry, and then only on payment of the sum of 5,000 marks. The terms of the charter, moreover, were far from satisfactory, and an attempt was made to get them altered and obtain an abatement of the fine,1010but to no purpose.Henry's high-handed policy towards the City, 1506-1509.Henry continued his high-handed policy towards the City up to the day of his death, and thereby greatly increased his treasure. His chief instruments were Empson and Dudley, who took up their residence in the city, occupying two houses in Walbrook,[pg 338]whence each had a door into a garden of the Earl of Oxford's house in St. Swithin's Lane.1011There they used to meet and concert measures for filling the king's purse and their own. In 1506 Henry removed Robert Johnson, a goldsmith, from the shrievalty within three days of his election, and put William Fitz-William in his place. Johnson took the matter so much to heart that he died.1012In the same year Thomas Kneseworth, the late mayor, was committed to the Marshalsea, together with the sheriffs who had served under him, and only regained his liberty on payment of a large sum of money.1013In 1507 Sir William Capel, Alderman of Walbrook Ward, who had already fallen a victim to Empson and been heavily fined under an obsolete statute, was again attacked and fined £2,000 for supposed negligence during his mayoralty. Rather than submit to such extortion he went to prison, and remained there until the king's death, when he obtained his freedom and was soon afterwards re-elected mayor.1014Lawrence Aylmer, another mayor, was also a victim of Henry's tyranny, and was committed to the compter, where he remained for the rest of the reign.1015Marriage of the Princess Mary, Dec., 1508.In the meantime the Archduke Philip happened to fall into Henry's hands (Jan., 1506). Whilst crossing the sea to claim the kingdom of Castile[pg 339]in right of his wife, he was driven by stress of weather into Weymouth. Henry was too shrewd a politician not to make the most of so lucky an event, and detained him in a species of honourable captivity, until Philip had promised him the hand of his sister Margaret with a large dower. This marriage alliance was destined never to be realised. Another scheme, however, was subsequently proposed and met with more success. This was a marriage of Henry's own daughter with Philip's son Charles, Prince of Castile. News of their engagement was conveyed to the mayor and aldermen of the City by a letter from the king himself (25 Dec., 1507), in which he expatiated on the benefits, political and commercial, likely to arise from the match.1016This letter was followed by another from the king, dated from Greenwich, the 23rd June following, in which the Corporation was informed that for the assurance of execution of the marriage treaty both parties had given pledges, and that the City of London was, among other cities and towns, included in letters obligatory to that effect, which letters he begged should be sealed without delay with the Common Seal of the City.1017And so, after the manner of the times, the boy of eight was married (by proxy) to the girl of twelve, amid great rejoicings in London (17 Dec., 1508).1018Henry's taste for the fine arts.If Henry amassed wealth, it was not from any miserly motive. He well knew the value of the money, and that peace at home was never better secured than by a full treasury. He made, moreover, a princely use of his money, encouraging scholarship,[pg 340]music, and architecture, and dazzled the eyes of foreign ambassadors with the splendour of his receptions. That he had a fine taste in building no one can deny who has once seen the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, or the chapel that bears his name at Westminster.The King's Chapel and Chantry at Westminster.Originally intended by Henry as a resting place for the remains of his uncle, Henry VI, the last mentioned edifice was diverted from its purposes and became the chantry as well as the tomb of Henry VII himself. Anxiety for his soul caused him to bind the Abbot of Westminster by heavy penalties to the due observance of his obit. These penalties were set out in six books or deeds, sealed with the Common Seal of the City of London, and formally delivered to the king by a deputation of the mayor and aldermen, who received in return a seventh book to remain in their custody. In 1504—the year that Pope Julius sanctioned the removal of the remains of Henry VI from Windsor to Westminster—the mayor and citizens formally sealed the "books" before the Master of the Rolls at the Guildhall. Two years later certain livery companies undertook to keep the king's obit on the day that the mayor for the time being went to take his oath at the Exchequer.1019The king's death, 22 April, 1509.The king died at his palace of Shene, recently renamed in his honour "Richmond," on the 22nd April,1020[pg 341]1509. Just before his death he granted a general pardon and paid the debts of prisoners committed to the compters of London and to Ludgate for debts amounting to forty shillings or less.1021His corpse was conveyed from Richmond to St. Paul's on the 9th May, being met on its way at St. George's Bar, in Southwark, by the mayor, aldermen and a suite of 104 commoners, all in black clothing and all on horseback. The streets were lined with other members of the companies bearing torches, the lowest craft occupying the first place. Next after the freemen of the city came the "strangers"—Easterlings, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Venetians, Genoese, Florentines and "Lukeners"—on horseback and on foot, also bearing torches.1022These took up their position in Gracechurch Street. Cornhill was occupied by the lower crafts, ordered in such a way that "the most worshipful crafts" stood next unto "Paules." A similar order was preserved the next day, when the corpse was removed from Saint Paul's to Westminster. The lowest crafts were placed nearest to the Cathedral, and the most worshipful next to Temple Bar, where the civic escort terminated. The mayor and aldermen proceeded to Westminster by water, to attend the "masse and offering." The mayor, with his mace in his hand, made his offering next after the Lord Chamberlain; those aldermen who had passed the chair1023offered next after the Knights of the Garter, and before all "knights for the body"; whilst the aldermen who had not yet served as mayor made their offering after the knights.1024[pg 342]When King Henry VIII was about to make an expedition to France in 1544, the Court of Aldermen gave notice to the Bishop of London that the obit of Henry VII would be kept on Friday, the 16th May, on which day there would be a general procession, and that the observance would be continued until the king departed out of the realm, and then on every Friday and Wednesday until his return.1025

