CHAPTER XI

_The Last Struggle of York and Lancaster--the Tudors and Stuarts_

The men of Coventry settled down under the rule of Edward IV.; and if the clash of arms was heard in the north--for Margaret would not tamely submit to lose her son's inheritance--it did not disturb the Midlands. Henry VI., the weak, mad, saintly King, lay in the Tower of London, and men thought the Yorkist firmly seated on his throne. The wars and party troubles had, however, much disorganized the city finances, and it is probably from this time that we must date the backwardness of the city in paying their ferm to the exchequer; and though the vigorous measures of the leet may have kept temporary order for those within and without the ruling body, yet the embarrassments of the corporation were not past. An attack on the franchises,[278] made, so it would appear from some words the steward of Cheylesmore let fall, at the instigation of some of the malcontents within the city in 1464, was the cause of much trouble and fear to the townsfolk. The arrest of one Hikman, a dyer, a craft always at daggers drawn with the corporation, in Cheylesmore Park, was the occasion of the trouble. At the instance of the officials of the royal manor,[279] Edward IV. called in question the right of the city officers to make arrests within the manorial territory. The matter was decided in the city's favour after many journeys and much suffering of the law's delays.

Edward treated the Coventry folk graciously enough, paying them several visits at this time[280]; but another figure had begun to loom large in English politics, and Warwick, the King-maker, now exercised even more power in the Midlands than had been enjoyed by the Lancastrian Buckingham. In 1464 the earl first appears as meddling in the internal affairs of Coventry. A quarrel arose between a certain William Bedon and William Huet about a debt--it may have been a party affair between the weavers and tailors--and appeal was made to Edward IV. The matter, the King declared, was "screpulus and doubtefull," and directed that the litigants should abide by the arbitration of certain citizens, or that the mayor, in the event of their inability to decide upon the case before Michaelmas, should step in and dispose of the matter.

Accordingly at the appointed time, when the arbitrators failed to agree, the mayor took the matter into his own hands, and decreed that Huet should ask Bedon's forgiveness for his behaviour towards him, giving also 40s. "for amends." "Which laude and decree," the _Leet Book_ says, "the seid William Huet yn neyther braunche wold not obey, but utterly refusyd," using "right vnfyttyng, inordinate and ceducious langage sownyng to the derogacion of the kynges lawes and of his peace, yn right evyll example, for the which the seid mair, vmper,[281] be the advyse of his seid brethern, comyttid hym to warde," the King giving him "right good and special thank" for his action in this behalf. Tiptoft, it appears, who was then in the city, kept Edward informed of the progress of the business. But the affair soon assumed serious proportions, and the King wrote to inform the mayor that if any others vexed their neighbours by any "imaginacions, sclaundours or feyned accusacions hereafter," or made any "conventicles," they were to be repressed; the officer requiring all the king's liege men in the city to aid him in the work "at thair peril."[282]

But peace was not to be restored by these means, for the city authorities had still to reckon with Huet, who lay in prison. By the "meane of his frendes," the account goes on, he "labored vnto my lord of Warrewyk for favor and ease to be had yn the seid decree at my lordes instaunce, so that to ouer gret rebuke ne charge were not don to the seid William yn makyng therof. And theruppon the seid mair, allethough after his dimeretys, well and indifferently be hym vnderstondon, he were worthy to have made as lowly submission as cowde be thought therfore, and to have boron to the utmost of his godes besides that, and rightwesnes without mercy shold have ben don therin; but at the seid instaunce leying rightwesnes apart and folowyng mercy," the mayor "made his laude and decree thus: that the seid William Huet shuld be of good seying and behavyng fro that tyme fourth, and that he shuld yeve the seid William Bedon 10 marcs in amendes towards his costes. And so he did, which amounted not to the thryd peny that he had made hym to spende; and yette further at my seid lordes instaunce"--here the mayor, sadly confused and harassed by the divergence of the paths of "mercy" and "righteousness," takes up the account in his own person--"my worshipfull Brethren and I so effectuelly entreted the seid William Bedon, that he yave the seid Huet agayn V nobles of the seid X marcs." Then Huet, being further bound over to keep the peace, was "set at his large," or released.

Owing to these repeated attacks, as well as to the unsettled state of the kingdom, things had not prospered with the Coventry corporation. They were in 1468 £800 in arrear of their annual ferm of £50. The sheriff was ordered to seize the goods of the mayor and men of the place as distress. He could find no more than 106s. worth of goods, and these "remained on his hands for lack of buyers," "and since the said mayor and men had no other goods or lands within the bailiwick that could be taken into the king's hands, no further payment was then made,"[283] a rather amusing betrayal of the helplessness of the central government. But the Trinity and Corpus Christi guilds were bodies possessed of great wealth, though upon their funds the exchequer had no claim, thanks to the astuteness of the corporation in thus disposing of its possessions. But no doubt the resources both of guilds and townsmen were failing, even as those of the monastery, for in 1466 the prior was £550 in arrears to the Crown for the rent of the Earl's-half; his tenants in the city must therefore have been backward in paying the rent due to the priory treasury. And to add to the general confusion in 1469 the commonalty rose crying that they were defrauded of their lawful share of the Lammas lands. More serious than all, when civil war again broke loose and Edward and Warwick measured swords together, the men of Coventry chose the losing side, nor did a too late repentance avail to save them from the terrible humiliation of a temporary forfeiture of their franchises.

Meanwhile matters were going from bad to worse in the government of England. The great earl was becoming rapidly estranged from his young kinsman, Edward, whom he had helped to place on the throne. Jealousy of the Queen's relations, and the decay of his own influence in the royal councils, were rapidly converting Warwick into a secret enemy of the ruling house. Edward[284] was in favour of a Burgundian alliance; the King-maker, on the contrary, pressed forward the claims of France to the friendship of England, and when the King treated the French ambassadors with scant courtesy, his too powerful subject entered into intrigues with Louis XI. on his own behalf. He had some thoughts of placing on the throne his future son-in-law, the Duke of Clarence; and Calais, where the earl and the King's brother were staying, became in 1469 a perfect hot-bed of conspiracy.

