London and the Kingdom Volume I Part 15

On the 26th August the battle of Crecy was won against a force far outnumbering the English army. The victory was due in large measure to the superiority of the English longbow over the crossbow used by the Genoese mercenaries; but it was also a victory of foot soldiers over hors.e.m.e.n. The field of Bannockburn had shown how easy a thing it was for a body of hors.e.m.e.n to crush a body of archers, if allowed to take them in the flank, whilst that of Halidon Hill had more recently taught the king, from personal experience, that archers could turn the tide of battle against any direct attack, however violent. Edward profited by the experience of that day. He not only protected the flank of his archers, but interspersed among them dismounted hors.e.m.e.n with levelled spears, the result being that the French were driven off the field with terrible slaughter.

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Flushed with victory Edward proceeded to lay siege to Calais. His forces, which had been already greatly reduced on the field of Crecy, suffered a further diminution by desertion. The mayor and sheriffs of London were ordered to seize all deserters, whether knights, esquires, or men of lower order, found in the city, and to take steps for furnishing the king with fresh recruits and store of victuals.(549) By Easter of the following year, the City was called upon to furnish two vessels towards a fleet of 120 large ships, which the council had decided to fit out. All ships found in the port of London were pressed into the king's service.(550)

In July (1347) the king was in need of more recruits and provisions.(551) Calais still held out, although both besiegers and besieged were reduced to sore straits. At last it surrendered (4 Aug.). Edward spared the lives of its princ.i.p.al burgesses at the intercession of his queen, but he cleared the town of French inhabitants, and invited Londoners and others to take up their abode there, offering them houses at low rents and other inducements.(552) A truce with Philip was agreed on, and Edward returned home. For a time England was resplendent with the spoils of the French war-"A new sun seemed to shine," wrote Walsingham.(553) Every woman of position went gaily decked with some portion of the plunder of the town of Caen or Calais; cupboards shone with silver plate, and wardrobes were filled with foreign furs and rich drapery of continental workmanship. The golden era was of short duration.

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In August, 1348, the pestilential scourge, known as the Black Death,(554) appeared in England, and reached London in the following November. The number of victims it carried off in the city has been variously computed,(555) but all conjectures of the kind must be received with caution. All that is known for certain is that the mortality caused a marked increase in the number of beggars, and, at the same time, raised the price of labour and provisions within the city's walls to such a degree that measures had to be taken to remedy both evils.(556) Besides the losses by death, the population of the city and the country generally was sensibly diminished by the flight of numbers of inhabitants to the continent, with the hope of escaping the ravages of the plague. The king's treasury threatened soon to become empty, and the country left defenceless, if this were allowed to go on unchecked; he therefore ordered the sheriffs of London to see that no men-at-arms, strangers or otherwise, left the kingdom, with the exception of well-known merchants or amba.s.sadors, without the king's special order.(557) Pilgrimages to Rome or elsewhere were made an excuse for leaving England, at a time when the king's subjects could ill be spared. The king endeavoured to limit this drain upon the population of the kingdom by allowing none to cross the sea without his special licence. The city authorities having negligently executed his orders in this respect, received a rebuke in October, 1350, and were told to be more strict in their observance for the future.(558)

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On the night which ushered in New Year's day, 1350, an abortive attempt had been made by the French to recapture Calais. This ill success rendered Philip the more willing to agree to a further prolongation of the truce with England. Notification of this cessation of hostilities was duly sent to the sheriffs of London.(559) Before the truce had come to an end Philip of Valois had ceased to live, and had been succeeded on the throne of France by John II.