[pg 307]CHAPTER XII.The accession of King Edward IV, March, 1461.The new king made himself very popular with the citizens. He was not less a favourite with them because he joined their ranks and became a trader like themselves, or because he took a wife from among his own subjects and made her a sharer of his crown. At the coronations, both of Edward and his queen, which took place after an interval of three years, the City was fully represented, and its claim to services at the king's coronation banquet duly acknowledged.909At the latter ceremony no less than four citizens, among them being Ralph Josselyn, the mayor, were created Knights of the Bath.910The citizens had previously shown their respect to Elizabeth Woodville by riding forth to meet her and escorting her to the Tower on her first arrival to London, and by presenting her with a gift of 1,000 marks or £750.911Edward's first charter to the city, 26 Aug., 1461.If the young and handsome prince who now ascended the throne occasionally carried his familiarity with the wives of city burgesses beyond the limits of strict propriety, much could be forgotten and forgiven for the readiness he showed to confirm and enlarge the City's privileges and to foster the trade of the country. Before he had been on the throne many months he granted the citizens, by charter, the right[pg 308]of package and scavage, as well as the office of gauger of wines.912Second charter of Edward IV, 25 March, 1462.In the following March (1462) he confirmed the charter granted to the City by Henry IV, whereby the citizens obtained the right of taking toll and custom at Billingsgate, Smithfield and elsewhere, as well as the right oftronageor weighing wool at the Tron.913City Loans, 1462.In August, 1462 Calais was again in danger, and the king wanted money. The Earl of Worcester and others of the council were sent into the city to ask for a loan of £3,400. After considering the matter, the civic authorities agreed to lend him £1,000. The money was to be raised by assessment on the wards, but Dowgate ward being at the time very poor, was not to be pressed.914In the following October the City again came to the king's assistance with a further loan of 2,000 marks,915and on the 9th November the City obtained (in return, shall we say?) a charter confirming its jurisdiction over the Borough of Southwark,916originally granted by Edward III. Again, the coincidence of a charter granted by the king to the City, with a loan or gift from the City to the king, is remarkable.The king's reception in the city on his return from the North, Feb., 1463.When Edward returned in February, 1463, from the North, where he had succeeded with the assistance afforded him by the Londoners in re-capturing most of the castles which the restless Margaret had taken,[pg 309]the City resolved to give him a befitting reception. Preparations were made for the mayor, aldermen and commons to ride forth to meet him in their finest liveries, but the king having expressed his intention of coming from Shene to the city by water, the citizens went to meet him in their barges, with all the pomp and ceremony of a Lord Mayor's day.917Estrangement of Warwick, 1464-1468.Edward now gave himself up to a life of luxury and pleasure. In 1464 he married the young widow of Sir John Grey, better known by her maiden name of Elizabeth Woodville. His marriage to her gave offence to the nobility, more especially to the Earl of Warwick, who was planning at the time a match with France or Burgundy, and to whom the news of the marriage with one so beneath the king in point of dignity came as an unpleasant surprise. The earl was still more offended when he learnt that the young king had secretly effected a marriage treaty between his sister Margaret (whom Warwick had destined for one of the French princes) and the Duke of Burgundy. These matrimonial alliances, combined with the inordinate favour Edward displayed towards his wife's family, led to an estrangement between the king and his powerful subject.Alliance between England and Burgundy, 1468.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[pg 310]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.918Renewal of the civil war, 1469.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 Coke,919an 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.920Warwick 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.921In 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.[pg 311]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.922In 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 assistance 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.923Flight of Edward and restoration of Henry VI, Oct., 1470.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.924On the 1st October it was made known in the city that the king had taken flight.[pg 312]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, beingenceinteat 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.925Two 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.926On the 18th the Earl of Worcester, Edward's constable and minister of his cruelties,927was beheaded on Tower Hill, the ground being kept by the Sheriffs of London and a contingent from the several wards.928Sir Thomas Cooke or Coke, late alderman.In November Henry was made to hold a parliament, and Sir Thomas Cooke, the deposed alderman,[pg 313]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."929John 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 assumed 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.Edward recovers the throne, April, 1471.That the aldermen and the better class 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.930Two days later, having recruited his forces, Edward[pg 314]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 crushing defeat inflicted upon her at Tewkesbury (4 May) left Edward once more master of the kingdom.The Kentish rising under "bastard" Fauconberg, May, 1471.Attack made on the City.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 leadership of Thomas Fauconberg or Falconbridge, generally spoken of as the "bastard," 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 1454,931assumed the title 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 pass 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[pg 315]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 pass through the city. They hesitated to accept his assurance 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 assured 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 assured 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 pass through the city, that was out of the question.932Having 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[pg 316]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 Basset, alderman of Aldgate Ward, showed conspicuous valour in the fight which took place in that quarter.933The city was never again troubled by Fauconberg. After much wandering he was taken prisoner at Southampton, and thence conveyed to Middleham, in Yorkshire, where he was beheaded. His head was afterwards sent to London and set up on London Bridge, "looking into Kentward."934Edward's return to London, and death of Henry VI, May, 1471.On the night after Edward's return935in 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.936Edward 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,[pg 317]but the aldermen937besides, 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.938Birth of Edward V.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.939The invasion of France, 1475.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, passing 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.940The expedition ended without a blow, Edward allowing[pg 318]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.941Edward and the citizens.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,942and in the following month the City returned the compliment by a loan of 5,000 marks.943This 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.944A famine threatened, 1482.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 nobles 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[pg 319]Edward's last parliament, 1483.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.946In 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.947Some difficulty was experienced in raising the money, and the names of eleven persons who had refused to contribute were forwarded to the king.948A little more than a month elapsed and Edward was dead.Preparations for the coronation of Edward V.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.949On the 14th May they rode out[pg 320]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 assist the chief butler at the banquet950according 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,951it 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.Shaw's sermon at Paul's Cross, Sunday, 22 June, 1483.In order to do this he called to his assistance 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,[pg 321]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.The Duke of Buckingham at the Guildhall, 24 June, 1483.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 Shore,952one 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[pg 322]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 "worshipful citizens of the metropolis of the kingdom."953Buckingham'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 assent 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 assembly—would they have the Protector assume the crown?—a cry of assent 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 petition Gloucester to accept the crown.The deposition of Edward V, 26 June, 1483.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 assented, and, having assented, 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.[pg 323]The coronation of Richard III, 6 July, 1433.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.954The claim of the mayor and citizens to assist the chief butler at the coronation banquet was made and allowed,955the king, sitting crowned inle 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.956Concerning 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[pg 324]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 ofhonorariumwas, 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.Rebellion of the Duke of Buckingham, 1483.His execution, 2 Nov.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.The king's reception in the city, Nov., 1483.Bold speech of the Londoners.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.958His policy was one of conciliation, and he lent a ready ear to a[pg 325]Petition 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 God and man, and the liberty and laws of this realm wherein every Englishman is inherited."959Richard's Parliament, Jan., 1484.Richard met this appeal by summoning parliament to meet in January (1484), when various acts were passed 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 assist them in their occupation, and otherwise imposed great restrictions upon the merchant stranger.960This 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 unconstitutional.961Expected invasion of Henry of Richmond, 1484.In the summer he was welcomed wherever he went, yet he knew that danger threatened. Richmond was preparing for an invasion and the nobles 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.962In August they had promised[pg 326]Richard a loan of £2,400, each alderman contributing £100;963and in the following November the mayor and aldermen rode out to Kennington to meet him and escort him to the Wardrobe, near Blackfriars.964Richard defeated and slain at Bosworth, 22 Aug., 1485.Matters became more serious as time went on. In June, 1485, the City advanced another sum of £2,000 to assist Richard against the "rebels," who were daily expected to land in England.965Extraordinary precautions were taken to guard the city.966At last the blow fell. On the 7th August Henry landed at Milford Haven, and on the 22nd the battle of Bosworth was fought and Richard killed.Henry VII escorted to the city.From Bosworth field Henry set out for London. He was met at Shoreditch by a deputation from the City, accompanied by the Recorder, and was presented with a gift of 1,000 marks.967The standards taken on the field of battle were deposited with much pomp and ceremony in St. Paul's Church, where aTe Deumwas sung, and for a few days Henry took up his residence in the bishop's palace in St. Paul's Churchyard.968The sweating sickness, Sept.-Oct., 1485.A cloud soon overshadowed the rejoicings which followed Henry's accession. An epidemic hitherto unknown in England, although visitations of it followed at intervals during this and the succeeding reign, made its appearance in the city towards the close of September. The "sweating sickness," as this deadly[pg 327]pestilence was called, carried off two mayors and six aldermen within the space of a week969—so sudden and fatal was its attack. Sir Thomas Hille, who was mayor at the time of its first appearance, fell a victim to it on the 23rd September, and was succeeded by William Stocker, appointed on the following day.970Within four days Stocker himself was dead. There remained little more than a month before the regular day of election of a mayor (28 Oct.)971for the year ensuing, and John Warde was called upon to take office during the interval.972He appears to have entertained but little affection for the city, and the civic authorities had some difficulty in getting him to reside in London,973where his duties required his presence. When the mayoralty year expired he was not put in nomination for re-election. He probably went back into the country, glad to get away from the pestilential city, and Hugh Brice was elected in his stead.974Fortunately for the city, the epidemic departed as suddenly and unexpectedly as it came. By the end of October it had entirely disappeared, and allowed of Henry's coronation taking place on the 30th of that month.A City loan of £2,000.Within a fortnight of his arrival in London Henry issued a writ of summons for his first parliament. It was not so much for the purpose of obtaining supplies that he was anxious that parliament should meet at the earliest opportunity; he was desirous of[pg 328]obtaining as soon as possible a parliamentary title to the crown. As for his immediate necessities, he preferred to apply to the City. He asked for a loan of 6,000 marks, or £4,000; but the citizens would not advance more than half that sum. The loan was repaid the following year—"every penie to the good contentation and satisfying of them that disbursed it."975Henry's marriage with Elizabeth of York, Jan., 1486.In January, 1486, Henry married the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV, and heiress of the Yorkist family. He had previously taken the precaution of committing to the Tower the Earl of Warwick, son of Clarence, for fear lest he might set up a title to the crown.976After his marriage he set out on a progress through the country, and on his return to London, in June, was met by the mayor and citizens at Putney, and escorted by them down the river to Westminster.977The insurrection of Lambert Simnel, 1487.City gifts to the king, June and July, 1487.A rumour that the Earl of Warwick had escaped from the Tower gave an opportunity for an imposter, Lambert Simnel, to personate the earl. In order to satisfy the Londoners that the rumour of Warwick's escape was a fabrication, Henry caused his prisoner to be paraded through the streets of the city, and exposed to public view at St. Paul's. After Simnel's defeat (16 June, 1487), the Common Council agreed (28 June) to send a deputation, consisting of two aldermen, the recorder, and four commoners, with a suite of 24 men, to meet[pg 329]the king at Kenilworth, and at the same time voted the king a present of £1000.978This gift was quickly followed (11 July) by the grant of another loan of £2,000 to be levied on the civic companies as before.979The king escorted to London, Oct., 1487.The City's gift to the queen at her coronation, 25 Nov., 1487.In October Henry was expected in London,980and the Common Council again showed their loyalty by agreeing that the mayor and aldermen should ride forth to meet his highness, clad in cloaks of scarlet, and accompanied by a suite of servants clothed in medley, at the cost of the "Chamber." With them also rode a contingent from the various civic guilds, clothed in violet, and numbering over 400 horsemen. The Mercers, the Grocers, the Drapers, the Fishmongers, and the "Taillours," each sent 30 mounted representatives of their guild; the Goldsmiths sent 24, whilst the rest sent contingents varying from one to twenty.981On the occasion of the queen's coronation, which took place the following month (25 Nov.), she was made the recipient of a gift of 1,000 marks by the City.982Henry VII and Brittany, 1488-1492.The king would willingly have remained at peace if he were allowed, from motives of economy if for no other reason. England, however, could not sit still and see Brittany overwhelmed by the French king. Before assistance could be sent to the Duchess Anne, it was imperative that money should be raised. At the close of 1488 the Common Council voted the king a loan of £4,000. The money was ordered to be raised by assessment on the companies, but the practice was not to be drawn into precedent. The king,[pg 330]like a good paymaster as he always was, whatever other defects he may have had, repaid the money in the following year.983Parliamentary supplies and City loans.Early in the following year parliament984granted large supplies which enabled Henry to despatch 6,000 Englishmen to Anne's assistance, but which caused much discontent among the "rude and beastlie" people of Yorkshire and Durham.985In June, 1491, another loan of £3,000 was raised, this time by assessment on the wards;986and in October Henry declared to parliament his intention of invading France in person. A grant of two fifteenths and two tenths was immediately made to assist him in his expedition by parliament; whilst the City contributed a "great benevolence," the fellowship of Drapers contributing more than any other fellowship, and every alderman subscribing, whether he wished it or no, the sum of £200. The amount contributed by the commonalty exceeded £9,000.987Thus furnished with supplies, the king crossed over to Calais on the 6th October, 1492. The campaign, however, had scarcely opened before Henry gladly accepted the liberal terms offered him by the French king, and peace was signed at Etaples (3 Nov.).