How far Warwick carried with him the general sentiment of English folk is rather doubtful, but so great was his territorial influence that he was a highly dangerous enemy. Besides, there were various elements of disaffection abroad in the land. The Lancastrians had still some hold on the hearts of those living in the north and west, while others who had expected an era of peace and perfection under Yorkist rule were naturally disappointed at the small results of Edward's government. Though there seems to have been no very distinct notion of what the people wanted, one thing was clear, they wanted a change, and the country was filled with the old tokens of unrest and discontent. Bad times seem rather unaccountably to have befallen the people of Coventry; the city was deeply in debt, and on that account the citizens were probably more willing to lend an ear to Warwick's emissaries. It is possible that foreign trade relations may have more to do than we are at present aware with town politics. The great merchants of the Staple, who were heads of the powerful civic families, and who possessed the monopoly of trade in wool, would welcome the alliance with Burgundy, and a ready export of the raw material to Flanders; while the bulk of the townsfolk, cloth workers and artisans, were glad that the wool should be kept in England and be converted into cloth by home manufacture. For that reason Warwick and his anti-Burgundian policy may have been popular in cloth-working towns such as Coventry then was.

We follow with difficulty the record of obscure risings which marked the beginning of a fresh struggle. Two movements agitated the north in the early part of the year 1469. One seems to have been a Lancastrian outbreak; the other, under Robin of Redesdale, was undoubtedly fomented by Warwick. The men of Coventry found themselves as usual drawn into the strife. They were compelled to pay, and send fifty men to York against the rebels,[285] who joined their forces together, and finally turned southwards under Sir John Coniers towards the Midlands. For some time Edward appeared unconscious of the danger that threatened him, and during June he went quietly on a progress through the eastern counties. At last there came a rude awakening. On July 1,[286] he wrote from Fotheringay, bidding the mayor take and commit to ward any person using seditious language among the King's liege people to the intent to "stor and incens theym to rumor and comocion"; and later letters were urgent in their appeals for dispatch of men. Meanwhile the extent of Warwick's plotting stood revealed. On July 12 came tidings from this arch conspirator, who, far from being the haughty noble of the conventional type, was, as his latest biographer[287] tells us, very affable in his bearing and an ardent seeker after the commonalty's good will. Warwick had very probably gained a strong party among the populace at Coventry, and in addition to the letter destined for the mayor, the messenger bore a duplicate addressed to his master's "servonds and welwyllers" within the city.[288] "Ryght trusty and well belovyd frende," the earl wrote to the mayor, William Saunders, "I grete you well. Forsomuche as hyt hath pleasyd the kings gode grace to sende at this tyme for hys lords and other hys subgetts to atende on hys hygnes northwards, and that both the rihgt hye and myghty prince, my lord the duke of Clarens, and I be fully purposid, after the solempnizacion of the maryage by Godds grace in short tyme to be hadde bitwene my sayd lord and my dohgter, to a wayte on the same, and to drawe vn to our sayd soveren lordes hyghnes, therfor desire and pray you that ye woll in the meene tyme geve knowlache to all suche felisshipp as ye mowe make [toward theym] to arredy theym in the best wyse they can, and that bothe ye and they defensibly arrayd be redy apon a days warnyng to accompany my sayd lord and me toward the sayd highnes, as my specyall trust ys in yowe; yevyng credens to this berer in that he shall open vnto you on my behalve, and ore Lord have you in hys keping. Writon at London the xxviii day of Juyn." The marriage thus referred to was solemnised some ten days or more after the date of the missive--July 11, Clarence and Archbishop Neville having secretly stolen over to Calais, where Warwick was then posted, to take part in the ceremony; and the next day the King-maker and his following landed on the coast of Kent.

The letter[289] as it stands conveys but scanty indications of the real state of affairs, but no doubt the citizens read between the lines, and in "giving credence to the bearer" heard as much as the earl wished of his plans for the overthrow of the Queen's relations and the recovery of the Neville influence. Whether they understood that Clarence, Warwick's son-in-law, was to occupy his brother Edward's place, and be raised to the throne, is another matter. Nevertheless they must have been somewhat bewildered by Warwick's change of front. Lancaster they knew, and York they knew, but they might with all justice ask, "Who are ye?" of the King-maker.

Once more, as in Margaret's time, Coventry, with its command of the north-western road, became a centre of operations. News now came thick and fast. Coniers' army of Yorkshiremen, supplied with a later manifesto and petition of grievances promulgated by Warwick, and the royal troops under Herbert and Stafford of Southwick, were converging towards Banbury. On Maudlin day (July 22) Coventry was hastily fortified, certain of the principal citizens overlooking the equipment of soldiers and the strengthening of the gates with cannon. On the 26th July the battle of Edgcote was fought near Banbury, ending in the discomfiture of Herbert and the royalist troops. For just when victory seemed assured, a rabble of Northampton men, led by one John Clapham, bearing the banner of the White Bear, and shouting "a Warwick! a Warwick!" appeared over the hillside in the rear of Lord Herbert's men, and they, thinking the Earl himself was come, broke and fled. "Lord Herbert," the _Leet Book_ says, "was taken in fight by Banbury with Robin of Redesdale" on the vigil of S. James, and was brought to Northampton, and there beheaded, and Lord Richard Herbert, with others.[290] Some days afterwards Edward was captured at Honiley or Olney, near Kenilworth, and brought by Archbishop Neville to Coventry, there to meet the Archbishop's "brother of Warwick."[291] He was detained in the city as a prisoner until August 9. But even then his humiliation was not complete. Three days later, when the King was certainly no further removed from the city than Warwick, the father and brother of Edward's Queen, Lord Rivers and his son, John Woodville, who had been captured by rioters at Chepstow, fell into Warwick's hands, and were beheaded on Gosford Green by his order.[292] The _Leet Book_ also records the executions of Lord Stafford of Southwick at Bridgewater, and again that of Sir Humphrey Neville, a Lancastrian, and Charles, his brother, who had risen in rebellion in September, in the "north coasts," and that of the bailiff of Durham at the same time ("et ballivus de Duram eodem tempore"). It was on the occasion of this northern or Lancastrian rising that the Nevilles found themselves forced to release Edward; for the unpopular ministers having been brought to justice, there was a feeling abroad that the King should be set free.

