London and the Kingdom Volume I Part 10

Instead of invading France, Edward found his own sh.o.r.es devastated by a French fleet, whilst at the same time his hands were full with fresh difficulties from Scotland and Wales. In the summer of 1295, the city furnished the king with three ships, the cost being defrayed by a tax of twopence in the pound charged on chattels and merchandise. John le Breton, then warden, advanced the sum of 40, which the aldermen and six men of each ward undertook to repay.(323) In the following year (1296) the city agreed, after some little hesitation, to furnish forty men with caparisoned horses, and fifty arbalesters for the defence of the south coast, under the king's son, Edward of Carnarvon.(324)

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Edward again turned his attention to Scotland, and, having succeeded in reducing Balliol to submission, he carried off from Scone the stone which legend identifies with Jacob's pillow, and on which the Scottish kings had from time immemorial been crowned,(325) By Edward's order the stone was enclosed in a stately seat, and placed in Westminster Abbey, where it has since served as the coronation chair of English sovereigns.

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From Berwick Edward issued (26 Aug., 1296,) writs for a Parliament to meet at Bury St. Edmund's, in the following November. The const.i.tution of this Parliament was the same as that which had met at Westminster in November of the previous year (1295) and which was intended to serve as a model parliament, a pattern for all future national a.s.semblies. The city was represented by two aldermen, namely, Sir Stephen Aswy, or Eswy, who had been confined in Windsor Castle ten years before for his conduct towards the king's justiciars at the Tower, and Sir William de Hereford.(326) From this time forward down to the present day we have little difficulty in discovering from one source or another the names of the city's representatives in successive parliaments. Edward, of course, wanted money. The barons and knights increased their former grants; so also did the burgesses. The clergy, on the other hand, declared themselves unable to make any grant at all in the face of a papal prohibition,(327) and the king was at last driven to seize the lay fees of the clergy of the province of Canterbury. In the spring of the following year he proceeded to seize all the wool of the country, paying for it by tallies, and to levy a supply of provisions on the counties. The act was only justifiable on the plea of necessity, and led to measures being taken to prevent its repet.i.tion.(328)

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It was an easier matter for Edward to raise money than to get the barons to accompany him abroad. To leave them behind was to risk the peace of the country. He therefore spared no efforts to persuade them to join in a projected expedition, and when persuasion failed tried threats. It was his desire that the barons should go to Gascony, whilst he took the command in Flanders. This was not at all to the taste of the barons, who declined to go abroad, except in the personal retinue of the king himself. "With you, O king," said Roger BiG.o.d, "I will gladly go; as belongs to me by hereditary right, I will go in front of the host, before your face;" but without the king he positively declined to move. "By G.o.d, earl," cried the king, fairly roused by the obstinacy of his va.s.sal, "you shall either go or hang;" to which the earl replied, with equal determination, "By the same token, O king, I will neither go nor hang."(329)

Nothing daunted, the king issued writs (15 May) for a military levy of the whole kingdom for service abroad, to meet at London on the 7th July, a measure as unconst.i.tutional as the seizure of wool and the levying of taxes without the a.s.sent of Parliament. On the day appointed, the barons, who had received a large accession of strength from the great va.s.sals, appeared with their forces at St. Paul's; but instead of complying with the king's demands-or rather requests, for the king had altered his tone-they prepared a list of their grievances.

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With difficulty civil war was avoided, and in August Edward set sail for Flanders. No sooner was his back turned, than the barons and the Londoners made common cause in insisting upon a confirmation and amplification of their charters.(330) Prince Edward, the king's son, who had been appointed regent in his father's absence, granted all that was asked, and on the 10th October (1297), the _Confirmatio Cartarum_, as it was called, was issued in the king's name.(331) Thenceforth, no customs duties were to be exacted without the consent of parliament.