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The city had scarcely recovered from the ravages of the late pestilence, before it was called upon (24 July, 1350) to furnish two ships to a.s.sist the king in putting down piracy. These were accordingly fitted out; the ship of Andrew Turk being furnished with 40 men-at-arms and 60 archers, whilst that of Goscelin de Cleve had on board 30 men-at-arms and 40 archers.(560) With their aid, Edward succeeded in utterly defeating a Spanish fleet which had recently inflicted much damage on the Bordeaux wine fleet, and capturing 24 large ships laden with rich merchandise.(561) The citizens had further to submit to a tax on wool and wine, in order to maintain the king's vessels engaged in putting down piracy.(562)

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In 1354 an exception was made by special charter of the king in favour of the City of London, and its sergeants were permitted to carry maces of gold or silver, or plated with silver, and bearing the royal arms. Ten years before the commons of England had pet.i.tioned the king (_inter alia_) not to allow any one to carry maces tipped with silver in city or borough, except the king's own officers. All others were to carry maces tipped with copper only (_virolez de cuevere_), with staves of wood as formerly. The pet.i.tion was granted saving that the sergeants of the City of London might carry their mace within the liberties of the city and before the mayor in the king's presence.(563) This same year (1354), moreover, the king with the a.s.sent of parliament had again forbidden the carrying of gold or silver maces. Thenceforth, maces were to be of iron, bra.s.s or tin, or staves tipped with latten, and not to bear representations of the royal arms, but the arms or signs of the city using them. Again exception was made in the case of London; two sergeants of the City as well as of the City of York being permitted to carry gold or silver maces, but they were not to be surmounted with the royal arms. This led to a humble remonstrance from the whole body of the citizens of London, presented to the chancellor and the council by their mayor, Adam Fraunceys, and within a month the charter above mentioned was granted. That the charter originated or authorized the t.i.tle of "Lord" Mayor, as some have supposed, is extremely improbable.

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In 1355, all efforts to convert the truce into a final peace having failed, war with France was renewed. Edward was soon called home by fresh troubles in Scotland. Having recovered Berwick, which had been taken by surprise, and formally received the crown of Scotland from Edward Baliol, he prepared to rejoin his son, the Black Prince, in France, and in March, 1356, ordered the city to furnish him with two vessels of war.(564)

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News of the battle of Poitiers (19 September, 1356), and of the defeat and capture of the French king, was received in the city by letter from the Prince of Wales, dated 22nd October.(565) Again the English longbow, combined with superior tactics, gained the day. The prince, on his return, made a triumphal entry into the city, pa.s.sing over London Bridge on his way to Westminster, with the captive king and the king's son in his train.(566) The streets were almost impa.s.sable for the mult.i.tude that thronged them; and for the moment the citizens forgot at what cost to themselves the victory had been gained. A truce-a welcome truce-for two years followed.(567)

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Only a few weeks before the prince's return the citizens had laid before the king a list of their grievances and prayed for redress.(568) They had complained of being charged taxes and talliages in excess of any other of the commons. They had lent the king at Dordrecht no less a sum than 60,000, and had incurred further loss by the discrepancy between the weight for weighing wool at Dordrecht and that of England. They had lent the king further sums of 5,000 and 2,000 on two separate occasions, which had not been repaid. The sum of 40,000 had been advanced to the king's merchants at Calais and elsewhere, and this, together with other sums lent (amounting to over 30,000), was still outstanding to the grievous hurt of many citizens. They had, moreover, been called upon to undergo more charges than others with respect to the king's expeditions to Scotland, Flanders and France, and in providing men-at-arms, archers and ships, in aid of his wars. Nor did their complaints stop here. The king's purveyors had been accustomed to seize the carriages, victuals and merchandise of citizens without offering payment for the same, in direct contravention of the king's first charter to the city. Owing, moreover, to deaths by the plague, so much property had come into mortmain that the city had become impoverished, and one-third part of it rendered void of inhabitants. These points they had desired the king to consider, inasmuch as the city had always been loyal and peaceful, setting an example to the whole country. The pet.i.tion wound up with the usual complaint against the privileges allowed foreign merchants, and a request that the king would grant them letters patent under the great seal, such as they might show to the purveyors whenever they attempted to take anything without payment.(569)