So far Warwick's revolt had been successful, but it did not wholly gratify his ambition. No doubt he felt that the King was hopelessly alienated, and, whenever powerful enough, would free himself from the influence of the house of Neville. Fresh troubles broke out, this time in Lincolnshire, in February 1470. Warwick's agents so worked on the fears of the people that they rose in great numbers, and converted a local dispute into a rising of some magnitude. A royal missive, bearing date February 9, arrived at Coventry late in the evening, and in accordance with the commission, money was collected throughout the wards for men to go to Grantham by March 12.[293] The King's letter was imperative; there were rebels abroad, it said, "and many assemble for the retaining of the said enemies ... so that if their malice be not ... withstanden, it might grow to the great jeopardy of us and to the destruction of all true subjects." Edward defeated the rebels at Empingham, near Stamford, on 12th March, and so sudden was their flight that the battle received the name of _Lose-coat Field_. Meanwhile the ringleaders, mainly belonging to the Welles family, were brought in; but before execution they showed that Clarence and Warwick were seriously implicated in their designs. Edward, whose suspicions were thoroughly aroused, sent to the duke and earl at Coventry, bidding them disband their levies, for they were followed by a great number of men, and join him without delay; but they would not, merely sending excuses and promises.[294] And perhaps it was then that Clarence, being in need of money, left in pledge a "coronall," garnished with "rubies, diamonds, and sapphires," in return for a loan of 300 marks from the citizens.[295] Finally Warwick and the King's brother, after trying the disposition of men's minds towards their cause in the northern parts, turned southwards, whither Edward followed them; but they had already taken ship at Dartmouth when the King reached Exeter. Edward passed through Coventry on his way southwards, and forty men went with the King on April 5 to the south coasts, taking the great sum of 12d.[296] a day for payment. For the citizens of Coventry--provident men--afforded help to either party, hoping surely to have their reward whichever side might prevail in the end. They admitted Clarence and Edward, and furnished the former with money and the latter with men. This shows either that they took a dispassionate view of these dynastic and political struggles in which they had no concern, or that they were more deeply involved in them than we imagine, but parties being so evenly balanced in the city, the presence or near neighbourhood of a leader of either party was sufficient for the time being to turn the scale in his favour.

The two conspirators sailed for Calais, but there the merchants of the Staple were heart and soul for Edward and the Burgundian alliance, and the garrison, being in their pay, closed the harbour against them. So they put into the Seine, and Warwick, abandoning his old project of dethroning Edward to make room for Clarence, prepared to take up a more definite policy, and made overtures to the Lancastrians. It is difficult to imagine how Queen Margaret could bring herself to forgive the man who had wrought so much evil to her and hers. But Louis XI., King of France, who knew that if the Yorkists continued to reign they would strengthen Burgundy, his great foe, acted as peacemaker, and the compact between Lancaster and Neville was sealed by the betrothal of Warwick's daughter to the Prince of Wales. When the King-maker and the Lancastrian lords landed at Plymouth in September, they caught Edward unawares in the north, and they replied to his summons, ordering them to appear at court, "humbly and measurably accompanyed," by proclaiming Henry VI. King of England. The army in the north declared for King Henry; for the moment the game was up; Edward IV. fled to Lynn, and took ship for the Low Countries.

The Coventry _Leet Book_ thus summarizes the year's events:[297] "In the Lenton when William Stafford was mayor ... the Lord Wellys[298] were byhedyd. The duke of Clarance and the yrle of Warw[ick] w[ent] o[ut] of the londe, and went to the kynge off Franse, and there were gretly cheryshyd, and there was a m[arriage] m[ade] by twix prinse Edward and a dohgter of the sayd yrle of Warwic. And in the monthe of Sept[ember] the sayd duke and yrle with the yrle of Oxynford, the yrle off Pembroke,[299] brother to kyng Harry, the bastard ffawkynbruge[300] comyn a londe at Ex--.[301] They ther drewe to hem muche pepull, or they com to Coventry, they wer xxx thowsand. [Ky]ng Edward laye at Notynham, and sende for lordes and all other men, but ther com so lytell pep[ull] to hym that he was not abyll to made a fylde a gaynes hem, and then he with the yrle [R]evers, the lorde Hastyng,[302] the lord Haward, and the lorde Say went to Lynne, and ther goten hem shippes, and sayledon to the duke of Borgoyne,[303] the whiche duke hade weddyd kyng Edwards syster, the lady Margete. And then the duke of Clarans, the yrle off Warwic, the yrle of Oxynford, the yrle of Shroysbere, the lord Stanley, [and] the bysshoppe of Yorke[304] went to the towre at London, and set out of prison kyng Harre the Syxt, the wyche hade be ix yer and a halfe and mor[305] as a prisonere, and brohgt hym to the bysshoppes palys at Powlys[306] in London, and made hym there to take on hym to be kyng as he was afore tyme. And then was the yrle of Wyrseter[307] behedyt at London.... The quene that was wyfe to kyng Edward, with hyr moder, the duches of Bedford,[308] toke seynt wary[309] at Westmynster, and ther the quene was lyght of a son that was crystonyd Edward."

So the year that had seen such astonishing events now drew to a close. England saw one king displaced by a powerful subject after a bloodless struggle, and another, weak, possibly imbecile, and long a neglected prisoner, restored to his former state; a queen driven to take sanctuary for fear of her husband's enemies, and the birth of a Prince of Wales, the history of whose short unhappy life accords well with the inauspicious season of his coming into the world. Though Englishmen passively accepted these changes, Warwick's position was still one of great difficulty; the King's weakness, Margaret's delay in France, and last the unstable temper of "false, fleeting, perjured Clarence," all combined to make the firm establishment of the restored dynasty a matter involving risk on every hand.

John Bette counted the beginning of his mayoralty in January, 1471, according to the regnal year of Henry VI., and the townspeople doubtless considered that the rule of the Yorkists was a thing of the past.[310] Perhaps the craftsmen party were pleased with the reversal of policy which followed on the reaccession of the Lancastrian King. The French King held Warwick to an agreement to make war with Burgundy. And war with Burgundy meant interruption in the Flemish wool trade, and a plentiful supply of wool for the home market. In the following March, forty men, now waged at 6d. a day, were commissioned to go for two months to Flanders. But the Flemings, by their support of the fugitive King, Edward IV., carried the war into the enemy's country. On March 14, 1471, Edward landed at Ravenspur, to claim--so he averred--the duchy of York, his ancestral inheritance. Slipping past Montagu, who had been set to guard the north road, he pressed on towards the Midlands. Followers presently flocked to his standard, and on March 29, coming from Leicester, he offered battle beneath the walls of Coventry. Warwick, who lay within the city, waiting for fresh levies, had not troops sufficient to accept the challenge, and suffered Edward to pass on, and cut off his communications with London.