[pg 331]Perkin Warbeck conspiracy, 1496-1497.The success which, brief as it was, had attended Simnel's enterprise was sufficient to encourage a hope that a better planned project might end in overturning the throne. A report was accordingly blazed abroad that Richard, Duke of York, brother of King Edward V, was yet alive, not having been murdered in the Tower, as had been supposed; and a man called Perkin Warbeck or Warboys, a native of Tournay, assumed the name of Richard Plantagenet and succeeded in getting a large number of people in Ireland and Scotland to believe that in his person they in fact saw Richard, Duke of York, the rightful heir to the crown. James IV of Scotland not only gave him in marriage the lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntley, but led an army into England in hopes that the appearance of the pretended prince might raise an insurrection in the northern counties. Instead, however, of joining the invaders the English prepared to repel them, and James retreated into his own country. This took place in 1496. Parliament granted large supplies to enable the king to meet the danger, but the inhabitants of Cornwall, sick of the constant demands made of them for money, and aware of the large treasure which Henry had already amassed, openly resisted any attempt at further taxation and determined to march on London.The city put into a state of defence.The Londoners, who not only abstained from opposing the new demand for money, but volunteered a loan to the king (15 Nov.) of £4,000,988lost no time in putting their city into a state of defence. Six[pg 332]aldermen and a number of representatives from the livery companies were deputed to attend to the city's ordnance.989The mayor was to be allowed twelve armed men in addition to his usual suite, and the sheriffs forty sergeants and forty valets in order to assist them in keeping the peace within the city. Communication was to be kept up at least once in the day between the mayor and the Lord Chancellor. Houses which had been set up on the city's walls, or within sixteen feet of them, were to be abated. John Stokker, who filled the not unworthy office of Common Hunt,990was ordered daily to ride out to learn the king's pleasure and report thereon to the mayor and aldermen. Among those appointed to guard the city's gates and Temple Bar was Alderman Fabyan, the chronicler.991The state of anxiety which prevailed in the city at this crisis is illustrated by "Jesus Mercy" at the head of one side of the page of the City's record, on which the above orders are entered, whilst on the other side are the wordsvigilie temporis turbacionis.992The rebels defeated at Blackheath, 22 June, 1497.Perkin Warbeck in Cornwall.Surrenders to the king's forces and is brought prisoner to London, Oct., 1498.Is executed at Tyburn, 1499.By the 22nd June, 1497, all immediate danger had passed, the rebels being on that day utterly defeated at Blackheath. Their leaders were taken and executed; the rest were for the most part made prisoners, but were soon afterwards dismissed without further punishment. The leniency displayed towards them by Henry was[pg 333]ill-repaid by their afterwards flocking to the standard of thesoi-disantRichard IV, King of England, who availed himself of their mutinous disposition and appeared in their midst at Bodmin. The news of Perkin Warbeck having arrived in Cornwall from Ireland was brought to the mayor and aldermen of the City of London by letter from the king, which was read to the Common Council on Saturday, the 16th September.993The rebels made an unsuccesful attempt to get possession of Exeter, but hearing of the approach of the king's forces, Perkin Warbeck withdrew to Taunton, leaving his followers to take care of themselves. From Taunton he went to "Mynet" (Minehead) accompanied by less than sixty adherents,994and by the 12th October the king was able to inform the Mayor that Peter "Warboys" had voluntarily submitted himself and had confessed to his being a native of Tournay.995The king had him conveyed to London and paraded through the streets on horseback, in a species of mock triumph, and caused his confession to be printed and scattered over the country that people might see the real character of the man. For a time he appears to have been detained in lax custody about the court, but after he had made an attempt to escape and reach the sea-coast, and been re-captured, he was sent to the Tower. There he got into communication with the unfortunate Earl of Warwick, and entered into a plot for effecting his own and the earl's liberty. A charge was formulated against the earl on the most trivial grounds, of a conspiracy to seize the Tower, and Warbeck was indicted as an accomplice. The former, being found[pg 334]guilty by his peers, was beheaded on Tower Hill, while Perkin and three of his accomplices were hanged at Tyburn.996Visit of Henry VIII as a boy to the city, 30 Oct., 1498.In the meantime Prince Henry, who afterwards succeeded his father on the throne as King Henry VIII, but was at the time a child of seven years, paid a visit to the city (30 Oct., 1498), where he received a hearty welcome and was presented by the Recorder, on behalf of the citizens, with a pair of gilt goblets. In reply to the Recorder, who in presenting this "litell and powre" gift, promised to remember his grace with a better at some future time, the prince made the following short speech:—997His speech."Fader Maire, I thank you and your Brethern here present of this greate and kynd remembraunce which I trist in tyme comyng to deserve. And for asmoche as I can not give unto you according thankes, I shall pray the Kynges Grace to thank you, and for my partye I shall not forget yorkyndnesse."In anticipation of the prince's visit, a proclamation had been made by the civic authorities with the view of purging the city of infectious disease, to the effect that all vagabonds and others affected with the "greate pockes" should vacate the city on pain of imprisonment.998Negotiations for a marriage between Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon.Preparations for reception of the princess, Nov., 1499.The removal of Warwick—"the one judicial murder of Henry's reign"—if not suggested by Spain, was an act which could not be otherwise than grateful to the Spanish king. For five years past negotiations[pg 335]had been proceeding for a marriage between Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon. Warwick's death cleared away the last of Henry's serious competitors, and "not a doubtful drop of royal blood" remained in the kingdom to oppose Arthur's claim to the succession. The princess was expected shortly to arrive in England, and a committee composed of aldermen and commoners was appointed (Nov. 1499) to consult with the king's commissioners as to the preparations to be made for her reception.999Nearly two years, however, elapsed before she set foot in England. In May, 1500, there were again rumours of her approach, and the Common Council voted a sum of money to be levied on the wards to defray the expenses of her reception.1000Death of an infant prince, June, 1500.The "garnysshyng of the pagents" for the festive occasion1001was interrupted by the death of Edmund, the king's infant son. On the 19th June the members of the various craft guilds were ordered to line the streets of Old Bailey and Fleet Street, through which the funeral procession was to pass on its way to Westminster. The mayor and aldermen were to stand, clad in their violet gowns, near Saint Dunstan's Church, and the next morning to go to Westminster by barge to attend the solemn requiem.1002The marriage of Prince Arthur with Catherine of Aragon, 14 Nov., 1501.There was no necessity for hurry in regard to the pageants. More than a twelvemonth was yet to elapse before they were wanted. At length—on the 2nd October,10031501—the princess landed at Plymouth,[pg 336]and five days later the City received notice from the king of her approach to London. The marriage was solemnized at St. Paul's on the 14th November, the princess being presented with silver flagons by the City in honour of the occasion.1004Five months later (2 April, 1502) the bride was a widow, Prince Arthur having died at the early age of fifteen.More rejoicings in the city, March, 1503In 1503 the streets of the city were again put into mourning, for in February of that year Henry lost his queen. A long account of the manner of "receyvyng of the corps of the most noble princes Quene Elizabeth" is given in the City's Archives.1005In the following month the streets presented a very different appearance, the occasion being the solemnization of the league made between Henry and the King of the Romans. Bonfires were ordered to be lighted at nine different places, and at each of them was to be placed a hogshead of wine, with two sergeants and two sheriffs' yeomen to prevent disturbance; but seeing that it was the Lenten season and that the queen had so recently died, there was to be no minstrelsy. The City Chamberlain was instructed to provide a certain quantity of "Ipocras," claret, Rhenish wine and Muscatel, besides comfits and wafers, and two pots of "Succade" and green ginger, to be presented on the City's behalf to the ambassadors of the King of the Romans, lying at "Pasmer Howse"; a similar gift being presented the following day on behalf of the sheriffs.1006[pg 337]Charter of Henry VII to the Tailors of London, 6 June 1503.Henry's chief merit was that he established order, and for this the citizens were grateful. This improvement on the weak government of his immediate predecessors had only been carried out, however, at the cost of extension of royal power, and the City was made to suffer with the rest of the kingdom. In 1503 the civic authorities were deprived by statute of their control over the livery companies,1007and in the same year the Tailors of London obtained a charter which gave umbrage to the mayor and aldermen of the City, as ousting them of their jurisdiction. The Tailors maintained their independence, and their wardens are expressly mentioned as refusing to join the Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths and other fraternities in a petition to parliament (1512) for placing them formally under the rule of the mayor and aldermen, from which they were frequently breaking away.1008Henry's charter to the City, 23 July, 1505.It was not until 1505 that the City succeeded in getting its charter1009from Henry, and then only on payment of the sum of 5,000 marks. The terms of the charter, moreover, were far from satisfactory, and an attempt was made to get them altered and obtain an abatement of the fine,1010but to no purpose.Henry's high-handed policy towards the City, 1506-1509.Henry continued his high-handed policy towards the City up to the day of his death, and thereby greatly increased his treasure. His chief instruments were Empson and Dudley, who took up their residence in the city, occupying two houses in Walbrook,[pg 338]whence each had a door into a garden of the Earl of Oxford's house in St. Swithin's Lane.1011There they used to meet and concert measures for filling the king's purse and their own. In 1506 Henry removed Robert Johnson, a goldsmith, from the shrievalty within three days of his election, and put William Fitz-William in his place. Johnson took the matter so much to heart that he died.1012In the same year Thomas Kneseworth, the late mayor, was committed to the Marshalsea, together with the sheriffs who had served under him, and only regained his liberty on payment of a large sum of money.1013In 1507 Sir William Capel, Alderman of Walbrook Ward, who had already fallen a victim to Empson and been heavily fined under an obsolete statute, was again attacked and fined £2,000 for supposed negligence during his mayoralty. Rather than submit to such extortion he went to prison, and remained there until the king's death, when he obtained his freedom and was soon afterwards re-elected mayor.1014Lawrence Aylmer, another mayor, was also a victim of Henry's tyranny, and was committed to the compter, where he remained for the rest of the reign.1015Marriage of the Princess Mary, Dec., 1508.In the meantime the Archduke Philip happened to fall into Henry's hands (Jan., 1506). Whilst crossing the sea to claim the kingdom of Castile[pg 339]in right of his wife, he was driven by stress of weather into Weymouth. Henry was too shrewd a politician not to make the most of so lucky an event, and detained him in a species of honourable captivity, until Philip had promised him the hand of his sister Margaret with a large dower. This marriage alliance was destined never to be realised. Another scheme, however, was subsequently proposed and met with more success. This was a marriage of Henry's own daughter with Philip's son Charles, Prince of Castile. News of their engagement was conveyed to the mayor and aldermen of the City by a letter from the king himself (25 Dec., 1507), in which he expatiated on the benefits, political and commercial, likely to arise from the match.1016This letter was followed by another from the king, dated from Greenwich, the 23rd June following, in which the Corporation was informed that for the assurance of execution of the marriage treaty both parties had given pledges, and that the City of London was, among other cities and towns, included in letters obligatory to that effect, which letters he begged should be sealed without delay with the Common Seal of the City.1017And so, after the manner of the times, the boy of eight was married (by proxy) to the girl of twelve, amid great rejoicings in London (17 Dec., 1508).1018Henry's taste for the fine arts.If Henry amassed wealth, it was not from any miserly motive. He well knew the value of the money, and that peace at home was never better secured than by a full treasury. He made, moreover, a princely use of his money, encouraging scholarship,[pg 340]music, and architecture, and dazzled the eyes of foreign ambassadors with the splendour of his receptions. That he had a fine taste in building no one can deny who has once seen the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, or the chapel that bears his name at Westminster.The King's Chapel and Chantry at Westminster.Originally intended by Henry as a resting place for the remains of his uncle, Henry VI, the last mentioned edifice was diverted from its purposes and became the chantry as well as the tomb of Henry VII himself. Anxiety for his soul caused him to bind the Abbot of Westminster by heavy penalties to the due observance of his obit. These penalties were set out in six books or deeds, sealed with the Common Seal of the City of London, and formally delivered to the king by a deputation of the mayor and aldermen, who received in return a seventh book to remain in their custody. In 1504—the year that Pope Julius sanctioned the removal of the remains of Henry VI from Windsor to Westminster—the mayor and citizens formally sealed the "books" before the Master of the Rolls at the Guildhall. Two years later certain livery companies undertook to keep the king's obit on the day that the mayor for the time being went to take his oath at the Exchequer.1019The king's death, 22 April, 1509.The king died at his palace of Shene, recently renamed in his honour "Richmond," on the 22nd April,1020[pg 341]1509. Just before his death he granted a general pardon and paid the debts of prisoners committed to the compters of London and to Ludgate for debts amounting to forty shillings or less.1021His corpse was conveyed from Richmond to St. Paul's on the 9th May, being met on its way at St. George's Bar, in Southwark, by the mayor, aldermen and a suite of 104 commoners, all in black clothing and all on horseback. The streets were lined with other members of the companies bearing torches, the lowest craft occupying the first place. Next after the freemen of the city came the "strangers"—Easterlings, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Venetians, Genoese, Florentines and "Lukeners"—on horseback and on foot, also bearing torches.1022These took up their position in Gracechurch Street. Cornhill was occupied by the lower crafts, ordered in such a way that "the most worshipful crafts" stood next unto "Paules." A similar order was preserved the next day, when the corpse was removed from Saint Paul's to Westminster. The lowest crafts were placed nearest to the Cathedral, and the most worshipful next to Temple Bar, where the civic escort terminated. The mayor and aldermen proceeded to Westminster by water, to attend the "masse and offering." The mayor, with his mace in his hand, made his offering next after the Lord Chamberlain; those aldermen who had passed the chair1023offered next after the Knights of the Garter, and before all "knights for the body"; whilst the aldermen who had not yet served as mayor made their offering after the knights.1024[pg 342]When King Henry VIII was about to make an expedition to France in 1544, the Court of Aldermen gave notice to the Bishop of London that the obit of Henry VII would be kept on Friday, the 16th May, on which day there would be a general procession, and that the observance would be continued until the king departed out of the realm, and then on every Friday and Wednesday until his return.1025

