Part 12

Her exiled father retired to France, and entered into the service of the king. In the year 1214, John of England invaded France, and concluded a truce with the French for five years. The two armies lying on each side of a river one day, soon after the signing of the treaty, an English knight of great strength and valour came forth and challenged any French knight to a joust, when Fitzwalter crossed the river in acceptance thereof, and at the first course unhorsed his antagonist in gallant style. "By God's truth," exclaimed John, "he is a king indeed who is followed by such a knight as that!" "He is your own knight, O king," said one of his attendants, "Robert Fitzwalter whom you banished." Upon this the king sent for him to his tent, restored him to favour, gave him back his estates, and granted him permission to repair his castle and houses.

The tyranny of the king, however, compelled the barons again to take up arms, to establish on a sure basis the laws and liberties granted by Edward the Confessor, of whom Fitzwalter became the head by the title of "Marshal of the Army of God and of the Church." Eventually they obtained the reluctant signature of the Magna Charta at Runnymede, when Fitzwalter was one of the twenty-five barons appointed to enforce the observance of the charter. In the reign of Henry III. he fought with great bravery under the baronial banner at the Battle of Lincoln, where he was taken prisoner, but was not detained long, as the next year he went as a crusader to the Holy Land, and displayed great valour at the siege of Damietta.

Camden informs us that he instituted the custom of the flitch of bacon of Dunmow. He says: "On the Priory here" (Dunmow), "Robert Fitzwalter (a powerful baron in the time of Henry the Third) instituted a custom that whoever did not repent of his marriage, nor quarrelled with his wife within a year and a day, should go to Dunmow and have a gamon of bacon. But the party was to swear to the truth of it, kneeling upon two hard pointed stones set in the Priory churchyard for the purpose, before the prior, the convent, and the whole town."

Sir Robert, Kt., his grandson, was summoned to Parliament by writ, 23rd Edward I. (1295) and died in 1325. In 1275 he alienated Baynard's Castle, by licence, to Robert Kilwardby, Archbishop of Canterbury, who removed hither the Dominican or Black Friars from Holborn, but took special care to reserve all the rights and official duties connected with his barony.

In the year 1303, before Sir J. Blount, Kt., Lord Mayor, a specification of his duties to the City was drawn out, which he swore upon the Evangelists to observe, and to the utmost of his power to maintain the rights and liberties of the citizens. His privileges and immunities in connection therewith are also given, which were confirmed by Sir John on the part of the Corporation. As this document presents some curious features of London life in the beginning of the 14th century, it is given below _in extenso_.

The Rights that belonged to Robert Fitzwalter, Chastilion and Banner-Bearer of London and Lord of Wodeham.

"The said Robert and his heirs ought to be and are chief Banner-bearers of London in and for the Castlry which he and his ancestors have of Baynard's Castle in the said City. In time of war the said Robert and his heirs ought to serve the City in manner hereinafter written.

"That the said Robert ought to come upon his Horse of Service, with 20 men at arms, mounted, harnessed with mail or iron, even to the great door of the Minster of St. Paul, with a Banner of his Arms displayed before him. And when he has thus come, then ought the Lord Mayor of London, with the Sheriffs and Aldermen, come on foot out of the Minster to the said door, with his banner in his hand, and the banner ought to be gules, an image of St. Paul d'or, the feet, hands, and head, argent, with a sword argent, in the hand of the said Image.

"And as soon as they shall have come forth, the said Robert shall alight from his horse and salute the Mayor, as his companion, saying, 'Sir Mayor, I am come to do my Service which I owe to the City,' and the Mayor shall answer, 'We allow you here as our Banner-Bearer, this banner of the City to carry and govern to your power, to the honour and profit of our City.' Then shall the said Robert take the banner in his hand, and the Mayor, Alderman, and Sheriffs shall present him with a horse of £20 value, with a saddle, garnished with the arms of the said Robert, and covered with a sendal of the same arms, and deliver £20 to his Chamberlain for the charges of the day.