The citizens of Coventry must have long remembered this terrible season, "the Lenton next afore Barnet ffeld," and the hurried and almost unintelligible writing of the _Leet Book_, with the frequent and probably intentional mutilation of its pages, bespeak the agitation and confusion which filled men's thoughts. There could be no temporizing now the great earl was within their gates, no making overtures to the returning Yorkists, who, now that there was no army barring the way to the capital, found their position greatly increased in strength. The townsfolk lent Warwick 100 marks,[311] and during that period of terrible anxiety, wherein the earl was waiting for the levies under Montagu from the north, Oxford from the east, and Clarence from the south-west, they sent "riders into the country" to bring back tidings, and having fortified their city, kept a strict watch.[312] The levies under Clarence never came to the earl's aid, for meeting Edward on the road between Warwick and Banbury, the duke deserted the cause of his father-in-law, and was "right lovingly reconciled" to Edward. Afterwards Clarence, stung perhaps with remorse at his desertion, sent unto the earl "to require him to take some good way with king Edward[313] ... the earle (after he had patientlie heard the duke's message) he seemed greatlie to abhorre his unfaithfull dealing.... To the messengers (as some write) he gave none other answer but this: that he had rather be like himselfe than like a false and perjured duke; and that he was fullie determined never to leave warre till he had either lost his owne life or utterlie subdued his enimies."

Strengthened by Clarence's levies, the King again returned to offer battle on April 5 before the gates of Coventry, but as Warwick still refused, he drew off down the Watling Street towards London. The citizens of Coventry continued faithful to Warwick, and when he left for the capital to stake his all on a battle with Edward, twenty horsemen and twenty foot from the city set forth with him on the eventful march, and fought at Barnet Field. But when the battle was over the terror-stricken townsmen would fain--in Clarence's words--have "made so good a way with king Edward," and did all that in them lay to appease the conqueror. Margaret of Anjou and her son had landed two days after the battle. Prince Edward no doubt expected aid from the Lancastrian stronghold, and sent a proclamation from Chard, where he then was, to Coventry. But the townsfolk knew that the day was with the Yorkist King.

The Leet Book records the receipt of "a letter fro Edward, the son of Harry the VIte, the xxv day of Aprile, that was wryton at Cherd the xviii day of Aprile _the whyche was sent to Kyng Edward and the messenger therewith to Abyndon_."[314] But they were not allowed to make their peace after this easy fashion. In May Edward came to Coventry, deprived the mayor, John Bette, of the civic sword, and confiscated the liberties of the city, which were only redeemed by a payment of 500 marks.[315] The citizens owed even this grace to Clarence's mediation. They received a charter of pardon "for the hevy greffe that our soveraign lord beer to the citee ... ffor the tyme that Richard, late Erle of Warwyke, with oder to hym then acompanyed, kept the citee in defence agenst his Royall highnes in the Lenton next afore Barnett ffeld."[316] Clarence's mediation and the king's pardon cost the citizens a further sacrifice. Edward brought his influence to bear upon them for the release of the jewel, which the duke's necessities had induced him to leave in pledge, in return for the loan of 300 marks. This "coronall," the deed declares, "had been utterly forfeit for two years past," as the duke had not discharged the debt. But as Clarence had "laboured to be good lord" unto the citizens, the mayor agreed to remit a portion of the money owing, and to deliver up the jewel "for the singular pleasure and good grace of our sovereign lord, king Edward."[317]

The reconciliation being accomplished, the citizens were eager to show their entire loyalty to King Edward, and accordingly granted a most splendid reception--equal to that given to Margaret eighteen years before--to the four-year-old prince of Wales on his visit to Coventry (April 1474) for S. George's feast. The mayor and divers of the commonalty, arrayed in green and blue, met the prince with the gift of 100 marks in a gilt "cuppe" upon which was a "kerchief of plesaunce." At the Bablake gate stood a pageant, with figures of Richard II. and many nobles thereupon. The character of King Richard II. in allusion to the York genealogy, saluted the child, "of the right lyne of royall blode" with a verse of greeting. There were further pageants "with mynstralcy of harpe and dowsemeris" (dulcimers); and at the Broadgate stood S. Edward (who had done duty on a previous occasion) with "mynstralcy of harpe & lute," and more verses with allusions to the prince's father's "imperial right," wherefrom he "had been excluded by full furious intent," by way of welcome.

What wonderful memories these local poets possessed! Their verses show how the old friendship of the city to Lancaster had wholly escaped their remembrance! When the little prince rode in his "chare" down to the Cheaping, he beheld three prophets at the Cross, and above were "Childer of Issarell" (the Innocents) casting down flowers and cakes, and four pipes running wine. The three kings of Colen (Cologne) were also pressed into the service; but the great feature of the show was the pageant of S. George upon the conduit of the Cheaping, the saint being represented armed, "and a kynges daughter knelyng a fore hym with a lambe, and the father & the moder beyng in a toure a boven, beholdyng Seint George savyng their daughter from the dragon."

"O myghty God, our all socour celestiall, Wich this royme hast geven to dower, To thi moder, and to me, George, proteccion perpetuall, Hit to defende from enimies ffere and nere, And as this mayden defended was here, Bi thy grace from this Dragon devour, So, Lorde, preserve this noble prynce and ever be his socour."[318]

A truly splendid reception for such a young child, who, we will hope, appreciated the "kerchief of plesaunce," if the drift of the political allusions was above his understanding. True to his policy of ingratiating himself with the burghers and moneyed classes, the King allowed his little son to stand godfather to the mayor's child on this occasion. Nevertheless Edward was not content with mere compliments or protestations of loyalty from the lips of actors, but made this visit of his son an opportunity for strengthening his political position. The mayor and his brethren were called upon to cause the commons of the city to swear an oath of allegiance to the Prince of Wales.[319] After this the King and Elizabeth Woodville were all graciousness to the citizens. The Queen in September of that year sent twelve bucks from Fakenham Forest as a present to the mayor, his brethren and their wives.[320] She also praised their "sadde polit[y], guydyng and diligence" in appeasing an affray, and thanked them warmly for their duties ... "by you largely shewed vnto vs and to our derrest son the prince; and in like wyse to all oure childern ther in sundry wises heretofore, and namely vnto our right dere son, the Duc of York, in this time of our absens."[321] Four years later, Edward sent the prince of Wales with his court to Cheylesmore, where the child sojourned for some time, and was admitted a member of the Trinity and Corpus Christi guilds.[322]

But the fair words of royalty often bore a most unwelcome meaning, and the yoke of the Yorkists was not light. Edward, in 1474, applied to "his feythful subgetts" in the city of their "benevolence" to aid him with a substantial sum of money for various undertakings incident to a war with France.[323] The king found "benevolences" or forced loans more convenient than subsidies granted by parliament, and in the wars a treaty better served his purpose than a battle, when the French king was willing to pay for peace. The frequent interference of the Prince of Wales's council in city disputes at first ruffled the tempers of the great folk at Coventry not a little. "We, your humble and true servants here," the corporation wrote to the Prince of Wales in 1480, "know of no variance ... here but that we among ourselves, be the grace of God shall amicably and righteously settle." But all thoughts of resistance had been abandoned, when the next year a commotion, raised by the common folk at the enclosure of the Lammas pastures, put the franchises in danger of confiscation a second time, and the corporation earnestly entreated the Prince of Wales by intercession to avert his father's wrath.