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In view of the king's return to England in March (1298), the warden of the city, Sir John Breton, the aldermen, and a deputation from the wards met together and resolved that every inhabitant of the city, citizen and stranger, should pay to the king's collectors the sum of sixpence in the pound of all their goods up to 100.(332) In the following month Edward issued letters patent (11th April), restoring to the citizens their franchises and the right of again electing their mayor.(333) The choice of the citizens fell upon Henry le Waleys, who was duly admitted by the Barons of the Exchequer after presentation to the king.(334)

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In the summer Edward marched to Scotland for the purpose of putting down the rising under Wallace. An account of the battle of Falkirk, fought on the 22nd July, was conveyed to the mayor, aldermen, and "barons" of London, by letter from Walter Langton, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, or, as he was then styled, Bishop of Chester, who wrote as an eye-witness, if not indeed as a partaker in that day's work.(335) It was the first battle of any consequence in which the English long-bow was brought into prominence. Edward's victory was complete. The enemy's loss was great, the number that perished, according to the bishop's information, being two hundred men-at-arms and twenty thousand foot soldiers. Edward was unable, however, to follow up his success for want of supplies, and so retreated.

In 1304, he again marched northward, notwithstanding the defection of many n.o.bles. He had previously resorted once more to the questionable practice of talliaging the city of London,(336) levying from the citizens the fifteenth penny of their moveable goods and the tenth penny of their rents.(337) The campaign was eminently successful. Sterling surrendered after a siege of two months, and Wallace himself shortly afterwards fell into his hands, having refused the terms of an amnesty which Edward had generously offered.

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He was carried to London, where a crowd of men and women flocked out to meet one, of whose gigantic stature and feats of strength they had heard so much. He was lodged in the house of William de Leyre, an alderman of the city, situate in the parish of All Hallows at the Hay or All Hallows the Great. Having been tried at Westminster and condemned to death on charges of treason, sacrilege and robbery, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered, and his head set up on London Bridge.(338)

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No sooner was Wallace disposed of than another claimant to the Scottish crown appeared in the person of Bruce. Before Edward took the field against the new foe, he conferred knighthood upon his son and nearly three hundred others, including John le Blound the mayor. The number of knights within the small compa.s.s of the city was reckoned at that time to be not less than a thousand.(339) Knighthood, as we have seen, was one of the means Edward resorted to for raising money, and on this occasion the citizens of London are said to have made him a free gift of 2,000, in recognition of the honour bestowed on their mayor.(340)

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In the summer of 1307, Edward set out to execute the vow of vengeance against Bruce that he had made on the occasion of the knighthood of his son, but the hand of death was upon him, and before lie reached the Scottish border he died (7th July).

CHAPTER VI.

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The new king's character, differing as it did so much from that of his father, was not one to commend itself to the citizens of London. With them he never became a favourite. The bold and determined character of Queen Isabel, the very antipodes of her husband, was more to their liking, and throughout the contests that ensued between them, the citizens steadily supported her cause. At her first appearance, as a bride, in the city, the streets were compared with the New Jerusalem, so rich were they in appearance;(341) whilst at the coronation ceremony, which took place a month later (25th February, 1308), she and her husband were escorted by the mayor and aldermen in their most gorgeous robes, quartered with the arms of England and France, and were served at the banquet as custom commanded.(342)

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But even thus early in Edward of Carnarvon's reign the presence of foreigners-to whom the king was even more addicted than his father-was likely to prove a source of trouble; and it was necessary to make special proclamations forbidding the carrying of arms on the day of the coronation and enjoining respect for foreigners attending the ceremony.(343) The king's foreign favourites proved his ruin, and contributed in no small degree to the eventual defection of the city. They were for ever desiring some favour of the citizens. At one time it was Piers de Gavestone who wanted a post for his "valet";(344) at another it was Hugh le Despenser who desired (and obtained) a lease of the Small Beam for a friend.(345) The friend only held the Beam for little more than six months, and then, at the urgent request of the queen herself, it was given to another.(346)

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The barons were especially irritated at being supplanted by the king's favourites, and in 1308 succeeded in getting Edward to send Gaveston out of England. In the following year, however, he was recalled, and the barons became so exasperated that in 1310, when the king summoned an a.s.sembly of bishops and barons, the latter appeared, contrary to orders, in full military array. The king could not do otherwise than submit to their dictation. Ordainers were appointed from among the barons for the purpose of drawing up ordinances for the government of the kingdom. These ordinances were promulgated in their complete form in 1311, when they received the sanction of a parliament a.s.sembled at the House of the Black Friars, in the month of August, and were afterwards publicly proclaimed in St. Paul's Churchyard,(347) special precautions being taken at the time to safeguard the gates of the city by night and day.(348) Gaveston was condemned to banishment for life.