"The said Robert shall then mount the horse, banner in hand, and desire the Mayor, forthwith, to cause a Marshall to be chosen out of the host of London, which being done, he shall then cause the signal to be sounded through the City, for the commons to assemble, and follow the banner carried by the said Robert to Aldgate, and a Council of two sage persons from each ward be chosen, in the Priory of the Holy Trinity, to look to the safe keeping of the City in case the said Robert should have to absent himself for the purposes of war. And if the said Robert with the army of London shall continue for the space of a year at the siege of any town or castle, he shall have 100 shillings from the commonalty of London, and no more. These are the rights of the said Robert in times of war; in times of peace they are as follows:—

"That is to say, the said Robert shall have a soke or ward in the said City, viz., from the wall of the canonry of St. Paul, as a man goes by the Bracine (brew-house) of St. Paul to the Thames, and so to the side of the mill standing by the water that runs down by Fleet Bridge, and thence by the wall, round about the Friers preachers to Ludgate, and so return by the back of the said Fryers' House, to the corner of the said canons' walls of St. Paul. That is to say, all the parish of the church of St. Andrew, which is in his gift in right of his lordship. Appendant to his soke he hath all these things under-written:—

"That he shall have a Soke-man of his own choice, provided he be of the Sokemannery of the Ward, and if any of the Sokemannery be impleaded at the Guildhall, his sokeman may demand a court of the said Robert, which shall be granted by the Mayor and Citizens. And if any thief be taken in his soke, he shall have stocks and prison in the soke and be taken hence to the Guildhall before the Mayor of judgment, but which shall not be pronounced until he is brought into the court of the said Robert and Franchise; and if the judgment be death for treason he shall be tied to a post in the Thames for two tides, and if he be a common Larcin he shall be hanged at the Elms and there suffer his judgment, as other thieves. Also the said Robert and his heirs have a great honour in holding such a franchise in the said City, where the Mayor and Citizens ought to do him right, that is to say, that when the Mayor is minded to call a great council he shall call the said Robert or his heirs thereto, and he shall be sworn thereof against all people saving the king and his heirs. And when the said Robert cometh to the Hustings of the Guildhall of the said City, the Mayor or his Lieutenant shall arise against him and set him down near to him; and so long as he is in the Guildhall all the judgments shall be pronounced by him, according to the records of the Recorders of the said Guildhall. And all the waifs which shall happen whilst he is there he shall give to the bailiffs of the City or to whomsoever he pleases, by advice of the Mayor of said City."

Robert, second baron, died in 1328, three years after his father.

Sir John, Kt., third baron, died in 1361, who was knighted for his bravery in war.

Walter, fourth baron, died in 1386. In the 44th Edward III., he was captured when fighting in Gascony, and was obliged to mortgage one of his castles for £1,000 to raise money for his ransom. He held many other military employments.

Walter, fifth baron, died in 1407, having married Joane, sister and heiress of John, second Baron Devereux, who died in 1379, when the Baronies of Fitzwalter and Devereux became united, Walter Fitzwalter becoming Baron Devereux, _jure uxoris_, his heir succeeding in his own right.