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After the expiration of the truce Edward again set out for France. That country, however, had suffered so much during the last two years at the hands of freebooters, that Edward experienced the greatest difficulty in finding sufficient provisions for his army. Whilst he was traversing France in search of a force with which to try conclusions in the field, a Norman fleet swept down upon the south coast and sacked Winchelsea. The news of this disaster so incensed the king that he determined to march direct on Paris. The Londoners, in the meantime, a.s.sisted in fitting out a fleet of eighty vessels, manned with 14,000 men, including archers, in order to wipe out this disgrace, but the enemy contrived to make good their escape.(570)

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At length Edward was induced to accede to the terms offered by France, and the peace of Bretigny was concluded (8th May, 1360). The terms were very favourable to England, although Edward consented to abandon all claim to the French crown. King John was to be ransomed, but the price set on his release was so high that some years elapsed before the money could be raised, and then only with the a.s.sistance of a few of the livery companies of the city, which showed their sympathy with the captured king by contributing to the fund being raised for the purpose of restoring him to liberty.(571) It was John's high sense of honour that kept him in captivity in England until his death in 1364. He had in fact been liberated and allowed to return to France soon after the conclusion of peace, on payment of part of his ransom, hostages being accepted for payment of the remainder. In 1363 one of the hostages broke his pledge and fled, and John, shocked at such perfidy, returned Regulus-like to England.

Hence it was that he appears as one of the four kings whom Picard, the mayor, entertained that same year at a banquet, followed by play at dice and hazard.(572)

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The citizens now enjoyed a period of leisure which they were not slow to turn to account. The years which followed the peace of Bretigny, until war broke out afresh in 1369, witnessed the re-organisation of many of the trade and craft guilds. Some of these, like the Goldsmiths, the Tailors or Linen-Armourers, and the Skinners, had already obtained charters from Edward soon after his accession, so had also the Fishmongers, although the earliest extant charter of the company is dated 1363. The Vintners date their chartered rights from the same year; the Drapers from 1364; whilst the more ancient company of Weavers obtained a confirmation of their privileges in 1365. Minor guilds, like the Founders, the Plumbers, the Fullers and others, had to content themselves with the recognition of their ordinances by the civic authorities alone between 1364 and 1369.

The king's favour was purchased in 1363 by a gift of nearly 500, to which the livery companies largely contributed.(573) The amount of each subscription varied from half-a-mark to 40, the latter sum being contributed by the Mercers, the Fishmongers, the Drapers, and the Skinners respectively. The Tailors subscribed half that amount, being outdone by the Vintners, who contributed 33 6_s._ 8_d._

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With the renewal of the war, a change comes over the pages of the City's annals. The London bachelor and apprentice is drawn off from his football and hockey, with which he had beguiled his leisure hours, and bidden to devote himself to the more useful pursuits of shooting with arrow or bolt on high days and holidays.(574) Once more we meet with schedules of men-at-arms and archers provided by the City for service abroad, and of a.s.sessments made on the City's wards to pay for them.(575) Every inducement in the shape of plunder was held out to volunteers for enlistment, and public proclamation was made to the effect that the spoils of France should belong to the captors themselves.(576)

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It was an easier matter for the City to provide the king with money than men. In 1370 it advanced a sum of 5,000,(577) and in the following year a further sum of 4,000, and more was subscribed by the wealthier citizens, among whom were William Walworth, who contributed over 200, Adam Fraunceys, Simon de Mordon, and others.(578)

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Still the expenses of the war exceeded the supply of money, and resort was had to a new form of taxation, by which it was hoped that a sum of 50,000 might be realised. By order of parliament, made in March, 1371, the sum of 22_s._ 3_d._ was to be levied on every parish in the kingdom, the number of parishes being reckoned as amounting to 40,000. It soon became apparent that the number of existing parishes throughout the country had been grossly miscalculated. There were not more than 9,000, and the amount of a.s.sessment had to be proportionately raised. It was necessary to summon a council at Westminster in June, to remedy the miscalculation that had been made in March. Half of the representatives of the late parliament were summoned to meet the king, and among them two of the city's members, Bartholomew Frestlyng and John Philipot-"the first Englishman who has left behind him the reputation of a financier."(579) The mistake was rectified, the charge of 22_s._ 3_d._ was raised to 116_s._ and the city was called upon to raise over 600.(580)

In the meantime the civic authorities had, in answer to the king's writ,(581) prepared a return of the number of parish churches, chapels and prebends within the city.(582) It was found that within the city and suburbs there were 106 parish churches(583) and thirty prebends, but only two of the latter were within the liberties. There was also the free chapel of St. Martin's-le-Grand, which embraced eleven prebends, all within the liberty of the city, and there were, moreover, two other chapels within the liberty. Besides these (the return stated) there were none other.