The accession of King Edward IV, March, 1461.The new king made himself very popular with the citizens. He was not less a favourite with them because he joined their ranks and became a trader like themselves, or because he took a wife from among his own subjects and made her a sharer of his crown. At the coronations, both of Edward and his queen, which took place after an interval of three years, the City was fully represented, and its claim to services at the king's coronation banquet duly acknowledged.909At the latter ceremony no less than four citizens, among them being Ralph Josselyn, the mayor, were created Knights of the Bath.910The citizens had previously shown their respect to Elizabeth Woodville by riding forth to meet her and escorting her to the Tower on her first arrival to London, and by presenting her with a gift of 1,000 marks or £750.911Edward's first charter to the city, 26 Aug., 1461.If the young and handsome prince who now ascended the throne occasionally carried his familiarity with the wives of city burgesses beyond the limits of strict propriety, much could be forgotten and forgiven for the readiness he showed to confirm and enlarge the City's privileges and to foster the trade of the country. Before he had been on the throne many months he granted the citizens, by charter, the right[pg 308]of package and scavage, as well as the office of gauger of wines.912Second charter of Edward IV, 25 March, 1462.In the following March (1462) he confirmed the charter granted to the City by Henry IV, whereby the citizens obtained the right of taking toll and custom at Billingsgate, Smithfield and elsewhere, as well as the right oftronageor weighing wool at the Tron.913City Loans, 1462.In August, 1462 Calais was again in danger, and the king wanted money. The Earl of Worcester and others of the council were sent into the city to ask for a loan of £3,400. After considering the matter, the civic authorities agreed to lend him £1,000. The money was to be raised by assessment on the wards, but Dowgate ward being at the time very poor, was not to be pressed.914In the following October the City again came to the king's assistance with a further loan of 2,000 marks,915and on the 9th November the City obtained (in return, shall we say?) a charter confirming its jurisdiction over the Borough of Southwark,916originally granted by Edward III. Again, the coincidence of a charter granted by the king to the City, with a loan or gift from the City to the king, is remarkable.The king's reception in the city on his return from the North, Feb., 1463.When Edward returned in February, 1463, from the North, where he had succeeded with the assistance afforded him by the Londoners in re-capturing most of the castles which the restless Margaret had taken,[pg 309]the City resolved to give him a befitting reception. Preparations were made for the mayor, aldermen and commons to ride forth to meet him in their finest liveries, but the king having expressed his intention of coming from Shene to the city by water, the citizens went to meet him in their barges, with all the pomp and ceremony of a Lord Mayor's day.917Estrangement of Warwick, 1464-1468.Edward now gave himself up to a life of luxury and pleasure. In 1464 he married the young widow of Sir John Grey, better known by her maiden name of Elizabeth Woodville. His marriage to her gave offence to the nobility, more especially to the Earl of Warwick, who was planning at the time a match with France or Burgundy, and to whom the news of the marriage with one so beneath the king in point of dignity came as an unpleasant surprise. The earl was still more offended when he learnt that the young king had secretly effected a marriage treaty between his sister Margaret (whom Warwick had destined for one of the French princes) and the Duke of Burgundy. These matrimonial alliances, combined with the inordinate favour Edward displayed towards his wife's family, led to an estrangement between the king and his powerful subject.Alliance between England and Burgundy, 1468.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[pg 310]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.918Renewal of the civil war, 1469.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 Coke,919an 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.920Warwick 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.921In 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.[pg 311]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.922In 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 assistance 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.923Flight of Edward and restoration of Henry VI, Oct., 1470.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.924On the 1st October it was made known in the city that the king had taken flight.[pg 312]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, beingenceinteat 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.925Two 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.926On the 18th the Earl of Worcester, Edward's constable and minister of his cruelties,927was beheaded on Tower Hill, the ground being kept by the Sheriffs of London and a contingent from the several wards.928Sir Thomas Cooke or Coke, late alderman.In November Henry was made to hold a parliament, and Sir Thomas Cooke, the deposed alderman,[pg 313]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."929John 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 assumed 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.Edward recovers the throne, April, 1471.That the aldermen and the better class 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.930Two days later, having recruited his forces, Edward[pg 314]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 crushing defeat inflicted upon her at Tewkesbury (4 May) left Edward once more master of the kingdom.The Kentish rising under "bastard" Fauconberg, May, 1471.Attack made on the City.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 leadership of Thomas Fauconberg or Falconbridge, generally spoken of as the "bastard," 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 1454,931assumed the title 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 pass 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[pg 315]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 pass through the city. They hesitated to accept his assurance 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 assured 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 assured 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 pass through the city, that was out of the question.932Having 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[pg 316]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 Basset, alderman of Aldgate Ward, showed conspicuous valour in the fight which took place in that quarter.933The city was never again troubled by Fauconberg. After much wandering he was taken prisoner at Southampton, and thence conveyed to Middleham, in Yorkshire, where he was beheaded. His head was afterwards sent to London and set up on London Bridge, "looking into Kentward."934Edward's return to London, and death of Henry VI, May, 1471.On the night after Edward's return935in 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.936Edward 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,[pg 317]but the aldermen937besides, 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.938Birth of Edward V.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.939The invasion of France, 1475.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, passing 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.940The expedition ended without a blow, Edward allowing[pg 318]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.941Edward and the citizens.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,942and in the following month the City returned the compliment by a loan of 5,000 marks.943This 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.944A famine threatened, 1482.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 nobles 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[pg 319]Edward's last parliament, 1483.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.946In 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.947Some difficulty was experienced in raising the money, and the names of eleven persons who had refused to contribute were forwarded to the king.948A little more than a month elapsed and Edward was dead.Preparations for the coronation of Edward V.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.949On the 14th May they rode out[pg 320]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 assist the chief butler at the banquet950according 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,951it 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.Shaw's sermon at Paul's Cross, Sunday, 22 June, 1483.In order to do this he called to his assistance 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,[pg 321]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.The Duke of Buckingham at the Guildhall, 24 June, 1483.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 Shore,952one 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[pg 322]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 "worshipful citizens of the metropolis of the kingdom."953Buckingham'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 assent 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 assembly—would they have the Protector assume the crown?—a cry of assent 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 petition Gloucester to accept the crown.The deposition of Edward V, 26 June, 1483.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 assented, and, having assented, 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.[pg 323]The coronation of Richard III, 6 July, 1433.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.954The claim of the mayor and citizens to assist the chief butler at the coronation banquet was made and allowed,955the king, sitting crowned inle 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.956Concerning 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[pg 324]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 ofhonorariumwas, 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.Rebellion of the Duke of Buckingham, 1483.His execution, 2 Nov.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.The king's reception in the city, Nov., 1483.Bold speech of the Londoners.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.958His policy was one of conciliation, and he lent a ready ear to a[pg 325]Petition 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 God and man, and the liberty and laws of this realm wherein every Englishman is inherited."959Richard's Parliament, Jan., 1484.Richard met this appeal by summoning parliament to meet in January (1484), when various acts were passed 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 assist them in their occupation, and otherwise imposed great restrictions upon the merchant stranger.960This 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 unconstitutional.961Expected invasion of Henry of Richmond, 1484.In the summer he was welcomed wherever he went, yet he knew that danger threatened. Richmond was preparing for an invasion and the nobles 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.962In August they had promised[pg 326]Richard a loan of £2,400, each alderman contributing £100;963and in the following November the mayor and aldermen rode out to Kennington to meet him and escort him to the Wardrobe, near Blackfriars.964Richard defeated and slain at Bosworth, 22 Aug., 1485.Matters became more serious as time went on. In June, 1485, the City advanced another sum of £2,000 to assist Richard against the "rebels," who were daily expected to land in England.965Extraordinary precautions were taken to guard the city.966At last the blow fell. On the 7th August Henry landed at Milford Haven, and on the 22nd the battle of Bosworth was fought and Richard killed.Henry VII escorted to the city.From Bosworth field Henry set out for London. He was met at Shoreditch by a deputation from the City, accompanied by the Recorder, and was presented with a gift of 1,000 marks.967The standards taken on the field of battle were deposited with much pomp and ceremony in St. Paul's Church, where aTe Deumwas sung, and for a few days Henry took up his residence in the bishop's palace in St. Paul's Churchyard.968The sweating sickness, Sept.-Oct., 1485.A cloud soon overshadowed the rejoicings which followed Henry's accession. An epidemic hitherto unknown in England, although visitations of it followed at intervals during this and the succeeding reign, made its appearance in the city towards the close of September. The "sweating sickness," as this deadly[pg 327]pestilence was called, carried off two mayors and six aldermen within the space of a week969—so sudden and fatal was its attack. Sir Thomas Hille, who was mayor at the time of its first appearance, fell a victim to it on the 23rd September, and was succeeded by William Stocker, appointed on the following day.970Within four days Stocker himself was dead. There remained little more than a month before the regular day of election of a mayor (28 Oct.)971for the year ensuing, and John Warde was called upon to take office during the interval.972He appears to have entertained but little affection for the city, and the civic authorities had some difficulty in getting him to reside in London,973where his duties required his presence. When the mayoralty year expired he was not put in nomination for re-election. He probably went back into the country, glad to get away from the pestilential city, and Hugh Brice was elected in his stead.974Fortunately for the city, the epidemic departed as suddenly and unexpectedly as it came. By the end of October it had entirely disappeared, and allowed of Henry's coronation taking place on the 30th of that month.A City loan of £2,000.Within a fortnight of his arrival in London Henry issued a writ of summons for his first parliament. It was not so much for the purpose of obtaining supplies that he was anxious that parliament should meet at the earliest opportunity; he was desirous of[pg 328]obtaining as soon as possible a parliamentary title to the crown. As for his immediate necessities, he preferred to apply to the City. He asked for a loan of 6,000 marks, or £4,000; but the citizens would not advance more than half that sum. The loan was repaid the following year—"every penie to the good contentation and satisfying of them that disbursed it."975Henry's marriage with Elizabeth of York, Jan., 1486.In January, 1486, Henry married the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV, and heiress of the Yorkist family. He had previously taken the precaution of committing to the Tower the Earl of Warwick, son of Clarence, for fear lest he might set up a title to the crown.976After his marriage he set out on a progress through the country, and on his return to London, in June, was met by the mayor and citizens at Putney, and escorted by them down the river to Westminster.977The insurrection of Lambert Simnel, 1487.City gifts to the king, June and July, 1487.A rumour that the Earl of Warwick had escaped from the Tower gave an opportunity for an imposter, Lambert Simnel, to personate the earl. In order to satisfy the Londoners that the rumour of Warwick's escape was a fabrication, Henry caused his prisoner to be paraded through the streets of the city, and exposed to public view at St. Paul's. After Simnel's defeat (16 June, 1487), the Common Council agreed (28 June) to send a deputation, consisting of two aldermen, the recorder, and four commoners, with a suite of 24 men, to meet[pg 329]the king at Kenilworth, and at the same time voted the king a present of £1000.978This gift was quickly followed (11 July) by the grant of another loan of £2,000 to be levied on the civic companies as before.979The king escorted to London, Oct., 1487.The City's gift to the queen at her coronation, 25 Nov., 1487.In October Henry was expected in London,980and the Common Council again showed their loyalty by agreeing that the mayor and aldermen should ride forth to meet his highness, clad in cloaks of scarlet, and accompanied by a suite of servants clothed in medley, at the cost of the "Chamber." With them also rode a contingent from the various civic guilds, clothed in violet, and numbering over 400 horsemen. The Mercers, the Grocers, the Drapers, the Fishmongers, and the "Taillours," each sent 30 mounted representatives of their guild; the Goldsmiths sent 24, whilst the rest sent contingents varying from one to twenty.981On the occasion of the queen's coronation, which took place the following month (25 Nov.), she was made the recipient of a gift of 1,000 marks by the City.982Henry VII and Brittany, 1488-1492.The king would willingly have remained at peace if he were allowed, from motives of economy if for no other reason. England, however, could not sit still and see Brittany overwhelmed by the French king. Before assistance could be sent to the Duchess Anne, it was imperative that money should be raised. At the close of 1488 the Common Council voted the king a loan of £4,000. The money was ordered to be raised by assessment on the companies, but the practice was not to be drawn into precedent. The king,[pg 330]like a good paymaster as he always was, whatever other defects he may have had, repaid the money in the following year.983Parliamentary supplies and City loans.Early in the following year parliament984granted large supplies which enabled Henry to despatch 6,000 Englishmen to Anne's assistance, but which caused much discontent among the "rude and beastlie" people of Yorkshire and Durham.985In June, 1491, another loan of £3,000 was raised, this time by assessment on the wards;986and in October Henry declared to parliament his intention of invading France in person. A grant of two fifteenths and two tenths was immediately made to assist him in his expedition by parliament; whilst the City contributed a "great benevolence," the fellowship of Drapers contributing more than any other fellowship, and every alderman subscribing, whether he wished it or no, the sum of £200. The amount contributed by the commonalty exceeded £9,000.987Thus furnished with supplies, the king crossed over to Calais on the 6th October, 1492. The campaign, however, had scarcely opened before Henry gladly accepted the liberal terms offered him by the French king, and peace was signed at Etaples (3 Nov.).