Humphrey, sixth baron, died _s.p._, a minor, in 1422. Walter, his brother, seventh baron, was summoned from 1429 and died in 1432, the last of the line of the Fitzwalters. He fought under Henry V. in the French wars with great distinction, and for his services had a grant of lands in Normandy. His daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, conveyed the baronies by marriage to Sir John Radcliffe, Kt., an eminent military commander, who became Baron Fitzwalter, _jure uxoris_. Dying 39th Henry VI., he was succeeded by his son, Sir John, Kt., who was beheaded in 1495 for implication in the Perkin Warbeck Conspiracy, attainted, and the barony forfeited. Nevertheless, his son, Robert, finding favour at the court of Henry VII. was restored in blood and estates; and in the 1st Henry VIII. to the forfeited barony. For bravery in the French Wars, and other services to the State, he was created Viscount Fitzwalter in 1529, and four years after further elevated in the peerage to the Earldom of Sussex, and was decorated with the order of the Garter. He was thrice married, having issue by all his wives, and died in 1542, when he was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Henry, K.B. and K.G., who died in 1556, from whom descended Sir Edward, sixth Viscount and Earl, who died, _s.p._, 1641, when these honours became extinct, the barony falling into abeyance, as it remained during the civil wars and after the Restoration, until 1669, when it was called out, in the person of Benjamin Mildmay, descended from Frances, second daughter of Sir Henry, second Earl of Sussex, who married Sir Thomas Mildmay, of Mulsho, Essex. He died in 1679, was succeeded by his eldest son Charles, who died _s.p._ 1728, to whom followed his brother Henry, who in 1730 was created Viscount Harwich and Earl Fitzwalter; but dying, in 1753, without surviving issue, the two latter titles became extinct, and the barony fell into abeyance, which was terminated in 1868, in the person of Sir Brook William Bridges, fifth baronet, who was called to the House of Peers as Baron Fitzwalter, of Woodham Walter, in the county of Essex, and who died in December, 1875. Having thus disposed of the Barons, Viscounts, and Earls Fitzwalter, it becomes us to inquire into the subsequent history of the old Norman castle, which, flinging its shadow over the then silvery Thames, was the home of the Castellans of London. We have no record of what the Castle of Ralph Baynard was like, but may presume that it was in the usual Norman style, heavy and ungainly, and in its general features not unlike that given in Aggas's Map, _temp._ Elizabeth, as it appeared after its restoration in the 15th century. A view of it was published in 1780, and its site is indicated in the map of Baynard Castle Ward in Northouk's _History of London_. It appears to have been a huge, quadrangular block, the body presenting five gabled divisions, with sextangular corner towers, each division and the towers containing two lofty stories, with narrow slits for windows, and rooms in each gable. Little is known of the castle after its alienation to the Dominicans in 1275, until the reign of Henry VI. It appears to have come to the Crown, and was in the possession of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, fourth son of King Henry IV., to whom it had probably been granted by that king. In 1428 it was partially destroyed by fire, but was re-edified by the duke, who continued to reside within its walls until his death. Incurring the jealousy and hatred of Margaret of Anjou and her faction, the duke, who was arrested on a charge of high treason when attending the Parliament of St. Edmundsbury, 1446, at the instance of the queen was committed to prison, and there murdered by suffocation or strangulation, when the castle reverted to the Crown.

In 1460 the Earl of Warwick defeated the Lancastrians at the second battle of St. Alban's, the result of which was a deputation to Edward, Earl of March, now Duke of York, and living in Baynard Castle, to request him to assume the Crown; and it was from its portals that he went in procession to St. Paul's to hear the _Te Deum_ sung for the Yorkist Victory, and hence to Westminster, to be vested in the mantle of Royalty, after which he summoned a great council of barons and ecclesiastics to Baynard Castle, to consult with them on the state of the realm. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was residing in Baynard Castle, after the murder of his nephews, when he was waited upon by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, for the purpose of requesting him to assume the Crown. Shakespeare delineates the scene with wonderfully graphic power in his drama of _King Richard III._, act 3, scene 7.

King Henry VII. occupied the castle as a place of residence some three or four years; and Henry VIII. expended large sums of money in repairs and embellishment, and entertained there the King of Castile, but appears to have granted it to the Earl of Pembroke, a gentleman of the bedchamber, who had married Anne, sister of Queen Katherine Parr. On the death of Edward VI. he favoured the pretensions of Lady Jane Grey to the Crown, but almost immediately changed his opinion; and in his City castle a council was held, where it was determined that Mary, King Edward's sister, should succeed, and she was at once proclaimed Queen at Cheapside Cross. In the reign of Elizabeth it appears to have been occupied by Sir John Fortescue, master of the wardrobe, close by, and the Queen is said to have supped there occasionally. It afterwards became the town residence of the Earls of Shrewsbury, coming to that family, probably, through the marriage of John, the tenth earl, with Mary, daughter of Sir Francis Fortescue, and so remained until the Great Fire of 1666, when the venerable old castle, which had witnessed so many important and tragical events connected with the City of which it was the guardian, was finally, and for ever, destroyed, not a vestige now remaining.