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The bare fact that there existed over 100 parishes, each with its parish church, within so small an area as that covered by the city and its suburbs, is of itself sufficient to remind us that, besides having a munic.i.p.al and commercial history, the city also possesses an ecclesiastical. The church of St. Paul, the largest foundation in the city, with its resident canons exercising magnificent hospitality, was a centre to which London looked as a mother, although it was not strictly speaking the metropolitan cathedral. That t.i.tle properly applies to the Minster at Canterbury; but the church of Canterbury being in the hands of a monastic chapter left St. Paul's at the head of the secular clergy of southern England.(584) Besides the hundred and more churches there were monastic establishments and colleges which covered a good fourth part of the whole city. The collegiate church of St. Martin's-le-Grand almost rivalled its neighbour the cathedral church itself in the area of its precinct. The houses of the Black Friars and Grey Friars in the west were only equalled by those belonging to the Augustine and Crossed Friars towards the east; while the Priory of St. Bartholomew found a counterpart in the Priory of Holy Trinity. The church was everywhere and ruled everything, and its influence manifests itself nowhere more strongly than in the number of ecclesiastical topics which fill the pages of early chronicles in connection with London.(585)

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The war brought little credit or advantage in return for outlay. In January, 1371, the Black Prince had returned to England with the glory of former achievements sullied by his ma.s.sacre at Limoges, and the City of London had made him a present of valuable plate.(586) The conduct of the war was transferred to his eldest surviving brother, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. In 1372 the king himself set out with the flower of the English n.o.bility, and accompanied by a band of London archers and crossbow men.(587) The expedition, which had for its object the relief of Roch.e.l.le, and which is said to have cost no less than 900,000, proved disastrous, and Edward returned after a brief absence.(588) In 1373 the city furnished him with a transport barge called "The Paul of London." The barge when it left London for Southampton was fully supplied with rigging and tackle; nevertheless, on its arrival at the latter port, it was found to be so deficient in equipment that it could not proceed to sea. The only explanation that the master of the barge could give of the matter was that a certain number of anchors and cables had been lost on the voyage. The City paid twenty marks to make up the defects.(589) The year was marked by a campaign under Lancaster which ended in the utmost disaster. The French avoided a general action; the English soldiers deserted, and as the winter came on the troops perished from cold, hunger and disease. By 1374 the French had recovered nearly all of their former possessions. England was tired of the war and of the ceaseless expenditure it involved. It was with no little joy that the Londoners heard, in July, 1375,(590) that peace had been concluded.

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In April, 1376, a parliament met, known as the Good Parliament,(591) and before granting supply it demanded an account of former receipts and expenditure. No less than three city aldermen were charged with malversation. Richard Lyons, of Broad Street ward, was convicted with Lord Latimer of embezzling the king's revenue, and sentenced to imprisonment and forfeiture of goods.(592) Adam de Bury, of Langbourn ward, who had twice served the office of mayor, was charged with appropriating money subscribed for the ransom of the French king and fled to Flanders to avoid trial;(593) whilst John Pecche of Walbrook ward was convicted of an extortionate exercise of a monopoly of sweet wines and his patent annulled. All three aldermen were deposed from their aldermanries by order of an a.s.sembly of citizens composed of representatives from the various guilds and not from the wards.(594)