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In the meantime, whilst the Ordainers were engaged on their work, Edward had put himself at the head of his army and marched against the Scots, who were rapidly gaining ground under Bruce. He remained on the border until July, 1311, trying every means to raise money. In March of that year the city sent him one thousand marks, by the hands of Roger le Palmere and William de Flete, the mayor, Richer de Refham, contributing no less than one hundred pounds of the whole sum. The money was despatched on horseback, tied up in baskets covered with matting and bound with cords, and the cost of every particular is set out in the city's records.(349)

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Refham was a mayor of the popular type. He had already suffered deprivation of his aldermanry for some reason or another, but was reinstated in 13O2.(350) No sooner was he chosen mayor than he caused a collection to be made of the ancient liberties and customs of the city, from the books and rolls preserved in the city's Chamber, and having a.s.sembled the aldermen and best men of the city, he caused them to be publicly read. This having been done, he next proceeded to ask the a.s.sembly if it was their will that these ancient customs and liberties, which had so often been infringed by the removal of mayors and sheriffs, should be for the future maintained. Their answer being given unanimously in the affirmative, he at once took steps to obtain the king's writ of confirmation, and caused them to be proclaimed throughout the city. He made a perambulation of the city and abated all nuisances and encroachments. He went further than this. For some time past the streets had been rendered unsafe to pa.s.s after dark by bands of rioters who at that day were known by the _sobriquet_ of "roreres." A few years later, the same cla.s.s went under the name of "riffleres." They were the precursors of the "Muns," the "t.i.tyre Tus," the "Hectors," and the "Scourers,"-dynasties of tyrants, as Macaulay styles them, which domineered over the streets of London, soon after the Restoration, and at a later period were superseded by the "Nickers," the "Hawcubites," and the still more dreaded "Mohawks," of Queen Anne's reign. By whatever name they happened at the time to be known, their practice was the same, viz.:-a.s.sault and robbery of peaceful citizens whose business or pleasure carried them abroad after sundown.

During Refham's mayoralty, a raid was made on all common nightwalkers, "bruisers" (_pugnatores_), common "roreres," _wagabunds_ and others, and many were committed to prison, to the great relief of the more peaceably disposed.(351)

His strictness and impartiality were such as to raise up enemies, and an excuse was found for removing him not only from the office of mayor, but once again from his aldermanry.(352) On this point, however, the city archives are altogether silent, they only record the appointment of his successor to the mayoralty chair at the usual time and in the usual manner.

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In January, 1312, the king returned to the north, and as soon as he had arrived at York ignored the ordinance touching Gaveston, and instead of sending his favourite into exile, received him into favour and restored his forfeited estates. Foreseeing the storm that he would have to meet from the barons, the king wrote from Knaresborough (9th Jan.) to Refham's successor, John de Gisors, enjoining him to put the city into a state of defence, and not allow armed men to enter on any pretext whatever.(353) On the 21st he wrote again, not only to the mayor, but to nineteen leading men of the city, exhorting them to hold the city for him.(354) Other letters followed in quick succession-on the 24th and 31st January and the 8th February-all couched in similar terms.(355) When, however, he saw how hopeless his case was, Edward sent word to the mayor and sheriffs that the barons might be admitted provided the city was still held for the king.

Accordingly the barons were admitted without bloodshed, and held consultation at St. Paul's as to what was best to be done.(356) Gaveston's days were numbered. On the 12th June he was forced to surrender unconditionally to the Earl of Warwick, and that day week was beheaded without the semblance of a trial.(357)

The influence he had exercised over the king had been remarkable from their youth. The son of a Gascon knight, he had been brought up with Edward as his foster brother and playfellow, and in course of time the strong will of the favourite gained a complete mastery over the weaker will of the prince. But his arrogant behaviour soon raised such a storm among the n.o.bles at Court that he was forced to leave England. When Edward succeeded to the throne, one of his first acts was to recall Gaveston, to whom he gave his own niece in marriage, after having bestowed upon him the Earldom of Cornwall. The king seemed never tired of heaping wealth upon his friend. Among other things, he bestowed upon his favourite (28th Aug., 1309) the sum of 100 shillings payable out of the rent of 50 due from the citizens of London for Oueenhithe, to be held by him, his wife, and the heirs of their bodies.(358)