Richard III., in his brief reign, did all that in him lay to conciliate the Coventry folk; in 1485 he kept Whitsuntide at Kenilworth,[324] and paid a visit to the city to witness the Corpus Christi pageants, but we hear of no joyous welcome given him by the citizens. Perhaps--though there was little sentiment in contemporary politics--they could not lightly forget the faces of the two little boys, who had visited the city during their father's lifetime, and had since mysteriously disappeared, men knew not by what means, in the Tower of London. In an interesting letter written probably in the previous year, the King charges the authorities of this thoroughfare city to provide horses for the royal messengers.

"Forasmoche," he says, "as we have appointed and ordeined certain of our servants to lye in diverse places and townes betwix us and the west parties of this our royaume for the hasty conveiaunce of tydings and of all other things for us necessarie to have knowledge of, we therefore wol and desire and also charge you that, if any of oure seid servants comyng by you shal nede any horses for thair hasty spede to or from us, ye wil see them shortly for to be provided therof for thair redy money. And also if it fortune any of them to travell from you by nyght that than ye will see that they may have guydes and that they shalbe suffisauntly rewarded for thair labors. And that ye faile not to doo your effectual diligence herein as we trust you, and as we may undrestande the redynesse and good will that ye have to please us."[325] There is an undertone of threat underlying these last few words, shewing maybe something of the anxiety the King felt concerning the loyalty of the citizens. But the inhabitants were decidedly worth conciliating, and Richard wrote very cordially in the last year of his reign praising the "sadness and circumspect wisdoms" of the mayor and his brethren in allaying debate, and acknowledging their "auctorite to provide, make and establisshe ordenaunces and rules ... for the vniversall wele and pollitique guiding of" the said city.[326]

It seems that this cordiality was wasted on the men of Coventry, so gladly did they welcome King Richard's rival, the victor of Bosworth, when he took up his lodging at the Bull, in Smithford Street, after the battle.[327] The wardens' accounts record payments made "for brede, ale and wyn and other vitailes that was hadde to Maister Onleys, he then beyng mair, at the comyng of Kyng Henre," the most expensive items of the account being "i pype claret wyn iii li., i pype redde wyn iii li.," with "xx motons," "ii oxen," and 7 "stockfishes," the price of which made a total of £4, 13s. 6d. It is true that the citizens, with their old supreme indifference to political party, also supplied bread and ale "to the feld of Kyng Richard,"[328] and one of their number fought, we know not on which side, at Bosworth, for the accounts record that 2s. 6d. was paid by the Corpus Christi guild "towards the hurt that Thomas Maideford had in the fylde." Two years after Henry kept S. George's feast at Coventry, and also, like his predecessor, saw on S. Peter's day later on in the year (June 29) a performance of the famous mystery plays.

A great council was held at this time in the city, and the Archbishop of Canterbury and other bishops read in the minster the papal bulls, affirming Henry's right of succession, and threatening with excommunication all such as should rebel against him.[329] The King was still at Coventry when he heard that the Earl of Lincoln, a Yorkist, with help from Burgundy, had landed in Lancashire to support the claim of Lambert Simnel, whom historians call "the organ-maker's son," but who gave himself out to be the son of the duke of Clarence. After the defeat of the rebels at Stoke, near Newark, Simnel, as all the world knows, became a scullion in the royal kitchen. The annals record that another pretender, Thomas Harrington, who also called himself the son of Clarence, was beheaded in this year "on the cunduit by the Bull," and was buried at the Grey Friars'.[330] At the King's second visit at S. Peter's-tide he lodged with Robert Onley, who had been mayor when the battle of Bosworth was fought, and conferred on him the honour of knighthood.[331] After Simnel's rising had been crushed, the good folk no doubt expected to enjoy an era of peace, and in the following year the churchwardens of S. Michael's, and other well-disposed people, "for joy brought to S. Michael's a great bell, and called it Jesus Bell."

Lollardry had never died out, and it flamed up anew when the land was at peace. In 1485 Foxe records that various people of Coventry were "troubled for religion," and compelled to recant, though not without injunction to penance.[332] The annals tell us they bore faggots about the city on the market day, the dread of fire being no doubt more convincing to the suspected heretics than the bishop's logic. But in the next generation both men and women had strength to endure to the end. In 1511 Bishop Blythe held a "Court of Heresy" at Maxstoke, but the accused saved themselves by abjuration, and went through the form of bearing faggots throughout the city. All were not thus to be delivered, however, and a persistent heretic, Joan Ward, who had performed this penance, was handed over to the secular arm to be burned. Seven suffered in the Little Park at Coventry this year (1512), say the city annals (differing in date from that given by Foxe in his account of the "Seven Godly Martyrs burnt at Coventry"), but one, who was not staunch enough for martyrdom, recanted, and did penance "on a pipe head," holding a faggot on his shoulder while his comrades were burning.[333]

Henry's frequent appeals for money must have somewhat lessened the goodwill the Coventry men bore him for his frequent visits[334] and complimentary membership of the city guilds. It was in 1500 that he and his Queen became a brother and sister of the Trinity fraternity.

