Part 8

=Source.=—Gregory's _Chronicle_.

Thys yere (1464) abute mydsomyr, at the royalle feste of the Sargentys of the Coyfe, the Mayre of London was desyride to be at that feste. And at denyr time he come to the feste with his offecers, agreyng and acordyng to hys degre. For withyn London he ys next unto the Kyng in all maner thynge. And in tyme of waschynge the Erle of Worseter was take before the mayre and sette down in the myddis of the hy tabelle. And the mayre seynge that hys place was occupyd hylde hym contente, and went home agayne with-out mete or drynke or any thonke, but rewarde hym he dyd as hys dygnyte requyred of the cytte. And toke with hym the substance of hys bretheryn the aldyrmen to his place, and were sette and servyd also sone as any man couthe devyse, bothe of sygnet and of othyr delycatys i-nowe, that alle the howse mervelyd howe welle alle tynge was done in soo schorte a tyme, and prayde alle men to be mery and gladde hit shulde be a-mendyd a-nothyr tyme.

Thenn the offesers of the feste, fulle evylle a-schamyd, informyd the maysters of the feste of thys mysse-happe that ys be-falle. And they consyderynge the grete dygnyte and costys and change that longgyd unto the cytte, and anon sende unto the mayre a present of mete, brede, wyne, and many dyvers sotelteys. But whenn they that come with the presentys saw alle the gyftys, and the sarvyse that was at the borde, he was fulle sore a-schamyd that shulde doo the massage, for the present was not better thenn the servyse of metys was byfore the mayre, and thoroughe-owte the hyghe tabylle. But hys demenynge was soo that he hadde love and thonke for hys massage, and a grette rewarde with-alle. And thys the worschippe of the cytte was kepte, and not loste for hym. I truste that nevyr hyt shalle, by the grace of God.

REGULATIONS CONCERNING STRANGERS (1485).

These regulations are taken from Henry VII.'s charter, which cost the citizens no less than five thousand marks. The main object of the charter was to protect the City from the encroachments of foreigners and strangers, who appear to have been unusually active about this time in their attempts to gain a footing in the rapidly expanding trade of London. Their efforts met with great hostility on the part of the citizens, and these enactments are indicative of the general attitude of the Londoners towards strangers either from other towns or from across the sea.

=Source.=—From the Charter of Henry VII.

Of all time, of which the memory of man is not to the contrary, for the commonweal of the realm and city aforesaid, it hath been used, and by authority of parliament approved and confirmed, that no stranger from the liberty of the city may buy or sell, from any stranger from the liberties of the same city, any merchandise or wares within the liberties of the same city, upon forfeiture of the same. The said mayor and commonalty, and citizens, and their predecessors by all the time aforesaid, have had and received, and have been accustomed to receive, perceive, and have, to the use of the said mayor, commonalty, and citizens, all and all manner of merchandises and wares bought and sold within the liberties of the same city as aforesaid, and forfeitures of the same merchandises and wares, until of late past time they were troubled or molested.

The same lord Henry the seventh, by his letters patent as aforesaid, for pacifying and taking away from henceforth controversies and ambiguities in that behalf, and to fortify and by express words to explain and declare the liberty and custom aforesaid to them the said mayor and commonalty and citizens, and their heirs and successors, and willing the said liberties to be peaceably and quietly had, possessed, and enjoyed to the said mayor and commonalty and citizens, and their successors, with the forfeitures aforesaid, against the said late lord King Henry, his heirs and successors granted, and by his said charter confirmed to the same mayor and commonalty and citizens, and their successors, that no stranger from the liberties of the same city may buy or sell from any other stranger to the liberty of the same city, any merchandises or wares within the liberties of the same city; and if any stranger to the liberty of the same city shall sell or buy any merchandises or wares within the liberty of the same city of any other stranger to the liberty of the same city, that the same mayor, commonalty and citizens, and their successors, may have, hold, and receive all and all manner of such like merchandises and wares, so bought and to be bought, sold or to be sold, within the liberty of the said city, between whatsoever strangers to the liberty of the same city, as forfeited; and all the forfeitures of the same, and also the penalties, fines, and redemptions whatsoever anyways forfeited, lost or to be lost, or to be forfeited or due thereon, to the use and profit of the same mayor and commonalty and citizens, and their heirs and successors, without hindrance of the same late king, his heirs or successors, and without any account or any other thing to be rendered or paid thereof to the late king, his heirs and successors, any statute, act, or ordinance of us or our progenitors made to the contrary notwithstanding; although the same mayor and commonalty, and citizens of the said city, or their predecessors, have before that time used, abused, or not used those customs and liberties: Saving always, that the great men, lords, and nobles, and other English and strangers, of what condition they shall be, may freely buy whatsoever merchandises in gross for their families and proper uses within the liberties of the said city, without any forfeiture, loss, or hindrance whatsoever, so that they do not sell again the said merchandises to any other.