[pg 331]Perkin Warbeck conspiracy, 1496-1497.The success which, brief as it was, had attended Simnel's enterprise was sufficient to encourage a hope that a better planned project might end in overturning the throne. A report was accordingly blazed abroad that Richard, Duke of York, brother of King Edward V, was yet alive, not having been murdered in the Tower, as had been supposed; and a man called Perkin Warbeck or Warboys, a native of Tournay, assumed the name of Richard Plantagenet and succeeded in getting a large number of people in Ireland and Scotland to believe that in his person they in fact saw Richard, Duke of York, the rightful heir to the crown. James IV of Scotland not only gave him in marriage the lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntley, but led an army into England in hopes that the appearance of the pretended prince might raise an insurrection in the northern counties. Instead, however, of joining the invaders the English prepared to repel them, and James retreated into his own country. This took place in 1496. Parliament granted large supplies to enable the king to meet the danger, but the inhabitants of Cornwall, sick of the constant demands made of them for money, and aware of the large treasure which Henry had already amassed, openly resisted any attempt at further taxation and determined to march on London.The city put into a state of defence.The Londoners, who not only abstained from opposing the new demand for money, but volunteered a loan to the king (15 Nov.) of £4,000,988lost no time in putting their city into a state of defence. Six[pg 332]aldermen and a number of representatives from the livery companies were deputed to attend to the city's ordnance.989The mayor was to be allowed twelve armed men in addition to his usual suite, and the sheriffs forty sergeants and forty valets in order to assist them in keeping the peace within the city. Communication was to be kept up at least once in the day between the mayor and the Lord Chancellor. Houses which had been set up on the city's walls, or within sixteen feet of them, were to be abated. John Stokker, who filled the not unworthy office of Common Hunt,990was ordered daily to ride out to learn the king's pleasure and report thereon to the mayor and aldermen. Among those appointed to guard the city's gates and Temple Bar was Alderman Fabyan, the chronicler.991The state of anxiety which prevailed in the city at this crisis is illustrated by "Jesus Mercy" at the head of one side of the page of the City's record, on which the above orders are entered, whilst on the other side are the wordsvigilie temporis turbacionis.992The rebels defeated at Blackheath, 22 June, 1497.Perkin Warbeck in Cornwall.Surrenders to the king's forces and is brought prisoner to London, Oct., 1498.Is executed at Tyburn, 1499.By the 22nd June, 1497, all immediate danger had passed, the rebels being on that day utterly defeated at Blackheath. Their leaders were taken and executed; the rest were for the most part made prisoners, but were soon afterwards dismissed without further punishment. The leniency displayed towards them by Henry was[pg 333]ill-repaid by their afterwards flocking to the standard of thesoi-disantRichard IV, King of England, who availed himself of their mutinous disposition and appeared in their midst at Bodmin. The news of Perkin Warbeck having arrived in Cornwall from Ireland was brought to the mayor and aldermen of the City of London by letter from the king, which was read to the Common Council on Saturday, the 16th September.993The rebels made an unsuccesful attempt to get possession of Exeter, but hearing of the approach of the king's forces, Perkin Warbeck withdrew to Taunton, leaving his followers to take care of themselves. From Taunton he went to "Mynet" (Minehead) accompanied by less than sixty adherents,994and by the 12th October the king was able to inform the Mayor that Peter "Warboys" had voluntarily submitted himself and had confessed to his being a native of Tournay.995The king had him conveyed to London and paraded through the streets on horseback, in a species of mock triumph, and caused his confession to be printed and scattered over the country that people might see the real character of the man. For a time he appears to have been detained in lax custody about the court, but after he had made an attempt to escape and reach the sea-coast, and been re-captured, he was sent to the Tower. There he got into communication with the unfortunate Earl of Warwick, and entered into a plot for effecting his own and the earl's liberty. A charge was formulated against the earl on the most trivial grounds, of a conspiracy to seize the Tower, and Warbeck was indicted as an accomplice. The former, being found[pg 334]guilty by his peers, was beheaded on Tower Hill, while Perkin and three of his accomplices were hanged at Tyburn.996Visit of Henry VIII as a boy to the city, 30 Oct., 1498.In the meantime Prince Henry, who afterwards succeeded his father on the throne as King Henry VIII, but was at the time a child of seven years, paid a visit to the city (30 Oct., 1498), where he received a hearty welcome and was presented by the Recorder, on behalf of the citizens, with a pair of gilt goblets. In reply to the Recorder, who in presenting this "litell and powre" gift, promised to remember his grace with a better at some future time, the prince made the following short speech:—997His speech."Fader Maire, I thank you and your Brethern here present of this greate and kynd remembraunce which I trist in tyme comyng to deserve. And for asmoche as I can not give unto you according thankes, I shall pray the Kynges Grace to thank you, and for my partye I shall not forget yorkyndnesse."In anticipation of the prince's visit, a proclamation had been made by the civic authorities with the view of purging the city of infectious disease, to the effect that all vagabonds and others affected with the "greate pockes" should vacate the city on pain of imprisonment.998Negotiations for a marriage between Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon.Preparations for reception of the princess, Nov., 1499.The removal of Warwick—"the one judicial murder of Henry's reign"—if not suggested by Spain, was an act which could not be otherwise than grateful to the Spanish king. For five years past negotiations[pg 335]had been proceeding for a marriage between Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon. Warwick's death cleared away the last of Henry's serious competitors, and "not a doubtful drop of royal blood" remained in the kingdom to oppose Arthur's claim to the succession. The princess was expected shortly to arrive in England, and a committee composed of aldermen and commoners was appointed (Nov. 1499) to consult with the king's commissioners as to the preparations to be made for her reception.999Nearly two years, however, elapsed before she set foot in England. In May, 1500, there were again rumours of her approach, and the Common Council voted a sum of money to be levied on the wards to defray the expenses of her reception.1000Death of an infant prince, June, 1500.The "garnysshyng of the pagents" for the festive occasion1001was interrupted by the death of Edmund, the king's infant son. On the 19th June the members of the various craft guilds were ordered to line the streets of Old Bailey and Fleet Street, through which the funeral procession was to pass on its way to Westminster. The mayor and aldermen were to stand, clad in their violet gowns, near Saint Dunstan's Church, and the next morning to go to Westminster by barge to attend the solemn requiem.1002The marriage of Prince Arthur with Catherine of Aragon, 14 Nov., 1501.There was no necessity for hurry in regard to the pageants. More than a twelvemonth was yet to elapse before they were wanted. At length—on the 2nd October,10031501—the princess landed at Plymouth,[pg 336]and five days later the City received notice from the king of her approach to London. The marriage was solemnized at St. Paul's on the 14th November, the princess being presented with silver flagons by the City in honour of the occasion.1004Five months later (2 April, 1502) the bride was a widow, Prince Arthur having died at the early age of fifteen.More rejoicings in the city, March, 1503In 1503 the streets of the city were again put into mourning, for in February of that year Henry lost his queen. A long account of the manner of "receyvyng of the corps of the most noble princes Quene Elizabeth" is given in the City's Archives.1005In the following month the streets presented a very different appearance, the occasion being the solemnization of the league made between Henry and the King of the Romans. Bonfires were ordered to be lighted at nine different places, and at each of them was to be placed a hogshead of wine, with two sergeants and two sheriffs' yeomen to prevent disturbance; but seeing that it was the Lenten season and that the queen had so recently died, there was to be no minstrelsy. The City Chamberlain was instructed to provide a certain quantity of "Ipocras," claret, Rhenish wine and Muscatel, besides comfits and wafers, and two pots of "Succade" and green ginger, to be presented on the City's behalf to the ambassadors of the King of the Romans, lying at "Pasmer Howse"; a similar gift being presented the following day on behalf of the sheriffs.1006[pg 337]Charter of Henry VII to the Tailors of London, 6 June 1503.Henry's chief merit was that he established order, and for this the citizens were grateful. This improvement on the weak government of his immediate predecessors had only been carried out, however, at the cost of extension of royal power, and the City was made to suffer with the rest of the kingdom. In 1503 the civic authorities were deprived by statute of their control over the livery companies,1007and in the same year the Tailors of London obtained a charter which gave umbrage to the mayor and aldermen of the City, as ousting them of their jurisdiction. The Tailors maintained their independence, and their wardens are expressly mentioned as refusing to join the Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths and other fraternities in a petition to parliament (1512) for placing them formally under the rule of the mayor and aldermen, from which they were frequently breaking away.1008Henry's charter to the City, 23 July, 1505.It was not until 1505 that the City succeeded in getting its charter1009from Henry, and then only on payment of the sum of 5,000 marks. The terms of the charter, moreover, were far from satisfactory, and an attempt was made to get them altered and obtain an abatement of the fine,1010but to no purpose.Henry's high-handed policy towards the City, 1506-1509.Henry continued his high-handed policy towards the City up to the day of his death, and thereby greatly increased his treasure. His chief instruments were Empson and Dudley, who took up their residence in the city, occupying two houses in Walbrook,[pg 338]whence each had a door into a garden of the Earl of Oxford's house in St. Swithin's Lane.1011There they used to meet and concert measures for filling the king's purse and their own. In 1506 Henry removed Robert Johnson, a goldsmith, from the shrievalty within three days of his election, and put William Fitz-William in his place. Johnson took the matter so much to heart that he died.1012In the same year Thomas Kneseworth, the late mayor, was committed to the Marshalsea, together with the sheriffs who had served under him, and only regained his liberty on payment of a large sum of money.1013In 1507 Sir William Capel, Alderman of Walbrook Ward, who had already fallen a victim to Empson and been heavily fined under an obsolete statute, was again attacked and fined £2,000 for supposed negligence during his mayoralty. Rather than submit to such extortion he went to prison, and remained there until the king's death, when he obtained his freedom and was soon afterwards re-elected mayor.1014Lawrence Aylmer, another mayor, was also a victim of Henry's tyranny, and was committed to the compter, where he remained for the rest of the reign.1015Marriage of the Princess Mary, Dec., 1508.In the meantime the Archduke Philip happened to fall into Henry's hands (Jan., 1506). Whilst crossing the sea to claim the kingdom of Castile[pg 339]in right of his wife, he was driven by stress of weather into Weymouth. Henry was too shrewd a politician not to make the most of so lucky an event, and detained him in a species of honourable captivity, until Philip had promised him the hand of his sister Margaret with a large dower. This marriage alliance was destined never to be realised. Another scheme, however, was subsequently proposed and met with more success. This was a marriage of Henry's own daughter with Philip's son Charles, Prince of Castile. News of their engagement was conveyed to the mayor and aldermen of the City by a letter from the king himself (25 Dec., 1507), in which he expatiated on the benefits, political and commercial, likely to arise from the match.1016This letter was followed by another from the king, dated from Greenwich, the 23rd June following, in which the Corporation was informed that for the assurance of execution of the marriage treaty both parties had given pledges, and that the City of London was, among other cities and towns, included in letters obligatory to that effect, which letters he begged should be sealed without delay with the Common Seal of the City.1017And so, after the manner of the times, the boy of eight was married (by proxy) to the girl of twelve, amid great rejoicings in London (17 Dec., 1508).1018Henry's taste for the fine arts.If Henry amassed wealth, it was not from any miserly motive. He well knew the value of the money, and that peace at home was never better secured than by a full treasury. He made, moreover, a princely use of his money, encouraging scholarship,[pg 340]music, and architecture, and dazzled the eyes of foreign ambassadors with the splendour of his receptions. That he had a fine taste in building no one can deny who has once seen the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, or the chapel that bears his name at Westminster.The King's Chapel and Chantry at Westminster.Originally intended by Henry as a resting place for the remains of his uncle, Henry VI, the last mentioned edifice was diverted from its purposes and became the chantry as well as the tomb of Henry VII himself. Anxiety for his soul caused him to bind the Abbot of Westminster by heavy penalties to the due observance of his obit. These penalties were set out in six books or deeds, sealed with the Common Seal of the City of London, and formally delivered to the king by a deputation of the mayor and aldermen, who received in return a seventh book to remain in their custody. In 1504—the year that Pope Julius sanctioned the removal of the remains of Henry VI from Windsor to Westminster—the mayor and citizens formally sealed the "books" before the Master of the Rolls at the Guildhall. Two years later certain livery companies undertook to keep the king's obit on the day that the mayor for the time being went to take his oath at the Exchequer.1019The king's death, 22 April, 1509.The king died at his palace of Shene, recently renamed in his honour "Richmond," on the 22nd April,1020[pg 341]1509. Just before his death he granted a general pardon and paid the debts of prisoners committed to the compters of London and to Ludgate for debts amounting to forty shillings or less.1021His corpse was conveyed from Richmond to St. Paul's on the 9th May, being met on its way at St. George's Bar, in Southwark, by the mayor, aldermen and a suite of 104 commoners, all in black clothing and all on horseback. The streets were lined with other members of the companies bearing torches, the lowest craft occupying the first place. Next after the freemen of the city came the "strangers"—Easterlings, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Venetians, Genoese, Florentines and "Lukeners"—on horseback and on foot, also bearing torches.1022These took up their position in Gracechurch Street. Cornhill was occupied by the lower crafts, ordered in such a way that "the most worshipful crafts" stood next unto "Paules." A similar order was preserved the next day, when the corpse was removed from Saint Paul's to Westminster. The lowest crafts were placed nearest to the Cathedral, and the most worshipful next to Temple Bar, where the civic escort terminated. The mayor and aldermen proceeded to Westminster by water, to attend the "masse and offering." The mayor, with his mace in his hand, made his offering next after the Lord Chamberlain; those aldermen who had passed the chair1023offered next after the Knights of the Garter, and before all "knights for the body"; whilst the aldermen who had not yet served as mayor made their offering after the knights.1024[pg 342]When King Henry VIII was about to make an expedition to France in 1544, the Court of Aldermen gave notice to the Bishop of London that the obit of Henry VII would be kept on Friday, the 16th May, on which day there would be a general procession, and that the observance would be continued until the king departed out of the realm, and then on every Friday and Wednesday until his return.1025