Echoes reach us of the wars he undertook, which after vast preparations and much ingathering of money, usually ended in a truce or peace. We hear of the depredations of the King of Scots, who in 1496 broke the truce, crossed the border, and after doing all "the harme and crueltee to men, woman, and children ... that he coulde to th'uttermuch of his power," returned in great haste over Tweed, a crossing which occupied him but six or seven hours, whereas in coming over the river two whole days had been taken up.[335] The insult was to be avenged, and two of the most expert men of the city were summoned to meet at a great council to confer upon this matter. The conference naturally ended in a demand for a loan. Henry had in Richard Empson, who succeeded Boteler in the recorder's office, a servant well able to aid him in extorting money from his loyal Coventry subjects. No doubt the citizens were most unwilling to part with their substance. One Richard Smith, by an appeal to the King's "ffader of Derby," the husband of Lady Margaret, and by his "importune and dissimuled sute," managed to gain an abatement of the sum he had originally agreed on, so that others of the city who knew of Smith's wealth were "greatly discouraged" at the inequality of the assessment. Empson was to proceed, said King Henry, as he thought fit, an injunction which may be construed to mean that he was to get all the money he could out of Richard Smith for the King's use.[336]

Yet the citizens prospered no doubt under Henry's firm and sagacious rule, and when they recorded his death chronicler-fashion in the _Leet Book_, it is with some appearance of regret. In "this year," the account begins, "dyed king Henry the VIIth, the xxii day of April, ... at Rychemount ... and was brought to London in to Pollys[337] with many nobles of the realme and grete nombre of torches, and a grete nombre of peple both on horsbak and a fote. And after iii dayes beying in Pollys he was brought to Westmynster, and ther he lieth and his quene Elizabeth with him in a newe chapell, which he causid to be made in his lyffe, on whoos saule Jhesu have mercy. And his son kyng Henry the VIIIth was crownyd the same yere at Westmynster the Sonday next after Midsomer day."[338]

If the father had chastised the men of Coventry with whips, the son was to chastise them with scorpions. Loans and subsidies were the order of the day, for the great treasure gathered together by Henry VII. was quickly dissipated by his successor. In 1524 a hundred and ninety-four persons advanced to Henry a hundred and fifty pounds eleven shillings by way of loan,[339] and this is only a single example of what was then a very common arrangement. But the citizens could ill bear the pressure of increased taxation. For some time their prosperity had been waning, for foreign competition had begun to tell upon the English cloth manufacture.[340] Discontent and divisions were rife among them as in the preceding century. During years of dearth the common lands had been ploughed up, and when the dearth was over--when, "thanks be now to almighty God," as the _Leet Book_ says, "corn is comen to good plente and to easy and reasonable price," the ploughing was still continued, and the cattle of the common folk deprived of pasture.

In 1525 the citizens rose, after their old practice, to resist the enclosure of the common lands. On "Ill Lammas Day," say the annals, "... the commons of Coventre rose and pulled down the gates and hedges of the grounds inclosed, and they that were in the cittie shutt the Newgate against the chamberlain and their company. The mayor was almost smothered in the throng; he held with the commons, for which he was carried as prisoner to London; he was put out of his office and Mr. John Humphrey served out his year." A special commission under the Marquis of Dorset was appointed to try the rioters. Thirty-seven prisoners were sent to Warwick and Kenilworth Castles, and seven to the Marshalsea.[341] Some suffered at the pillory, others after long imprisonment were pardoned by the King on the occasion of the Pope's jubilee.[342] But the rulers of the city were highly unpopular, and frequent "slanders" were proclaimed against them.[343]

The annals record the discovery of the wildest schemes, which sprang, no doubt, from the misery of the people. In 1523 two men, Pratt and Sloth, were arrested in Coventry on the charge of treason. They confessed that their purpose was to kill the mayor and his brethren, rob S. Mary's Hall, where the common chest was kept, and take Kenilworth Castle. They were taken to London for judgment, but executed at Coventry, and their remains figured on the city gates.[344] The next year a further scheme came to light. This time the King's subsidy was the object at which the plunderers aimed; it was to be stolen from the collectors on the highway to London; the conspirators proposed to seize Kenilworth Castle and to fight there for their lives. These men, Phillips, a schoolmaster, Pickering, clerk of the King's larder, and Anthony Manville, gentleman, were hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn.[345]

The "King's Proceedings" of 1536 undoubtedly intensified the misery of the citizens. The monastery was dissolved by the royal commissioners; the cathedral church defaced and its roof pulled off, and the lead, worth £647, stacked within the desecrated building;[346] the house of the Franciscans razed "because the poor people lay so sore upon it;[347] and all monastic property seized into the King's hand." Dugdale, quoting Hales' letter to the Protector Somerset, attributes to the dissolution the state of decay and misery into which the city had fallen in the third year of Edward VI. "There were not at that time," the letter runs, "more than 3,000 inhabitants, whereas within memory there had been 15,000."[348] It is very doubtful whether the high figure is correct, and certainly the population never sank to so low as 3,000. In a petition coming from the people of Coventry in 1548 it is stated that there were "to the number of eleven to twelve thousand housling people"[349] within the city. But it was the sweeping and iniquitous act of confiscation, known as the suppression of the guilds and chantries, rather than the dissolution of the monasteries, which brought the citizens to the verge of ruin. So extensive was the house property belonging to the guilds, and so intimately were these bodies connected with the corporation, that this calamity involved the city finances in the most terrible confusion. Having no property from which to draw the money for the annual fee-ferm of £50, one or two persons, the citizens declared to the Earl of Warwick, were yearly ruined by the tax levied for its payment.[350] The poorer class--of late years greatly increased in numbers--were deprived of the guild charities, the children of a schoolmaster[351] and the less wealthy craftsmen of all hope of provision for old age and an honourable burial after death. The burgesses of Lynn and Coventry protested against the confiscation. There were but two churches in the city, the latter declared, "wherein God's service is done, whereof the one, that is to say, the church of Corpus Christi, was specially maintained of the revenues of such guild lands as had been given heretofore by divers persons to that use.... If therefore now by the act the same land should pass from them, it should be a manifest cause of the utter desolation of the city." For the people, the petitioners declared, "when the churches were no longer supported, nor God's service done therein, and the other uses and employments of those lands omitted, should be of force constrained to abandon the city and seek new dwelling places."[352] This energetic protest was not without its effect. The citizens were permitted to purchase back the guild lands for the sum of £1315, 1s. 8d., a very large amount in those days,[353] which, in spite of their poverty, they were enabled to gather together.

Once more in Mary's reign, January 31, 1554, when Coventry closed its gates against Lady Jane Grey's father, the Duke of Suffolk, the city became of strategic importance. The city failed to rise, and the Protestant cause in the midlands was for the moment lost. May be the citizens regretted their inertia in the years that followed when in 1556 Laurence Saunders and Robert Glover, martyrs, were led out to die in the Little Park. Of Glover, it is said that he remained "lumpish," being dull of spirit, and fearing that the Lord had withdrawn His favour from him. But a change overtook him on his way to the stake, so that he clapped his hands with joy, "seeming rather to be risen from some deadly danger to liberty and life, than as one passing out of the world by any pains of death."