And further, the same late king, of his ample grace, by his said letters patent, amongst other things, did give and grant to the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of the same city of London, and their successors, the office of gauger within the said city, and the disposing, ordering, surveying, and correcting of the same, to have, hold, exercise, and occupy the said office, and other premises, with all fees, profits, and emoluments to the said office in any manner belonging or appertaining, to the same mayor and commonalty, and citizens, by themselves, or by their sufficient deputy or deputies, from the twenty-second day of August, in the first year of his reign, for ever, without any account to be made thereof, or any other thing rendering or paying to the said lord Henry the seventh, his heirs or successors, as by the said letters patent doth more plainly appear.

THE MARCHING WATCH (1510).

The Marching Watch was a kind of annual military muster of the citizens, embodying all the companies, for the purpose of forming a regular guard for the City during the ensuing year. The contest for magnificence on the occasion described in the following extract created an expense so great and detrimental that Henry VIII. prohibited the show, and confined the citizens to the proper object of the assembly. It was afterwards revived on a more economical plan, and continued under the name of the "Standing Watch," till the force was finally superseded by the City Trained Bands.

=Source.=—Stow's _Survey_, p. 102.

Besides the standing watches all in bright harness, in every ward and street in this city and suburbs, there was also a marching watch that passed through the principal streets thereof, to wit, from the little conduit by Paul's gate to West Cheap, by the stocks through Cornhill by Leadenhall to Aldgate, then back down Fenchurch Street by Grace Church, about Grace church conduit and up Gracechurch Street into Cornhill, and through it into West Cheap again, and so broke up. The whole way ordered for this marching watch extendeth to three thousand two hundred taylor's yards of assize; for the furniture whereof with lights, there were appointed seven hundred cressets, five hundred of them being found by the Companies, the other two hundred by the Chamber of London.

Besides the which lights every constable in London, in number more than two hundred and forty, had his cresset; the charge of every cresset was in light two shillings and fourpence, and every cresset had two men, one to bear or hold in, another to bear a bag with light, and to serve it, so that the poor men pertaining to the cressets, taking wages, besides that every one had a straw hat, with a badge painted, and his breakfast, amounted in number to almost two thousand. The marching watch contained in number about two thousand men, part of them being old soldiers, of skill to be captains, lieutenants, serjeants, corporals, etc., wiflers, drummers, and fifes, standard and ensign bearers, demilances on great horses, gunners with hand guns, or half hakes, archers in coats of white fustian, signed on the breast and back with the arms of the city, their bows bent in their hands, with sheafs of arrows by their sides; pikemen in bright corslets, burganets, etc. halbards, the like the billmen in almain rivets, and aprons of mail in great number. There were also divers pageants, morris dancers, constables, the one-half which was one hundred and twenty on Saint John's Eve, the other half on St. Peter's Eve, in bright harness, some over gilt, and every one a jornet of scarlet thereupon, and a chain of gold, his henchman following him, his minstrels before him, and his cresset light passing by him, the waits of the city, the Mayor's officers for his guard before him, all in a livery worsted, or sea jackets parti-coloured, the Mayor himself well mounted on horseback, the sword-bearer before him in fair armour well mounted also, the Mayor's footmen, and the like torch bearers about him, henchmen twain upon great stirring horses following him. The Sheriffs' watches came one after the other in like order, but not so large in number as the Mayor's; for where the Mayor had, besides his giant, three pageants, each of the Sheriffs had, besides their giants, but two pageants; each their morris dance, and one henchman, their officers in jackets of worsted or sea, parti-coloured, differing from the Mayor's and each from other, but having harnessed men a great many.

