London and the Kingdom Volume I Part 12

The Earl of Lancaster, who was made prisoner at Boroughbridge, and afterwards executed before his own castle at Pomfret, had come to be a great favourite with the Londoners, in whose eyes he appeared as the champion of the oppressed against the strong. His memory was long cherished in the city, and miracles were believed to have taken place-the crooked made straight, the blind receiving sight and the deaf hearing-before the tablet he had set up in St. Paul's commemorative of the king's submission to the Ordinances. Edward ordered the removal of the tablet, but it was again set up as soon as all power had pa.s.sed from his hands.(402)

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Edward, again a free ruler, lost no time in revoking these Ordinances. The elder Despenser he raised to the earldom of Winchester.(403) This was in May, 1322; a year later (April, 1323), he deposed Chigwell, who had again been re-elected to the mayoralty in the previous October, and put in his place Nicholas de Farndon,(404) thus reversing the order of things in 1321, when Farndon had been deposed and his place taken by Chigwell.

The deposed mayor, however, was ordered to keep close attendance on the Court, as were also three other London citizens, viz.: Hamo G.o.dchep, Edmund Lambyn, and Roger le Palmere; and in the following November he recovered his position,(405) and held it for the rest of Edward's reign.

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The king's triumph was destined to be short-lived. In August, 1323, Roger Mortimer, a favourite of the queen, effected his escape from the Tower, where he had lain prisoner since January, 1322. The divided feeling of the citizens which had been more or less apparent since the year of the great Iter, now began to a.s.sert itself. Mortimer's escape had taken place with the connivance, if not active a.s.sistance, of a leading citizen, Richard de Betoyne, and he took sanctuary on the property of another leading citizen, John Gisors.(406) In November the citizens thought fit to close their gates, to prevent surprise.(407)

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In the following year (1324), a quarrel broke out between two of the city guilds, the weavers and the goldsmiths. Fights took place in the streets and lives were lost.(408) How far, if at all, such a quarrel had any political significance it is difficult to say, but it is not unlikely, at a time when the guilds were winning their way to chartered rights, that occasionally their members took sides in the political struggle that was then being carried on.

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Edward, in the meanwhile, was threatened with war by France, unless he consented to cross the sea and do homage to the French king for the possessions he held in that country. This the Despensers dared not allow him to do. A compromise was therefore effected. Queen Isabel, who was not sorry for an opportunity of quitting the side of a husband who had seized all her property, removed her household, and put her on board wages at twenty shillings a day,(409) undertook, with the king's a.s.sent, to revisit her home and to bring about a settlement. Accordingly, on the 9th March,(410) 1324, she crossed over to France, where she was afterwards joined by Mortimer and her son.

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Once on the continent, the queen threw off the mask, and immediately began to concert measures against the king and the Despensers. By negotiating a marriage for her son with the daughter of the Count of Hainault, she contrived to raise supporters in England, whilst by her affected humility and sorrow, displayed by wearing simple apparel as one that mourned for her husband, she won the sympathy of all who beheld her.(411) The king, on the other hand, publicly forbade any one holding correspondence with her, caused provisions to be laid up in the Tower in case of emergency, and prepared a fleet to prevent her landing.

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It was all in vain. The majority of the citizens had made up their mind to give him no more support. On the 24th September, 1326, Isabel, in spite of all precautions, effected a landing near Harwich; and Edward, as soon as he was made aware of her arrival in England, took fright and left London for the west. The queen, who was accompanied by her son and her "gentle Mortimer," gave out that she came as an avenger of Earl Thomas, whose memory was yet green in the minds of the citizens, and as the enemy of the Despensers.(412) Adherents quickly came in from all sides, and with these she leisurely (_quasi peregrinando_) followed up the king.(413)

In the meantime a letter had been despatched to the city in her name and that of her son, desiring its a.s.sistance in destroying "the enemies of the land." To this letter, we are told, no answer was sent "through fear of the king." Another letter was therefore sent to the same effect, in which Hugh Despenser was especially named as one to be destroyed, and an immediate answer was requested.(414) This letter was affixed to the cross in Cheapside and copies circulated through the city.

On the 15th October, the city broke out into open rebellion. The mayor and other leading men had gone to the house of the Blackfriars to meet the Bishops of London and Exeter. The mob, now fairly roused by the queen's second letter, hurried thither and forced them to return to the Guildhall, the timid Chigwell "crying mercy with clasped hands," and promising to grant all they required. A proclamation was made shortly afterwards to the effect that "the enemies to the king and the queen and their son" should depart the city.(415)

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One unfortunate man, John le Marchall, suspected of being employed by Hugh Despenser as a spy, was seized and incontinently beheaded in Cheapside.