By this time a royal visit had ceased to be a political event, it became merely an occasion for splendour, or an act of courtesy. Elizabeth visited the city in 1565, being lodged at Mr Hales' at the Whitefriars, and was greeted with much courtier-like compliment by the recorder, but the reception given to her has none of the significance which attaches to the welcome, say, of Margaret of Anjou. Little remains of Whitefriars save the east wing of the cloister with its fine groined roof of the fifteenth century; but an oriel window on the western side is still called after Queen Elizabeth, Coventry saw the great Queen's rival a few years later, when in 1569, in order to be out of reach of her confederates in the north, Mary Queen of Scots was hurriedly conveyed from Tutbury to the city, and placed under a strong guard. She was confined first in the "Bull Inn," and then in S. Mary's Hall. Some years later this Queen's grand-daughter, another of the fascinating, luckless Stuarts, was hurried in November 1605 from Combe Abbey to Coventry, out of reach of the plotters of the Gunpowder Treason. This was Elizabeth, later the "winter Queen" of Bohemia. She was lodged for the nonce with Mr Hopkins of Palace Yard.

The old town house of the Hopkins' family still stands in Earl Street, having undergone perhaps more vicissitudes than any other well-known house in Coventry. Once a coaching-inn, known as the "Golden Horse," and a ladies' school, kept by one Miss Sheldrake, it was originally the home of the Hopkins' family, who first appear in Coventry history in the late fifteenth century. Its best-known member, when sheriff of Coventry, suffered much by reason of his openly expressed Protestantism, and fled to Basle in Queen Mary's reign. In this house James II. held his court in 1687, and here were also lodged Princess Anne and George of Denmark. It is a beautiful old seventeenth-century quadrangle with fine exterior lead-work, containing in its upper storey, a stone chimney-piece of classic type, disfigured by a coat of paint, while its banqueting-chamber with its finely panelled plaster ceiling presents a veritable image of decay. The tombs of the family with their busts and togas, 'mid all the panoply of classic memorial and woe, appear in the Cappers' chapel of S. Michael's church.

The chief feature of the Stuart period is the strengthening of the Puritan feeling among the citizens. Either owing to the influence of the Presbyterian Cartwright, who, during his tenure of the mastership of Leycester's hospital at Warwick, established his system of church discipline among the clergy of the county, or from some hereditary instinct, which had led them to embrace Lollardism under the Lancastrians, and furnish martyrs for the faggot under the Tudors, the men of Coventry grew more Puritan year by year. They greatly vexed the soul of King James in 1611 by refusing to kneel in receiving the Sacrament, a circumstance the English Solomon never forgot, and ten years later he refused to grant a new charter to the city until he was certified by the bishop that the orders of the Church were complied with.[354] Nor did a lawsuit, which the Prince of Wales carried on for many years with the corporation about the rent due to him from the monastery lands as lord of Cheylesmore, improve the understanding between the people and the Stuart kings. When, however, the famous writ of ship-money was first issued in 1635, it was not against the principle, but rather against the unfair assessment of the local tax, that the men of Coventry murmured. The city, they complained, was no longer prosperous, nor was it able to pay a sum so disproportionate to that levied on the remainder of the county. Many were the journeys the diligent town clerk, Humphrey Burton, undertook ere he could get the tax lightened for the citizens.[355]

But no readjustment of the assessment of this unpopular tax could win over the hearts of the Coventry men to King Charles. And when in August 1642, a few days before the royal standard was unfurled at Nottingham, Charles appeared before the walls and summoned the people of Coventry to admit him, they refused to allow him to enter the city.[356] This circumstance rankled sore in the King's mind, and it seems that the feeling was shared by his son, for when Charles II. came into his own again, he ordered that the walls of the city where his father had suffered this check should be demolished. The work of destruction, which was begun by the Earl of Northampton on July 22, 1662, occupied nearly 500 men for three weeks and three days,[357] and when it was over the history of Coventry as a fortification comes to a close. Moreover, the title of the bishopric was now transposed, running henceforth not Coventry and Lichfield but Lichfield and Coventry.

King James II., who tampered here as everywhere with the civic constitution in favour of the Tories, his supporters, paid the city a peaceful visit in 1687, was lodged in Palace Yard, and touched for the evil in S. Michael's church, on which occasion "the very galleries crackt again," the throng was so great.[358] This closes the list of notable royal visits to Coventry, and the interest shifts to the varying fortunes of the citizens. Although, as compared with London, provincial towns ceased to be great centres of trade, Coventry never gave itself wholly up to stagnation and decay, but always kept alive some sort of manufacturing activity. At first the settlement of Huguenot exiles gave an impulse to the silk industry, and for nearly two centuries the weaving of silk and ribbons was the main employment of the citizens. In the eighteenth century the manufacture of watches was introduced,[359] but it has been reserved for our own day to see the city again put on that busy, eager, thriving look which must have distinguished it under the later Plantagenets. The cycle manufacture has won back for the city some of the prosperity it once enjoyed. But nothing can bring back the pomp and grandeur and the semi-independence of mediæval times; neither can the modern builder lend it any of the consistent beauty of the architecture of the Middle Ages. Still, unlike Abingdon, Winchester, or S. Alban's, it is a town with a present to work in, as well as a past on which to look back. As for the future, who can tell?

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 278: _Leet Book_, 322.]

[Footnote 279: They declared that Cheylesmore was "seyntwary," _i.e._ sanctuary. On the evils of rival jurisdictions, and the consequent escape of offenders fleeing from town justice, see Green, i. 311.]

[Footnote 280: _Leet Book_, 326.]

[Footnote 281: _i.e._ umpire.]

[Footnote 282: _Leet Book_, 331.]

[Footnote 283: Madox, _Firma Burgi_, 217.]

[Footnote 284: The King was at Coventry at Christmas 1467, doubtless to keep an eye on Warwick's movements (Ramsay, ii. 327).]

[Footnote 285: _Leet Book_, 343. The mayor, William Saunders, dyer, gave £5 to the collection of money for the soldiers, so that poor people might be spared (_Ib._, 344). Either owing to the fact that the cause was unpopular, or that the people were weary of war, soldiers could not be had under 10d. a day. The air at this time was filled with rumours; one John Baldwin, cordwainer, of Dartmouth, had been committed to ward within the city for delivering treasonable letters in England, though he did it out "of innocence and simpleness," being unaware of their contents (_Ib._, 340).]

[Footnote 286: The first commission of array, dated Stamford, July 5, urged the citizens to send 100 archers against the rebels. The second (Newark, July 10) bade them hasten their preparations and make no risings or assemblies (_Ib._, 341, 343).]