This midsummer watch was thus accustomed yearly, time out of mind, until the year 1539, the 31st of Henry VIII., in which year, on the 8th of May, a great muster was made by the citizens at the Mile's End, all in bright harness, with coats of white silk; or cloth and chains of gold, in three great battels, to the number of fifteen thousand, which passed through London to Westminster, and so through the Sanctuary, and round about the Park of St. James, and returned home through Oldborne. King Henry, then considering the great charges of the citizens for the furniture of this unusual muster, forbad the Marching watch provided for at midsummer for that year; which being once laid down, was not raised again till the year 1548, the 2nd of Edward VI., Sir John Gresham then being Mayor, who caused the marching watch, both on the eve of St. John Baptist and of St. Peter the Apostle, to be revived and set forth in as comely order as it hath been accustomed, which watch was also beautified by the number of more than three hundred demilances and light horsemen, prepared by the citizens to be sent into Scotland for the rescue of the town of Haddington, and others kept by the Englishmen.

DESTRUCTION OF FENCES ABOUT THE CITY (1514).

It has already been noticed that the City was surrounded by ecclesiastical manors in the time of Domesday, and this was still the case at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It would appear from the following extract that the practice of enclosure, which at this time was being extensively adopted in many parts of England, was being attempted in the neighbourhood of London itself, greatly to the disgust of the Londoners, who naturally resented the proposed restrictions on their accustomed liberty.

=Source.=—Hall's _Chronicle_.

Before this time the towns about London as Islington, Hoxton, Shoreditch and other, had so enclosed the common fields with hedges and ditches, that neither the young men of the city might shoot, nor the ancient persons might walk for their pleasure in the fields except either their bows and arrows were broken or taken away, or the honest and substantial persons arrested or indited, saying that no Londoner should go out of the city but in the highways. This saying sore grieved the Londoners, and suddenly this year a great number of the city assembled themselves in a morning, and a turner in a fool's coat came crying in the city, Shovels and spades, and so many people followed that it was wonder, and within a short space all the hedges about the towns were cast down, and the ditches filled, and every thing made plain, the workmen were so diligent. The King's Council hearing of this assembly came to the Gray Friars, and sent for the mayor and the council of the city to know the cause, which declared to them the nusiance done to the Citizens, and their commodities and liberties taken from them, though they would not yet the commonalty and young persons which were dampnified by the nusiance would pluck up and remedy the same. And when the King's council had heard the answer, they dissimuled the matter and commanded the Mayor to see that no other thing were attempted, and to call home the citizens, which when they had done their enterprise, came home before the King's council and the Mayor departed without any more harm doing, and so after, the fields were never hedged.

MORE'S DESCRIPTION OF LONDON (1517).

Although the City of Amaurote in "Utopia" is not to be identified exactly with London, it seems very likely that More had London in his mind while he was writing this description, which is generally regarded as drawn, to some extent, from the capital as it was in his day.

=Source.=—More's _Utopia_.

The River Anyder riseth four and twenty miles above Amaurote, out of a little spring: but being increased by other small floods and brooks that run into it: and, among others, two somewhat bigger ones. Before the City, it is half a mile broad (hardly so much now as it was in former days, being pent in and straitened to a narrower space, by the later buildings on each side): and further, broader. By all that space that lieth between the Sea and the City, and a good sort of land also above, the water ebbs and flows six hours together, with a swift tide; when the sea flows in to the length of thirty miles, it fills all the Anyder with salt water, and drives back the fresh water of the river; and somewhat further, it hangeth the sweetness of fresh water with saltness: but a little beyond that, the river waxeth sweet, and runneth foreby the City fresh and pleasant; and when the sea ebbs and goes back again, this fresh water follows it almost to the very fall into the sea.

They have also another river, which indeed is not very great, but it runneth gently and pleasantly: for it riseth even out of the same hill that the City standeth upon, and runneth down slope through the midst of the City into Anyder. And because it ariseth a little without the City, the Amaurotians have enclosed the head spring of it with strong fences and bulwarks; and so have joined it to the City: this done, to the intent that the waters should not be stopped nor turned away, nor poisoned, if their enemies should chance to come upon them. From thence the water is derived and brought down in channels or brooks divers ways into the lower parts of the city. Where that cannot be done by reason that the place will not suffer it, then they gather the rain water in great cisterns which doth them as good service. Then next for the situation and walls. That it stood by the side of a low hill, in fashion almost square. The breadth of it began a little beneath the top of the hill, and still continued by the space of two miles, until it came to the river Anyder. The length of it, which lieth by the river-side, was somewhat more.