The accession of King Edward IV, March, 1461.

The accession of King Edward IV, March, 1461.

The new king made himself very popular with the citizens. He was not less a favourite with them because he joined their ranks and became a trader like themselves, or because he took a wife from among his own subjects and made her a sharer of his crown. At the coronations, both of Edward and his queen, which took place after an interval of three years, the City was fully represented, and its claim to services at the king's coronation banquet duly acknowledged.909At the latter ceremony no less than four citizens, among them being Ralph Josselyn, the mayor, were created Knights of the Bath.910The citizens had previously shown their respect to Elizabeth Woodville by riding forth to meet her and escorting her to the Tower on her first arrival to London, and by presenting her with a gift of 1,000 marks or £750.911

Edward's first charter to the city, 26 Aug., 1461.

Edward's first charter to the city, 26 Aug., 1461.

If the young and handsome prince who now ascended the throne occasionally carried his familiarity with the wives of city burgesses beyond the limits of strict propriety, much could be forgotten and forgiven for the readiness he showed to confirm and enlarge the City's privileges and to foster the trade of the country. Before he had been on the throne many months he granted the citizens, by charter, the right[pg 308]of package and scavage, as well as the office of gauger of wines.912

Second charter of Edward IV, 25 March, 1462.

Second charter of Edward IV, 25 March, 1462.

In the following March (1462) he confirmed the charter granted to the City by Henry IV, whereby the citizens obtained the right of taking toll and custom at Billingsgate, Smithfield and elsewhere, as well as the right oftronageor weighing wool at the Tron.913

City Loans, 1462.

City Loans, 1462.

In August, 1462 Calais was again in danger, and the king wanted money. The Earl of Worcester and others of the council were sent into the city to ask for a loan of £3,400. After considering the matter, the civic authorities agreed to lend him £1,000. The money was to be raised by assessment on the wards, but Dowgate ward being at the time very poor, was not to be pressed.914In the following October the City again came to the king's assistance with a further loan of 2,000 marks,915and on the 9th November the City obtained (in return, shall we say?) a charter confirming its jurisdiction over the Borough of Southwark,916originally granted by Edward III. Again, the coincidence of a charter granted by the king to the City, with a loan or gift from the City to the king, is remarkable.

The king's reception in the city on his return from the North, Feb., 1463.

The king's reception in the city on his return from the North, Feb., 1463.

When Edward returned in February, 1463, from the North, where he had succeeded with the assistance afforded him by the Londoners in re-capturing most of the castles which the restless Margaret had taken,[pg 309]the City resolved to give him a befitting reception. Preparations were made for the mayor, aldermen and commons to ride forth to meet him in their finest liveries, but the king having expressed his intention of coming from Shene to the city by water, the citizens went to meet him in their barges, with all the pomp and ceremony of a Lord Mayor's day.917

Estrangement of Warwick, 1464-1468.

Estrangement of Warwick, 1464-1468.

Edward now gave himself up to a life of luxury and pleasure. In 1464 he married the young widow of Sir John Grey, better known by her maiden name of Elizabeth Woodville. His marriage to her gave offence to the nobility, more especially to the Earl of Warwick, who was planning at the time a match with France or Burgundy, and to whom the news of the marriage with one so beneath the king in point of dignity came as an unpleasant surprise. The earl was still more offended when he learnt that the young king had secretly effected a marriage treaty between his sister Margaret (whom Warwick had destined for one of the French princes) and the Duke of Burgundy. These matrimonial alliances, combined with the inordinate favour Edward displayed towards his wife's family, led to an estrangement between the king and his powerful subject.

Alliance between England and Burgundy, 1468.

Alliance between England and Burgundy, 1468.

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[pg 310]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

Renewal of the civil war, 1469.

Renewal of the civil war, 1469.

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 Coke,919an 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.920Warwick 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.921In 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.[pg 311]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.922In 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 assistance 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

Flight of Edward and restoration of Henry VI, Oct., 1470.

Flight of Edward and restoration of Henry VI, Oct., 1470.

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.924On the 1st October it was made known in the city that the king had taken flight.[pg 312]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, beingenceinteat 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.925Two 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.926On the 18th the Earl of Worcester, Edward's constable and minister of his cruelties,927was beheaded on Tower Hill, the ground being kept by the Sheriffs of London and a contingent from the several wards.928

Sir Thomas Cooke or Coke, late alderman.

Sir Thomas Cooke or Coke, late alderman.

In November Henry was made to hold a parliament, and Sir Thomas Cooke, the deposed alderman,[pg 313]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."929John 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 assumed 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.

Edward recovers the throne, April, 1471.

Edward recovers the throne, April, 1471.

That the aldermen and the better class 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.930Two days later, having recruited his forces, Edward[pg 314]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 crushing defeat inflicted upon her at Tewkesbury (4 May) left Edward once more master of the kingdom.

The Kentish rising under "bastard" Fauconberg, May, 1471.

The Kentish rising under "bastard" Fauconberg, May, 1471.

Attack made on the City.

Attack made on the City.

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 leadership of Thomas Fauconberg or Falconbridge, generally spoken of as the "bastard," 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 1454,931assumed the title 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 pass 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[pg 315]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 pass through the city. They hesitated to accept his assurance 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 assured 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 assured 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 pass through the city, that was out of the question.932Having 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[pg 316]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 Basset, alderman of Aldgate Ward, showed conspicuous valour in the fight which took place in that quarter.933The city was never again troubled by Fauconberg. After much wandering he was taken prisoner at Southampton, and thence conveyed to Middleham, in Yorkshire, where he was beheaded. His head was afterwards sent to London and set up on London Bridge, "looking into Kentward."934

Edward's return to London, and death of Henry VI, May, 1471.

Edward's return to London, and death of Henry VI, May, 1471.

On the night after Edward's return935in 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.936Edward 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,[pg 317]but the aldermen937besides, 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

Birth of Edward V.

Birth of Edward V.

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

The invasion of France, 1475.

The invasion of France, 1475.

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, passing 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.940The expedition ended without a blow, Edward allowing[pg 318]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

Edward and the citizens.

Edward and the citizens.

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,942and in the following month the City returned the compliment by a loan of 5,000 marks.943This 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

A famine threatened, 1482.

A famine threatened, 1482.

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 nobles 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

Edward's last parliament, 1483.

Edward's last parliament, 1483.

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.946In 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.947Some difficulty was experienced in raising the money, and the names of eleven persons who had refused to contribute were forwarded to the king.948A little more than a month elapsed and Edward was dead.

Preparations for the coronation of Edward V.

Preparations for the coronation of Edward V.

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.949On the 14th May they rode out[pg 320]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 assist the chief butler at the banquet950according 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,951it 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.

Shaw's sermon at Paul's Cross, Sunday, 22 June, 1483.

Shaw's sermon at Paul's Cross, Sunday, 22 June, 1483.

In order to do this he called to his assistance 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,[pg 321]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.

The Duke of Buckingham at the Guildhall, 24 June, 1483.

The Duke of Buckingham at the Guildhall, 24 June, 1483.

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 Shore,952one 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[pg 322]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 "worshipful citizens of the metropolis of the kingdom."953Buckingham'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 assent 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 assembly—would they have the Protector assume the crown?—a cry of assent 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 petition Gloucester to accept the crown.

The deposition of Edward V, 26 June, 1483.

The deposition of Edward V, 26 June, 1483.

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 assented, and, having assented, 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.

The coronation of Richard III, 6 July, 1433.

The coronation of Richard III, 6 July, 1433.

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.954The claim of the mayor and citizens to assist the chief butler at the coronation banquet was made and allowed,955the king, sitting crowned inle 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.956Concerning 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[pg 324]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 ofhonorariumwas, 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.

Rebellion of the Duke of Buckingham, 1483.