[Footnote 287: See Oman, _Warwick the King-maker_.]

[Footnote 288: _Leet Book_, 342.]

[Footnote 289: A manifesto, issued July 12, calling upon all "true subjects to join Warwick in presenting certain articles of petition to the king" (_v._ Ramsay, ii. 337), is not mentioned in the _Leet Book_. The citizens of Coventry did not, it seems, join Warwick, they sent men to Edward (_Leet Book_, 345-6).]

[Footnote 290: _Leet Book_, 346.]

[Footnote 291: Ramsay, ii. 343; Oman, _Warwick_, 189. Oman says Olney in Northamptonshire.]

[Footnote 292: "Item XIIo die Augusti eodem anno dominus le revers (Lord Rivers), tune thesaurarius Anglie, fuit decollatus apud Gosford grene, et dominus Johannes Wodvyle, filius ejus, similiter" (_Leet Book_, 346).]

[Footnote 293: _Leet Book_, 354.]

[Footnote 294: Ramsay, ii. 350.]

[Footnote 295: Corp. MS.; see below, p. 152.]

[Footnote 296: _Leet Book_, 355. Troops went from Coventry to support Edward in 1469 and 1470. On both these occasions the men took 12d. a day. But the next year, when the Lancastrians were ruling and a war with Burgundy was in prospect, only 6d. a day was given to the soldiers. Was the Lancastrian cause and war with Burgundy popular then?]

[Footnote 297: The square brackets enclose words which are missing in the MS. The records were hastily written at the time, and are much mutilated (_Leet Book_, 358).]

[Footnote 298: Welles, leader of the revolt in Lincolnshire.]

[Footnote 299: Jasper Tudor, half-brother to Henry VI.]

[Footnote 300: Thomas Neville, natural son of Lord Fauconberg.]

[Footnote 301: Query? They landed at Dartmouth and Plymouth.]

[Footnote 302: Hastings.]

[Footnote 303: Burgundy.]

[Footnote 304: Archbishop Neville.]

[Footnote 305: Not quite correct. Henry VI. was taken by the Yorkists, July 1465. Hence he had only been in prison five years.]

[Footnote 306: S. Paul's.]

[Footnote 307: Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, the "Butcher," beheaded October 18, at Tower Hill.]

[Footnote 308: Widow, first of the Duke of Bedford, and then of Lord Rivers.]

[Footnote 309: Sanctuary.]

[Footnote 310: _Leet Book_, 362.]

[Footnote 311: _Ib._, 364.]

[Footnote 312: _Leet Book_, 366. 33s. was paid to gunners, to "riders in the country and watchmen."]

[Footnote 313: Holinshed, iii. 682.]

[Footnote 314: _Leet Book_, 367.]

[Footnote 315: Dugdale, i. 143. In the _Leet Book_ (370-1) there is the record of a collection evidently made for this fine.]

[Footnote 316: _Leet Book_, 381.]

[Footnote 317: Corp. MS. (Not in Mr. J.C. Jeaffreson's catalogue.) See also _Leet Book_, 381.]

[Footnote 318: _Leet Book_, 393. It must be remembered that S. George, according to legend, was born at Coventry. See _Seven Champions_. S. George's day is April 23. All the characters of the pageant are taken from the shearmen and tailors' play. See below, chap. xv.]

[Footnote 319: _Leet Book_, 393.]

[Footnote 320: _Ib._, 405.]

[Footnote 321: _Ib._, 407.]

[Footnote 322: Harl. MS. 6,388 f. 23.]

[Footnote 323: _Leet Book_, 409 _sqq._]

[Footnote 324: Ramsay, ii. 535.]

[Footnote 325: Corp. MS. A. 79, i. 8. Written from Burton Monastery, April 2.]

[Footnote 326: _Leet Book_, 523-4.]

[Footnote 327: Fretton, _Mayors of Coventry_, 12. They presented him with £100 and a cup.]

[Footnote 328: _Leet Book_, 530-2. It is not quite certain that the words are to be understood as implying that the citizens fed Richard's soldiers.]

[Footnote 329: Gardiner, _Henry VII._, 53.]

[Footnote 330: Harl. MS. 6,388, f. 24.]

[Footnote 331: _Ib._]

[Footnote 332: Foxe, _Martyrs_ (1823), xxxix.]

[Footnote 333: Harl. MS. 6,388, f. 28. The more probable date is 1519 or 1520. In 1521, the next year, one Robert Silkeb was taken and burnt for not believing in transubstantiation (_Ib._).]

[Footnote 334: He twice visited the city to see the Corpus Christi plays (Sharp, _Mysteries_, 5).]

[Footnote 335: Corp. MS. A. 79, f. 17.]

[Footnote 336: Corp. MS. A. 79, f. 20.]

[Footnote 337: S. Paul's.]

[Footnote 338: _Leet Book_, 625-6.]

[Footnote 339: Corp. MS. B. 60.]

[Footnote 340: In Henry VIII.'s reign the woollen manufacture of Norwich was at a low ebb; the principal cause of this was the manufacture abroad, which led to the export of the raw material to Flanders (Burnley, _Hist. of Wool and Wool Combing_, 66-7).]

[Footnote 341: Harl. MS. 6,388, f. 30.]

[Footnote 342: Corp. MS. A. 79, f. 27.]

[Footnote 343: _Ib._, f. 28.]

[Footnote 344: Harl. MS. 6,388, f. 29_a._]

[Footnote 345: _Ib._]

[Footnote 346: Gasquet, _Monasteries_, ii. 427.]

[Footnote 347: _Ib._ ii., 265.]

[Footnote 348: Dugdale, _Warw._ i. 146.]

[Footnote 349: Harl. MS. 6,195, f. 7.]

[Footnote 350: Vol. of correspondence, Corp. MS. A. 79, f. 63.]

[Footnote 351: The schoolmaster's salary was discharged by the Trinity guild.]

[Footnote 352: Harl. MS. 6,195, f. 7. See also Ashley, pt. ii. 148. The church referred to is the now demolished one dedicated to S. Nicholas, which was supported by the Corpus Christi guild.]

[Footnote 353: Corp. MS. B. 75.]

[Footnote 354: Sharp, _Antiq._, 18.]

[Footnote 355: Burton on Ship Money, Corp. MS. A. 35.]

[Footnote 356: Poole, _Coventry_, 75.]

[Footnote 357: Poole, 80.]

[Footnote 358: Sharp, _Antiq._, 22.]

[Footnote 359: Poole, 359-363.]