The mob, having tasted blood, hastened to sack the house of Walter Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, who as Edward's treasurer, had confiscated the queen's property. It so happened, that the bishop himself, attended by two esquires, was riding towards the city intending to have his midday meal at his house in Old Dean's Lane (now Warwick Lane), before proceeding to the Tower. Hearing cries of "Traitor!" he guessed that something was wrong, and made for sanctuary in St. Paul's. He was caught, however, just as he was about to enter the north door, dragged from his horse, carried to Chepe, and there put to death in the same way as John le Marchall had been executed a short hour before.(416)

The bishop's two attendant esquires also perished at the hands of the mob.

Their bodies were allowed to lie stark naked all that day in the middle of Chepe. The head of the bishop was sent to the queen at Gloucester,(417) but his corpse was reverently carried into St. Paul's after vespers by the canons and vicars of the cathedral. It was not allowed, however, to remain there long; for hearing that the bishop had died under sentence of excommunication, the authorities caused it to be removed to the church of St. Clement Danes, near which stood the bishop's new manor house of which we are reminded at the present day by Exeter Hall. The parish church was in the gift of the Bishop of Exeter for the time being, and John Mugg, then rector, owed his preferment to Stapleton. He was, therefore, guilty of gross ingrat.i.tude when he refused to take in the corpse of his patron, or to allow it the rites of burial. Certain poor women had more compa.s.sion; they at least cast a piece of old cloth over the corpse for decency's sake and buried it out of sight, although without any attempt to make a grave and "without any office of priest or clerk." Thus, it remained till the following month of February, when it was disinterred and taken to Exeter. The treatment of Bishop Stapleton caused other prelates to look to themselves, and many of them, including the primate himself, began to make overtures of submission to Queen Isabel.

After the Bishop's murder there was no pretence of government in the city.

The mob did exactly as they liked. They sacked the houses of Baldock, the Chancellor, and carried off the treasure he had laid up in St. Paul's. The property of the Earl of Arundel, recently executed at Hereford, which lay in the Priory of Holy Trinity, Aldgate, shared the same fate. The banking house of the Bardi, containing the wealth acc.u.mulated by the younger Despenser, was sacked under cover of night. The Tower was entered, the prisoners set free, and new officers appointed.(418) All this was done in the face of a proclamation, calling upon the citizens to sink their differences and to settle their disputes by lawful means.(419)

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When the Feast of St. Simon and Jude again came round, and Chigwell's term of office expired by efflux of time, no election of a successor took place, but on the 15th November, the Bishop of Winchester paid a visit to the Guildhall, where, after receiving the freedom of the city, and swearing "to live and die with them in the cause, and to maintain the franchise," he presented a letter from the queen, permitting the citizens freely to elect their mayor as in the days before the Iter of 1321, for since that time no mayor had been elected, save only by the king's favour.(420) They at once elected Richard de Betoyne, whom the queen had that day appointed Warden of the Tower, conjointly with John de Gisors.(421) Thus were these two aldermen recompensed for the a.s.sistance they had rendered Mortimer in his escape from the Tower.

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On the 13th January, 1327-exactly one week before the king met his wretched end in Berkeley Castle-Mortimer came to the Guildhall with a large company including the Archbishop of Canterbury and several bishops, and one and all made oath to maintain the cause of the queen and of her son, and to preserve the liberties of the City of London. This was solemnly done in the presence of the mayor, the chamberlain, Andrew Horn, and a vast concourse of citizens. The Archbishop, who had offended many of the citizens by annulling the decree of exile pa.s.sed against the Despensers in 1321, now sought their favour by the public offer of a gift to the commonalty of 50 tuns of wine.(422)

CHAPTER VII.

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Edward III was only fourteen years of age when he succeeded to the throne.