Sir Nicholas Brember, Knight, Lord Mayor of London.

Edward III. was one of the greatest of English kings, and the progenitor, by Philippa of Hainault, of a family of stalwart sons, brave warriors and able statesmen, whose names will long live in the annals of England and the poetry of romance. They were Edward the Black Prince, the hero of Creci and Poictiers; Lionel, Duke of Clarence; John of Gaunt, "time-honoured Lancaster," titular king of Castile, father of King Henry IV. and of two queens, and the most conspicuous figure in the pages of Froissart; and Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, the most persistent opponent of his nephew, King Richard, and his government by favourites.

Unfortunate was it for England that the Prince of Wales died prematurely, and equally unfortunate was it that he left behind him a son, by the quondam "fair maid of Kent," who succeeded to the throne of his grandfather as Richard II. at eleven years of age, A.D. 1377. In his nonage a council was appointed for the government of the realm, from which all his uncles, the best fitted by affinity and great abilities for the office, were excluded; a measure which gave rise to jealousy and antagonism on their part to his government, with disastrous results to the king's favourites, and ultimately to the king himself. Richard was spoilt by adulation and flattery, and became the tool of intriguers; never displaying much ability, caring more for the display of his grandeur than for the good government of his people; desiring to rule absolutely, but lacking the power; impetuous, fierce, revengeful, and weak-minded, and attempting to accomplish by crooked ways what would have been better carried out by straightforward measures. His chief favourites were Robert de Vere, ninth Earl of Oxford, created Marquis of Dublin in 1336, and Duke of Ireland the following year: Michael de la Pole, a Hull merchant, created Baron de la Pole 1366 and Earl of Suffolk 1385; Alexander Nevill (a younger son of Ralph, second Baron Nevill), Archbishop of York; Sir Robert Tresilian, Chief Justice; and Sir Nicholas Brember, Knight, alderman of London.

Sir Nicholas was a merchant of London of considerable wealth and influence. He is styled by Froissart, "King's Draper," but seems rather to have been a wholesale merchant. Towards the end of the reign of Edward III. the ancient trade-guilds, crafts and mysteries which had hitherto been confined, each to one special trade, were reconstructed as Livery Companies, by charter, and endowed with certain privileges and immunities; as the means of developing commerce.

From _Rot Parl._ ii. 278, it appears that at this period, certain wholesale merchants established the "Grossers' Company," which threatened to ruin some of the smaller crafts. In a petition, 36 Edward III., it is stated that "great mischief had arisen, as well to the king, as to the great men and commons, from the merchants called Grossers, who engrossed all manner of merchandize vendible, and who suddenly raised the price of such merchandize within the realm, putting to sale, by covin and by ordinances, made by themselves, and keeping goods in store till times of dearth, etc.," suggesting as a remedy that these merchants should not be permitted to deal in more than one class of these commodities; and an Act based upon this suggestion was passed 37 Edward III. Although Brember was one of the original members of this monopolizing company, he enforced the penalties provided by the Act with great strictness, as, when he was Lord Mayor in 1385, he disfranchised several freemen for carrying on trades other than their own.