Rebellion of the Duke of Buckingham, 1483.

His execution, 2 Nov.

His execution, 2 Nov.

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.

The king's reception in the city, Nov., 1483.

The king's reception in the city, Nov., 1483.

Bold speech of the Londoners.

Bold speech of the Londoners.

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.958His policy was one of conciliation, and he lent a ready ear to a[pg 325]Petition 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 God and man, and the liberty and laws of this realm wherein every Englishman is inherited."959

Richard's Parliament, Jan., 1484.

Richard's Parliament, Jan., 1484.

Richard met this appeal by summoning parliament to meet in January (1484), when various acts were passed 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 assist them in their occupation, and otherwise imposed great restrictions upon the merchant stranger.960This 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 unconstitutional.961

Expected invasion of Henry of Richmond, 1484.

Expected invasion of Henry of Richmond, 1484.

In the summer he was welcomed wherever he went, yet he knew that danger threatened. Richmond was preparing for an invasion and the nobles 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.962In August they had promised[pg 326]Richard a loan of £2,400, each alderman contributing £100;963and in the following November the mayor and aldermen rode out to Kennington to meet him and escort him to the Wardrobe, near Blackfriars.964

Richard defeated and slain at Bosworth, 22 Aug., 1485.

Richard defeated and slain at Bosworth, 22 Aug., 1485.

Matters became more serious as time went on. In June, 1485, the City advanced another sum of £2,000 to assist Richard against the "rebels," who were daily expected to land in England.965Extraordinary precautions were taken to guard the city.966At last the blow fell. On the 7th August Henry landed at Milford Haven, and on the 22nd the battle of Bosworth was fought and Richard killed.

Henry VII escorted to the city.

Henry VII escorted to the city.

From Bosworth field Henry set out for London. He was met at Shoreditch by a deputation from the City, accompanied by the Recorder, and was presented with a gift of 1,000 marks.967The standards taken on the field of battle were deposited with much pomp and ceremony in St. Paul's Church, where aTe Deumwas sung, and for a few days Henry took up his residence in the bishop's palace in St. Paul's Churchyard.968

The sweating sickness, Sept.-Oct., 1485.

The sweating sickness, Sept.-Oct., 1485.

A cloud soon overshadowed the rejoicings which followed Henry's accession. An epidemic hitherto unknown in England, although visitations of it followed at intervals during this and the succeeding reign, made its appearance in the city towards the close of September. The "sweating sickness," as this deadly[pg 327]pestilence was called, carried off two mayors and six aldermen within the space of a week969—so sudden and fatal was its attack. Sir Thomas Hille, who was mayor at the time of its first appearance, fell a victim to it on the 23rd September, and was succeeded by William Stocker, appointed on the following day.970Within four days Stocker himself was dead. There remained little more than a month before the regular day of election of a mayor (28 Oct.)971for the year ensuing, and John Warde was called upon to take office during the interval.972He appears to have entertained but little affection for the city, and the civic authorities had some difficulty in getting him to reside in London,973where his duties required his presence. When the mayoralty year expired he was not put in nomination for re-election. He probably went back into the country, glad to get away from the pestilential city, and Hugh Brice was elected in his stead.974Fortunately for the city, the epidemic departed as suddenly and unexpectedly as it came. By the end of October it had entirely disappeared, and allowed of Henry's coronation taking place on the 30th of that month.

A City loan of £2,000.

A City loan of £2,000.

Within a fortnight of his arrival in London Henry issued a writ of summons for his first parliament. It was not so much for the purpose of obtaining supplies that he was anxious that parliament should meet at the earliest opportunity; he was desirous of[pg 328]obtaining as soon as possible a parliamentary title to the crown. As for his immediate necessities, he preferred to apply to the City. He asked for a loan of 6,000 marks, or £4,000; but the citizens would not advance more than half that sum. The loan was repaid the following year—"every penie to the good contentation and satisfying of them that disbursed it."975

Henry's marriage with Elizabeth of York, Jan., 1486.

Henry's marriage with Elizabeth of York, Jan., 1486.

In January, 1486, Henry married the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV, and heiress of the Yorkist family. He had previously taken the precaution of committing to the Tower the Earl of Warwick, son of Clarence, for fear lest he might set up a title to the crown.976After his marriage he set out on a progress through the country, and on his return to London, in June, was met by the mayor and citizens at Putney, and escorted by them down the river to Westminster.977

The insurrection of Lambert Simnel, 1487.

The insurrection of Lambert Simnel, 1487.

City gifts to the king, June and July, 1487.

City gifts to the king, June and July, 1487.

A rumour that the Earl of Warwick had escaped from the Tower gave an opportunity for an imposter, Lambert Simnel, to personate the earl. In order to satisfy the Londoners that the rumour of Warwick's escape was a fabrication, Henry caused his prisoner to be paraded through the streets of the city, and exposed to public view at St. Paul's. After Simnel's defeat (16 June, 1487), the Common Council agreed (28 June) to send a deputation, consisting of two aldermen, the recorder, and four commoners, with a suite of 24 men, to meet[pg 329]the king at Kenilworth, and at the same time voted the king a present of £1000.978This gift was quickly followed (11 July) by the grant of another loan of £2,000 to be levied on the civic companies as before.979

The king escorted to London, Oct., 1487.

The king escorted to London, Oct., 1487.

The City's gift to the queen at her coronation, 25 Nov., 1487.

The City's gift to the queen at her coronation, 25 Nov., 1487.

In October Henry was expected in London,980and the Common Council again showed their loyalty by agreeing that the mayor and aldermen should ride forth to meet his highness, clad in cloaks of scarlet, and accompanied by a suite of servants clothed in medley, at the cost of the "Chamber." With them also rode a contingent from the various civic guilds, clothed in violet, and numbering over 400 horsemen. The Mercers, the Grocers, the Drapers, the Fishmongers, and the "Taillours," each sent 30 mounted representatives of their guild; the Goldsmiths sent 24, whilst the rest sent contingents varying from one to twenty.981On the occasion of the queen's coronation, which took place the following month (25 Nov.), she was made the recipient of a gift of 1,000 marks by the City.982

Henry VII and Brittany, 1488-1492.

Henry VII and Brittany, 1488-1492.

The king would willingly have remained at peace if he were allowed, from motives of economy if for no other reason. England, however, could not sit still and see Brittany overwhelmed by the French king. Before assistance could be sent to the Duchess Anne, it was imperative that money should be raised. At the close of 1488 the Common Council voted the king a loan of £4,000. The money was ordered to be raised by assessment on the companies, but the practice was not to be drawn into precedent. The king,[pg 330]like a good paymaster as he always was, whatever other defects he may have had, repaid the money in the following year.983

Parliamentary supplies and City loans.

Parliamentary supplies and City loans.

Early in the following year parliament984granted large supplies which enabled Henry to despatch 6,000 Englishmen to Anne's assistance, but which caused much discontent among the "rude and beastlie" people of Yorkshire and Durham.985In June, 1491, another loan of £3,000 was raised, this time by assessment on the wards;986and in October Henry declared to parliament his intention of invading France in person. A grant of two fifteenths and two tenths was immediately made to assist him in his expedition by parliament; whilst the City contributed a "great benevolence," the fellowship of Drapers contributing more than any other fellowship, and every alderman subscribing, whether he wished it or no, the sum of £200. The amount contributed by the commonalty exceeded £9,000.987Thus furnished with supplies, the king crossed over to Calais on the 6th October, 1492. The campaign, however, had scarcely opened before Henry gladly accepted the liberal terms offered him by the French king, and peace was signed at Etaples (3 Nov.).

Perkin Warbeck conspiracy, 1496-1497.

Perkin Warbeck conspiracy, 1496-1497.

The success which, brief as it was, had attended Simnel's enterprise was sufficient to encourage a hope that a better planned project might end in overturning the throne. A report was accordingly blazed abroad that Richard, Duke of York, brother of King Edward V, was yet alive, not having been murdered in the Tower, as had been supposed; and a man called Perkin Warbeck or Warboys, a native of Tournay, assumed the name of Richard Plantagenet and succeeded in getting a large number of people in Ireland and Scotland to believe that in his person they in fact saw Richard, Duke of York, the rightful heir to the crown. James IV of Scotland not only gave him in marriage the lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntley, but led an army into England in hopes that the appearance of the pretended prince might raise an insurrection in the northern counties. Instead, however, of joining the invaders the English prepared to repel them, and James retreated into his own country. This took place in 1496. Parliament granted large supplies to enable the king to meet the danger, but the inhabitants of Cornwall, sick of the constant demands made of them for money, and aware of the large treasure which Henry had already amassed, openly resisted any attempt at further taxation and determined to march on London.

The city put into a state of defence.

The city put into a state of defence.

The Londoners, who not only abstained from opposing the new demand for money, but volunteered a loan to the king (15 Nov.) of £4,000,988lost no time in putting their city into a state of defence. Six[pg 332]aldermen and a number of representatives from the livery companies were deputed to attend to the city's ordnance.989The mayor was to be allowed twelve armed men in addition to his usual suite, and the sheriffs forty sergeants and forty valets in order to assist them in keeping the peace within the city. Communication was to be kept up at least once in the day between the mayor and the Lord Chancellor. Houses which had been set up on the city's walls, or within sixteen feet of them, were to be abated. John Stokker, who filled the not unworthy office of Common Hunt,990was ordered daily to ride out to learn the king's pleasure and report thereon to the mayor and aldermen. Among those appointed to guard the city's gates and Temple Bar was Alderman Fabyan, the chronicler.991The state of anxiety which prevailed in the city at this crisis is illustrated by "Jesus Mercy" at the head of one side of the page of the City's record, on which the above orders are entered, whilst on the other side are the wordsvigilie temporis turbacionis.992

The rebels defeated at Blackheath, 22 June, 1497.

The rebels defeated at Blackheath, 22 June, 1497.

Perkin Warbeck in Cornwall.

Perkin Warbeck in Cornwall.

Surrenders to the king's forces and is brought prisoner to London, Oct., 1498.

Surrenders to the king's forces and is brought prisoner to London, Oct., 1498.

Is executed at Tyburn, 1499.

Is executed at Tyburn, 1499.

By the 22nd June, 1497, all immediate danger had passed, the rebels being on that day utterly defeated at Blackheath. Their leaders were taken and executed; the rest were for the most part made prisoners, but were soon afterwards dismissed without further punishment. The leniency displayed towards them by Henry was[pg 333]ill-repaid by their afterwards flocking to the standard of thesoi-disantRichard IV, King of England, who availed himself of their mutinous disposition and appeared in their midst at Bodmin. The news of Perkin Warbeck having arrived in Cornwall from Ireland was brought to the mayor and aldermen of the City of London by letter from the king, which was read to the Common Council on Saturday, the 16th September.993The rebels made an unsuccesful attempt to get possession of Exeter, but hearing of the approach of the king's forces, Perkin Warbeck withdrew to Taunton, leaving his followers to take care of themselves. From Taunton he went to "Mynet" (Minehead) accompanied by less than sixty adherents,994and by the 12th October the king was able to inform the Mayor that Peter "Warboys" had voluntarily submitted himself and had confessed to his being a native of Tournay.995The king had him conveyed to London and paraded through the streets on horseback, in a species of mock triumph, and caused his confession to be printed and scattered over the country that people might see the real character of the man. For a time he appears to have been detained in lax custody about the court, but after he had made an attempt to escape and reach the sea-coast, and been re-captured, he was sent to the Tower. There he got into communication with the unfortunate Earl of Warwick, and entered into a plot for effecting his own and the earl's liberty. A charge was formulated against the earl on the most trivial grounds, of a conspiracy to seize the Tower, and Warbeck was indicted as an accomplice. The former, being found[pg 334]guilty by his peers, was beheaded on Tower Hill, while Perkin and three of his accomplices were hanged at Tyburn.996

Visit of Henry VIII as a boy to the city, 30 Oct., 1498.