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The guilds, indeed, were now claiming a more direct partic.i.p.ation in the government of the city than they had hitherto enjoyed, and their claim had given rise to so much commotion that the king himself threatened to interpose.(595) The threat was not liked, and the citizens hastened to a.s.sure him that no disturbance had occurred in the city beyond what proceeded from reasonable debate on an open question, and that to prevent the noise and tumult arising from large a.s.semblies, they had unanimously decided that in future the Common Council should be chosen from the guilds and not otherwise.(596) This reply was sent to the king by the hands of two aldermen-William Walworth and Nicholas Brembre-and six commoners, and the following day (2 August) the king sent another letter accepting the explanation that had been offered, and expressing a hope that the city would be so governed as not to require his personal intervention.(597)

Not only was the common council to be selected in future by the guilds, but the guilds were also to elect the mayor and the sheriffs. The aldermen and the commons were to meet together at least once a quarter,(598) and no member of the common council was to serve on inquests, nor be appointed collector or a.s.sessor of a talliage. This last provision may have been due to the recent discoveries of malversation, but, however that may be, it was found to work so well that it was more than once re-enacted.(599) These changes in the internal administration of the city were avowedly made by virtue of Edward's charter, which specifically gave the citizens a right to remedy hard or defective customs.(600)

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The power of the guilds in the matter of elections to the common council was not of long duration. Before ten years had elapsed representation was made that the new system had been forced on the citizens, and in 1384 it was resolved to revert to the old system of election by and from the wards.(601)

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Encouraged by the success which had so far attended their efforts of reform, the good parliament next attacked Alice Perers, the king's mistress. Of humble origin, and not even possessing the quality of good looks, this lady, for whom the mediaeval chroniclers have scarcely a good word to say,(602) nevertheless gained so complete a mastery over the king as to favour the popular belief that she indulged in magic. At length her barefaced interference in public affairs led to an award against her of banishment and forfeiture. Upon the dissolution of the good parliament (6 July, 1376), and the meeting of a new parliament, elected under the direct influence of the Earl of Lancaster, who once more gained the upper hand now that the Black Prince was dead, Alice Perers was allowed to return.(603) She was again in disgrace soon after Richard's accession, when her property, much of which consisted of real estate in the City,(604) became escheated, and the citizens of London were promised redress for any harm she might have done them.(605) She was afterwards married to Sir William de Windsor, who, in 1376, had got himself into trouble over a disturbance in Whitefriars(606)-a quarter of the city which, under the name of Alsatia, became afterwards notorious for riots, and as the resort of bad characters. Towards the close of 1379 her sentence of banishment, never strictly enforced, was revoked and pardon extended to her and her husband.(607)

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In December, 1376, the citizens obtained a charter from the king, with the a.s.sent of parliament, granting that no strangers (_i.e._ non-freemen) should thenceforth be allowed to sell by retail within the city and suburbs. This had always been considered a grievance, ever since free trade had been granted to merchant strangers by the parliament held at York in 1335.

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The last year of Edward's reign was one of serious opposition between the City and the selfish and unprincipled Lancaster. In so far as the duke, with the a.s.sistance of Wycliffe, meditated a reform among the higher clergy, he might, if he would, have had the city with him. The citizens, like the great reformer himself, were opposed to the practice of the clergy heaping up riches and intermeddling with political matters. The duke, however, went out of his way to hurt the feelings of the citizens, by proposing to abolish the mayoralty and otherwise encroach upon their liberties.(608) Not content with this he took the occasion when Wycliffe was summoned to appear at St. Paul's (19 Feb., 1377), to offer violence to Courtenay, their bishop. This so incensed the citizens that the meeting broke up in confusion. The next day the mob, now thoroughly roused, hastened to the Savoy where the duke resided. He happened, however, to be dining in the city at the time, with a certain John de Ypre. The company had scarcely sat down to their oysters before a soldier knocked at the door and warned them of the danger. They forthwith jumped up from the table, the duke barking his shins (we are told) in so doing, and, making their way to the riverside, took boat for Kennington, where the duke sought protection in the house of the Princess of Wales. Thanks to the intervention of the bishop, who appeared on the scene, the mob did but little serious harm, beyond ill-using a priest and some of the duke's retainers whom they happened to come across.(609)

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