Both of them had friends and enemies in common. As Prince of Wales, Edward had made an attempt to encroach upon some woods belonging to Walter Langton, Bishop of Chester. This caused a breach between father and son, and the prince was banished from Court for a whole half-year. Gaveston also bore the same bishop a grudge, for it was owing in a great measure to Langton's influence as treasurer to Edward I that he was in the first instance forced into exile. When the prince succeeded his father, there came a day of retribution for the bishop; his property was handed over to Gaveston, and he himself carried prisoner from castle to castle by the now all powerful favourite. A proclamation was also issued at the instance of Gaveston, inviting complaints against the bishop.(359)

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Edward had purposed holding a parliament at Lincoln towards the end of July, 1312, but the turn that affairs had taken induced him to change his mind, and he summoned it to meet at Westminster.(360) It was important that he should secure the city, if possible, in his favour. In this he was successful; so that when the barons appeared to threaten London, having arrived with a large force at Ware, they found the city's gates strongly guarded.(361)

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In November (1312), the queen gave birth to a son, who afterwards ascended the throne as Edward III. Isabel herself informed the citizens of the auspicious event by letter sent by the hands of John de Falaise, her "taillur."(362) The news had already reached the city, however, before the queen's own messenger arrived, and he signified his disappointment at being forestalled by declining to accept a sum of 10 and a silver cup of 32 ozs., which the city offered him by way of gratuity, as being inadequate to his deserts. As nothing further is recorded of the matter, it is probable that the offended tailor had reason to repent of his folly.

For more than a week the city was given up to merry-making, in honour of the birth of an heir to the crown. The conduits ran with wine; a solemn ma.s.s was sung at St. Paul's, and the mayor and aldermen rode in state to Westminster, accompanied by members of the fraternities of drapers, mercers, and vintners of London, in their respective liveries, to make offering, returning to dine at the Guildhall, which was hung with tapestry as befitted the occasion.

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After the death of Gaveston, his old enemy Walter Langton again found favour and resumed his office as treasurer. The city had little reason to be gratified at his return to power; for it was by his advice that the king in December of this year (1312), issued orders for a talliage, which the great towns, and especially London, objected to pay. Early in the following January (1313), the mayor and aldermen were summoned to attend the royal council, sitting at the house of the White Friars. The question was there put to them-would they make fine for the talliage, or be a.s.sessed by poll on their rents and chattels? Before making answer, the mayor and aldermen desired to consult the commons of the city. An adjournment accordingly took place for that purpose. When next the mayor and aldermen appeared before the council, they resisted the talliage on the following grounds:(363)-In the first place, because, although the king might talliage cities and boroughs that were of his demesne, he could not, as they understood, talliage the City of London, which enjoyed exemption from such an imposition by charter. In the next place, there were prelates and barons, besides citizens, who enjoyed rents and tenements in the city, and their consent would first have to be obtained before the munic.i.p.al authorities could levy such a tax. Thirdly, the citizens held the city by grant of former kings, at a fee ferm for all services payable into the exchequer, and on that account ought not to be talliaged. Under these circ.u.mstances the council was asked to delay the talliage until Parliament should meet.

This request the king and council expressed themselves as ready to comply with on condition that the city made an immediate advance of 2,000 marks.

The city refused, and the king's a.s.sessors appeared at the Guildhall, and read their commission. They were on the point of commencing work, when the city obtained a respite until the meeting of Parliament by a loan of 1,000. More than eighteen months elapsed, and at last a Parliament was summoned to meet at York (Sept. 1314); but the country was in such a disturbed state, owing to the renewal of the war with Scotland, that the talliage question was not discussed. Nevertheless the king's officers appeared again in the city to make an a.s.sessment, and again they were bought off by another loan of 400. The king took the money and broke his word, and the record of pledges taken from citizens for "arrears of divers talliages and not redeemed," is significant of the hardship inflicted by this illegal exaction on a large number of inhabitants of the city.(364)