At this time the aldermen were elected annually until 17 Richard II., when they were chosen for life, or during good behaviour. Brember, who had been elected several years in succession, served the office of sheriff in 1372, and that of Lord Mayor not less than four times—in the years 1377, 1383, 1384, and 1385, being the first alderman who held the office in two consecutive years. This, however, was not by the goodwill of the freemen, but in opposition of their wishes, the citizens being favourers of the Duke of Gloucester, and disliking Brember as one of the evil counsellors of the king. In the _Chronicle of London_, printed 1827, from a MS. in the British Museum, is the following passage:—"Also this yere Sr. Nicholl Brembre was chosen Maire agene be the saide craftes, and by men of the contre at Harrow and the contre there aboughte, and not be fre eleccion of the citee of London, as it owith to be; and the olde halle was stuffed with men at armes overe even be ordinaunce and assente of Sr Nicholl Brember fur to chose hym maire on the morrowe, and so he was." This interference with the rights of free election was not allowed to pass without remonstrance. "The folke of the Mercerye" made it the subject of a petition to the King, in which they stated that "Though the eleccion of mairelte was to be to the fremen of the citee bi gode and paisable avys of the wysest and trewest, at a day in the yere, frelich," (free) "Nichol Brembre wyth his upberers, had through debate and stronger partye and carrying grete quantities of armure to the Guyldehall," overawed the citizens and procured his re-election, adding that they of the Mercery or other crafts protested against the election as illegal, "they were anon apeched for arrysers ageins the pees" (impeached as the disturbers of the peace). Although Brember's election was not set aside, this and other remonstrances led to certain reforms in the Corporation.

In 1381 the memorable meeting between King Richard and the Kentish rebels took place in Smithfield, when their leader, Wat Tyler, was stabbed by Lord Mayor Walworth, and when the boy king, by a bold and masterly act, appeased the mob, who were preparing to avenge the death of their captain. Speed informs us that Walworth, after the fall of Tyler, rushed into the City and returned accompanied by Sir Robert Knowles and a thousand citizens in armour, when he "commanded the head of Wat Tyler to be chopt of from his dead carcase and borne before him on a speare to the king." Froissart says, "among the first" (from the City) "came Sir Robert Knolles and Sir Perducas d'Albret well attended, then several aldermen, with upwards of 600 men at arms, and a powerful man of the City, by name Nicholas Brember, the king's draper, bringing with him a large force on foot." After the dispersion of the mob with ample promises of a redress of their grievances, the king knighted Walworth, and gave him a fee farm worth £100 per annum, as he did also Aldermen Brember, Philpot, Laund, Standish, Twiford, and Traver, granting to each a fee farm of £40 per annum. Thomas of Woodstock, the king's youngest uncle, created Duke of Gloucester, 1385, was the most vehement opponent of his nephew's policy, and the favourites Vere, Pole, and Brember, perceiving him to be the greatest obstacle to their assumption of the supreme direction of affairs conspired to remove him. They arranged that he should be invited to a supper in Brember's house, and whilst there should be assassinated. It was, however, necessary that the invitation should be sent through Lord Mayor Exton, "who," says Maitland, "was no sooner acquainted with this wicked design than he received it with the utmost abhorrence and detestation, and boldly declared that he would never consent to so flagitious an act of villainy," and forthwith gave information to the duke, who took measures for his safety, and resolved upon the destruction of the conspirators, in which he was backed by the citizens of London, who suggested that he should assume the government of the country, hinting that they would be ready to give him support. This, however, was not a practicable scheme, for even if York and Lancaster should approve of the deposition of Richard, they, as elder brothers, would have prior claims to the succession.

The question was brought before the Parliament of 1386, which met at Westminster, when a council of eleven, with Gloucester at the head, was appointed to govern the kingdom under the king, who was required to dismiss Pole, his chancellor, and the rest of his favourites, which he promised to do, but as soon as Parliament broke up he carried them with him into the west of England to devise measures for opposing the confederacy. They resolved to take up arms against the duke, and, as a preliminary, called a council of the judges at Nottingham, who, under compulsion, declared the acts of the Parliament invalid, and those who passed them traitors. Whilst at Bristol the king sent Pole, Brember, and Sir Peter Gouloufre to London for intelligence, where they had an interview with the governor of the Tower, who told them that they ran great risk in coming there. "How so," they inquired; "we are the king's knights, and have a right of entry into his palaces?" The governor replied "that it was true the Tower belonged to the king, and that he would be obedient to him, but could no further than when his orders were not in contravention to the will of the council and the Duke of Gloucester; and (added he) I tell you for your welfare that you had better depart, for if it become known that you are here, the Tower will be besieged by the citizens, and you will be torn to pieces." Upon hearing this they departed, not caring to brave the fury of a London mob, returned to Kensington, mounted their horses, and rode back to the king.