Visit of Henry VIII as a boy to the city, 30 Oct., 1498.

In the meantime Prince Henry, who afterwards succeeded his father on the throne as King Henry VIII, but was at the time a child of seven years, paid a visit to the city (30 Oct., 1498), where he received a hearty welcome and was presented by the Recorder, on behalf of the citizens, with a pair of gilt goblets. In reply to the Recorder, who in presenting this "litell and powre" gift, promised to remember his grace with a better at some future time, the prince made the following short speech:—997

His speech.

His speech.

"Fader Maire, I thank you and your Brethern here present of this greate and kynd remembraunce which I trist in tyme comyng to deserve. And for asmoche as I can not give unto you according thankes, I shall pray the Kynges Grace to thank you, and for my partye I shall not forget yorkyndnesse."

In anticipation of the prince's visit, a proclamation had been made by the civic authorities with the view of purging the city of infectious disease, to the effect that all vagabonds and others affected with the "greate pockes" should vacate the city on pain of imprisonment.998

Negotiations for a marriage between Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon.

Negotiations for a marriage between Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon.

Preparations for reception of the princess, Nov., 1499.

Preparations for reception of the princess, Nov., 1499.

The removal of Warwick—"the one judicial murder of Henry's reign"—if not suggested by Spain, was an act which could not be otherwise than grateful to the Spanish king. For five years past negotiations[pg 335]had been proceeding for a marriage between Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon. Warwick's death cleared away the last of Henry's serious competitors, and "not a doubtful drop of royal blood" remained in the kingdom to oppose Arthur's claim to the succession. The princess was expected shortly to arrive in England, and a committee composed of aldermen and commoners was appointed (Nov. 1499) to consult with the king's commissioners as to the preparations to be made for her reception.999Nearly two years, however, elapsed before she set foot in England. In May, 1500, there were again rumours of her approach, and the Common Council voted a sum of money to be levied on the wards to defray the expenses of her reception.1000

Death of an infant prince, June, 1500.

Death of an infant prince, June, 1500.

The "garnysshyng of the pagents" for the festive occasion1001was interrupted by the death of Edmund, the king's infant son. On the 19th June the members of the various craft guilds were ordered to line the streets of Old Bailey and Fleet Street, through which the funeral procession was to pass on its way to Westminster. The mayor and aldermen were to stand, clad in their violet gowns, near Saint Dunstan's Church, and the next morning to go to Westminster by barge to attend the solemn requiem.1002

The marriage of Prince Arthur with Catherine of Aragon, 14 Nov., 1501.

The marriage of Prince Arthur with Catherine of Aragon, 14 Nov., 1501.

There was no necessity for hurry in regard to the pageants. More than a twelvemonth was yet to elapse before they were wanted. At length—on the 2nd October,10031501—the princess landed at Plymouth,[pg 336]and five days later the City received notice from the king of her approach to London. The marriage was solemnized at St. Paul's on the 14th November, the princess being presented with silver flagons by the City in honour of the occasion.1004Five months later (2 April, 1502) the bride was a widow, Prince Arthur having died at the early age of fifteen.

More rejoicings in the city, March, 1503

More rejoicings in the city, March, 1503

In 1503 the streets of the city were again put into mourning, for in February of that year Henry lost his queen. A long account of the manner of "receyvyng of the corps of the most noble princes Quene Elizabeth" is given in the City's Archives.1005In the following month the streets presented a very different appearance, the occasion being the solemnization of the league made between Henry and the King of the Romans. Bonfires were ordered to be lighted at nine different places, and at each of them was to be placed a hogshead of wine, with two sergeants and two sheriffs' yeomen to prevent disturbance; but seeing that it was the Lenten season and that the queen had so recently died, there was to be no minstrelsy. The City Chamberlain was instructed to provide a certain quantity of "Ipocras," claret, Rhenish wine and Muscatel, besides comfits and wafers, and two pots of "Succade" and green ginger, to be presented on the City's behalf to the ambassadors of the King of the Romans, lying at "Pasmer Howse"; a similar gift being presented the following day on behalf of the sheriffs.1006

Charter of Henry VII to the Tailors of London, 6 June 1503.

Charter of Henry VII to the Tailors of London, 6 June 1503.

Henry's chief merit was that he established order, and for this the citizens were grateful. This improvement on the weak government of his immediate predecessors had only been carried out, however, at the cost of extension of royal power, and the City was made to suffer with the rest of the kingdom. In 1503 the civic authorities were deprived by statute of their control over the livery companies,1007and in the same year the Tailors of London obtained a charter which gave umbrage to the mayor and aldermen of the City, as ousting them of their jurisdiction. The Tailors maintained their independence, and their wardens are expressly mentioned as refusing to join the Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths and other fraternities in a petition to parliament (1512) for placing them formally under the rule of the mayor and aldermen, from which they were frequently breaking away.1008

Henry's charter to the City, 23 July, 1505.

Henry's charter to the City, 23 July, 1505.

It was not until 1505 that the City succeeded in getting its charter1009from Henry, and then only on payment of the sum of 5,000 marks. The terms of the charter, moreover, were far from satisfactory, and an attempt was made to get them altered and obtain an abatement of the fine,1010but to no purpose.

Henry's high-handed policy towards the City, 1506-1509.

Henry's high-handed policy towards the City, 1506-1509.

Henry continued his high-handed policy towards the City up to the day of his death, and thereby greatly increased his treasure. His chief instruments were Empson and Dudley, who took up their residence in the city, occupying two houses in Walbrook,[pg 338]whence each had a door into a garden of the Earl of Oxford's house in St. Swithin's Lane.1011There they used to meet and concert measures for filling the king's purse and their own. In 1506 Henry removed Robert Johnson, a goldsmith, from the shrievalty within three days of his election, and put William Fitz-William in his place. Johnson took the matter so much to heart that he died.1012In the same year Thomas Kneseworth, the late mayor, was committed to the Marshalsea, together with the sheriffs who had served under him, and only regained his liberty on payment of a large sum of money.1013In 1507 Sir William Capel, Alderman of Walbrook Ward, who had already fallen a victim to Empson and been heavily fined under an obsolete statute, was again attacked and fined £2,000 for supposed negligence during his mayoralty. Rather than submit to such extortion he went to prison, and remained there until the king's death, when he obtained his freedom and was soon afterwards re-elected mayor.1014Lawrence Aylmer, another mayor, was also a victim of Henry's tyranny, and was committed to the compter, where he remained for the rest of the reign.1015

Marriage of the Princess Mary, Dec., 1508.

Marriage of the Princess Mary, Dec., 1508.

In the meantime the Archduke Philip happened to fall into Henry's hands (Jan., 1506). Whilst crossing the sea to claim the kingdom of Castile[pg 339]in right of his wife, he was driven by stress of weather into Weymouth. Henry was too shrewd a politician not to make the most of so lucky an event, and detained him in a species of honourable captivity, until Philip had promised him the hand of his sister Margaret with a large dower. This marriage alliance was destined never to be realised. Another scheme, however, was subsequently proposed and met with more success. This was a marriage of Henry's own daughter with Philip's son Charles, Prince of Castile. News of their engagement was conveyed to the mayor and aldermen of the City by a letter from the king himself (25 Dec., 1507), in which he expatiated on the benefits, political and commercial, likely to arise from the match.1016

This letter was followed by another from the king, dated from Greenwich, the 23rd June following, in which the Corporation was informed that for the assurance of execution of the marriage treaty both parties had given pledges, and that the City of London was, among other cities and towns, included in letters obligatory to that effect, which letters he begged should be sealed without delay with the Common Seal of the City.1017And so, after the manner of the times, the boy of eight was married (by proxy) to the girl of twelve, amid great rejoicings in London (17 Dec., 1508).1018

Henry's taste for the fine arts.

Henry's taste for the fine arts.

If Henry amassed wealth, it was not from any miserly motive. He well knew the value of the money, and that peace at home was never better secured than by a full treasury. He made, moreover, a princely use of his money, encouraging scholarship,[pg 340]music, and architecture, and dazzled the eyes of foreign ambassadors with the splendour of his receptions. That he had a fine taste in building no one can deny who has once seen the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, or the chapel that bears his name at Westminster.

The King's Chapel and Chantry at Westminster.

The King's Chapel and Chantry at Westminster.

Originally intended by Henry as a resting place for the remains of his uncle, Henry VI, the last mentioned edifice was diverted from its purposes and became the chantry as well as the tomb of Henry VII himself. Anxiety for his soul caused him to bind the Abbot of Westminster by heavy penalties to the due observance of his obit. These penalties were set out in six books or deeds, sealed with the Common Seal of the City of London, and formally delivered to the king by a deputation of the mayor and aldermen, who received in return a seventh book to remain in their custody. In 1504—the year that Pope Julius sanctioned the removal of the remains of Henry VI from Windsor to Westminster—the mayor and citizens formally sealed the "books" before the Master of the Rolls at the Guildhall. Two years later certain livery companies undertook to keep the king's obit on the day that the mayor for the time being went to take his oath at the Exchequer.1019

The king's death, 22 April, 1509.

The king's death, 22 April, 1509.

The king died at his palace of Shene, recently renamed in his honour "Richmond," on the 22nd April,1020[pg 341]1509. Just before his death he granted a general pardon and paid the debts of prisoners committed to the compters of London and to Ludgate for debts amounting to forty shillings or less.1021His corpse was conveyed from Richmond to St. Paul's on the 9th May, being met on its way at St. George's Bar, in Southwark, by the mayor, aldermen and a suite of 104 commoners, all in black clothing and all on horseback. The streets were lined with other members of the companies bearing torches, the lowest craft occupying the first place. Next after the freemen of the city came the "strangers"—Easterlings, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Venetians, Genoese, Florentines and "Lukeners"—on horseback and on foot, also bearing torches.1022These took up their position in Gracechurch Street. Cornhill was occupied by the lower crafts, ordered in such a way that "the most worshipful crafts" stood next unto "Paules." A similar order was preserved the next day, when the corpse was removed from Saint Paul's to Westminster. The lowest crafts were placed nearest to the Cathedral, and the most worshipful next to Temple Bar, where the civic escort terminated. The mayor and aldermen proceeded to Westminster by water, to attend the "masse and offering." The mayor, with his mace in his hand, made his offering next after the Lord Chamberlain; those aldermen who had passed the chair1023offered next after the Knights of the Garter, and before all "knights for the body"; whilst the aldermen who had not yet served as mayor made their offering after the knights.1024

When King Henry VIII was about to make an expedition to France in 1544, the Court of Aldermen gave notice to the Bishop of London that the obit of Henry VII would be kept on Friday, the 16th May, on which day there would be a general procession, and that the observance would be continued until the king departed out of the realm, and then on every Friday and Wednesday until his return.1025

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