The City is compassed about with an high and thick wall, full of turrets and bulwarks. A dry ditch, but deep and broad and overgrown with bushes, briers, and thorns, goeth about three sides or quarters of the City. To the fourth side, the river itself serveth for a ditch.

The streets be appointed and set forth very commodious and handsome, both for carriage and also against the winds. The streets be full twenty foot broad. The houses be of fair and gorgeous buildings: and in the street-side, they stand joined together in a long row through the whole street, without any partition or separation. On the backside of the houses, through the whole length of the street, lie large gardens which be closed in round about with the back parts of the street. Every house hath two doors, one to the street, and a postern door on the backside into the garden. These doors be made with two leaves, never locked nor bolted: so easy to be opened, that they will follow the least drawing of a finger, and shut again of themselves.

They set great store by their gardens. In these they have vineyards and all manner of fruits, herbs, and flowers, so pleasant, so well furnished, and so finely kept, that I never saw anything more fruitful, nor better trimmed in any place: and their study and diligence herein cometh not only of pleasure, but also of a certain strife and contention that is betwixt street and street, concerning the trimming, husbanding, and flourishing, of their gardens, every man for his own part: and verily, you shall not lightly find in all the City anything that is more commodious, either for the profit of the citizens, or for pleasure. And therefore it may seem, that the first founder of the city minded nothing more so much as he did these gardens. They say, that King Utopus himself, even at his first beginning, appointed and drew forth the platform of the City into this fashion and figure that it hath now, by his gallant garnishing and the beautiful setting forth of it. Whereunto he saw that one's man age would not suffice, that he left to his posterity.

Their chronicles, which they keep written with all diligent circumspection, containing the history of 1760 years, even from the first conquest of the Island, record and witness, that the houses in the beginning were very low, and likely homely cottages, or poor shepherds' houses, made at all adventures of every rude piece of wood that came first to hand: with mud-walls, and ridged roofs thatched over with straw. But now the houses be curiously builded after a gorgeous and gallant sort, with three stories, one over another.

The outside of the walls be made of either hard flint, or of plaster, or else of brick: and the inner sides be well strengthened with timber-work.

The roofs be plain and flat, covered with a certain kind of plaster that is of no cost: and yet so tempered that no fire can hurt or perish it: and it withstandeth the violence of the weather, better than any lead.

They keep the wind out of their windows with glass: for it is there much used; and some were also with fine linen dipped in oil or amber: and that for two commodities: for by this means more light cometh in, and the wind is better kept out.

EVIL MAY DAY (1517).

Riots were by no means infrequent in the City in the Middle Ages, and here is an account of a typical disturbance, in which, of course, the young and hot-headed apprentices took their share. Just at this time there was intense animosity against the foreign merchants and artisans; the citizens thought that the presence of the foreigners, pursuing their occupations within the walls, was not only harmful to their own interests, but a violation of their charters which had given them the privilege of exclusive trade. At last the common indignation broke out in the great riot of May Day, 1517, which was long remembered as Evil May Day. It had been for centuries a practice of the citizens to collect in bands on May Day to hold high holiday, and they would sally forth, headed by mock officers, into the neighbouring fields to indulge in various sports; on this particular occasion the holiday spirit was not turned to such innocent and harmless purposes.

=Source.=—Hall's _Chronicle_.

The young and evil disposed people said, they would be revenged on the merchant strangers, as well as on the artificers strangers. On Monday the morrow after, the King removed to his manor of Richmond.

Upon this rumour the 28th day of April, divers young men of the City assaulted the Aliens as they passed by the streets, and some were stricken and some buffeted, and some thrown in the canal. Wherefore the Mayor sent divers persons to ward, as Stephen Studley skinner, and Bettes and Stephenson and divers other, some to one counter, and some to another and some to Newgate. Then suddenly was a common secret rumour, and no man could tell how it began, that on May day next, the City would rebel and slay all aliens, insomuch as divers strangers fled out of the City....