For the first three years of his reign the government of the country was practically in the hands of Mortimer, his mother's paramour; and it was no doubt by his advice and that of the queen-mother that the young king rewarded the citizens of London, who had shown him so much favour, by granting them not only a general pardon(423) for offences committed since he set foot in England in September, 1326, but also a charter confirming and enlarging their ancient liberties.(424)

This latter charter, which has been held to be of the force of an Act of Parliament,(425) established (among other things) the ferm of the Sheriffwick of London and Middles.e.x at the original sum of 300 per annum, instead of the increased rental of 400 which had been paid since 1270;(426) it appointed the mayor one of the justices at the gaol delivery of Newgate, as well as the king's escheator of felon's goods within the city; it gave the citizens the right of devising real estate within the city; it restored to them all the privileges they had enjoyed before the memorable Iter of the last reign; and granted to them a monopoly of markets within a circuit of seven miles of the city.(427) These two charters-the charter of pardon and the charter of liberties-together with another charter(428) releasing the citizens from all debts due to the late king, were publicly read and explained in English to the citizens a.s.sembled at the Guildhall by Andrew Horn, the Chamberlain, on the 9th March.(429)

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Scarcely was he knighted and crowned king before necessity compelled him to take the field against the Scots. The Londoners were, as usual, called upon to supply a contingent towards the forces which had been ordered to a.s.semble at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.(430) They responded to the king's appeal by sending 100 hors.e.m.e.n fully equipped, each one supplied with the sum of 100 shillings at least for expenses, and a further contingent of 100 foot-men. They made their rendezvous at West Smithfield, whence they proceeded to "la Barnette."(431)

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Whilst furnishing this aid to the king the citizens were anxious that their liberality should not be misconstrued, or tend to establish a precedent in derogation of their chartered privileges. Their fears on this score were set at rest by the receipt of letters patent from the king declaring that their proceedings on this occasion should not be to their prejudice.(432)

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A parliament held in September, at Lincoln, in which the citizens were represented by Benedict de Fulsham and Robert de Kelseye,(433) granted the king an aid of a twentieth to defray expenses; and Hamo de Chigwell, among others, was appointed by the king to collect the tax from the citizens.(434)

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The City's representatives were accompanied to Lincoln by the mayor, Richard de Betoyne, who was the bearer of letters under the seal of the commonalty addressed to the king, the queen, and members of the king's council praying that the courts of King's Bench and Exchequer might not be removed from Westminster to York.(435) The removal was inconvenient to the city merchants, whatever advantage might accrue to those dwelling in the north of England. Negotiations between the City and the king on this subject were protracted for some weeks; the king at length promising that the courts should return to Westminster as soon as the country was in a more settled state.(436)

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The campaign against the Scots brought little credit to either side, and terminated in a treaty, the terms of which were for the most part arranged by Mortimer and the queen-mother. One of the articles of peace stipulated for the surrender of all proofs of the subjection of Scotland; and accordingly the abbot of Westminster received orders to deliver up the stone of Scone to the Sheriffs of London for transmission to Isabel, who was in the north.(437) This the abbot refused to do-"for reasons touching G.o.d and the church,"-without further instructions from the king and his council.(438)

When negotiations were opened in 1363 for the union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland, it was proposed that Edward should be crowned king at Scone on the royal seat (_siege roial_) which he should cause to be returned from England. These negotiations, however, fell through, and the stone remains in Westminster Abbey to this day.(439)

The treaty which had been arranged at Edinburgh (17 March, 1328), was afterwards confirmed by a Parliament held at Northampton, in which the city was represented by Richard de Betoyne and Robert de Kelseye.(440)

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When the terms of this treaty of Northampton (as it was called) came to be fully understood, the nation began to realise the measure of disgrace which they involved, and Mortimer and the queen became the objects of bitter hatred. Henry, Earl of Lancaster, the king's nominal guardian, had grown weary of his false position, and of serving only as Mortimer's tool.

Determined to throw off the yoke, he refused to attend a parliament which met at Salisbury in October (1328),(441) unless certain changes in the government and in the king's household were first made. In the meantime, Bishop Stratford of Winchester and Thomas, Lord Wake, two of his supporters, had paid a visit to the city and had endeavoured to rouse the citizens to action. The king, hearing of this, wrote to the munic.i.p.al authorities for an explanation. They frankly acknowledged, in reply, that the bishop had been in the city for the purpose of discussing the ill state of affairs, and themselves expressed a hope, amid vows of the utmost loyalty, that the king would redress the grievances under which the nation suffered.(442)

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Instead of attending the parliament at Salisbury, the earl marched in full force to Winchester. On the 5th November he wrote to the citizens from Hungerford, to the effect that he had made known to parliament his honourable intentions, but had received no reply; that the parliament had been adjourned to London; that he had been informed of certain matters about which he could not write, but which the bearer would communicate to them; and he concluded with a.s.suring them that he desired nothing so much as the king's honour and the welfare of the kingdom, and declaring his implicit confidence in their loyalty.(443)