The country graziers frequenting Smithfield-market, petitioned the parliament, complaining of the grievous and intolerable exactions of the city officers belonging to the said market, by their unjustly extorting from many persons carrying cattle thither the third beast for which scandalous imposition, the mayor and she. riffs were ordered to answer before the council.

In the ninth, twelfth, and fifteenth years of king Richard, the mayor, aldermen, and citizens of London presented their sheriffs to the treasurer and barons of the exchequer for admittance, with their reasons, as mentioned in the year 1385, for the said sheriffs not taking an oath in the exchequer, nor any where else but in the city; wherefore they were refused to be admitted, and at the said times were severally cautioned by the barons not to act as sheriffs at their perils, without qualifying themselves as is necessary and customary on such occasions.

It seems the mayor and citizens had better considered of this affair; for in this year, Nicholas de Farendon, the mayor, &c. presented Adam de Saresbury and John Oxford for their sheriffs, who were admitted and sworn to behave themselves well and truly; for, if a sheriff of London being chosen, did not go to the exchequer, in obedience to the king's command, to take upon him the office of sheriff, he was to be amerced for the contempt, as is manifest in the case of Philip de Taylur, who was fined in the twentysixth and twenty-seventh of Edward the first, in the sum of fifty pounds, for his contempt in not appearing at the exchequer to qualify himself as aforesaid.

The mayor of this city having received advice of the king's arrival at Dover, with his young consort Isabella, a daughter of France; he, with his brethren the aldermen, accompanied by a select body of citizens well mounted and dressed in one sort of apparel, with a symbol of their respective mysteries richly embroidered on each of their sleeves, met them on Blackheath, where the recorder, on behalf of the city, in a congratulatory oration, joyfully welcomed and conducted them to Kennington, from whence, soon ofter, the young (then but eight years of age, therefore called the little) queen, was brought to the Tower of London with the utmost pomp and state. On which occasion, the crowds of spectators were so exceedingly great, that nine persons were crowded to death on London-bridge, among whom were the prior of Tiptree in Essex, and a worthy lady of Cornhill. And the day following, the queen passed through the city, with the greatest magnificence, to Westminster.

Richard, being apprehensive of new broils, was desirous to know what power the city of London could bring into the field, upon an emergency; to which end, he caused the citizens to be mustered upon Blackheath; where, having reviewed them, he was excecdingly delighted with their fine and numerous appearance.*

Adam Bamme, the mayor, dying soon after, and before the completion of his mayoralty, the king, by his own authority, and in an arbitrary manner, without consulting the citizens, put into that office for the remaining part of the year, Richard Whittington, who was afterwards chosen by the citizens to that office for that time.

The king's accustomed extravagance, with the charges of his late marriage, having entirely exhausted his exchequer, though the parliament which met at Westminster, in January, 1397, had granted him a very considerable aid, he had again recourse to his usual methods of extortion. There was not a lord, a bishop, a gentleman, or rich burgess,' says Walsingham, but what was obliged to lend him money; though it was well known that he never designed to repay it;' and, among other new and base expedients, he compelled the richest of his subjects to set their seals to blank grants, or charters, which were afterwards filled up with whatever sums he thought proper to exact. Some idea of the profuse expenditure of this monarch may be formed from the ensuing extract:

This yeere the king kept a most royall Christmas, with every day justings and running at the tilt; whereunto resorted such a number of people, that there was every day spent xxviii or xxvi oxen, and three hundred sheep, besides fowle without number. Also the king caused a garment for him to be made of golde, silver, and precious stones, to the value of 3000 marks.'*

According to Froissart, the citizens of London, at the instigation of the duke of Gloucester, the king's uncle, petitioned the king, that seeing the war with France was happily ended, they might have all grievous taxations annulled; and also that his majesty would not enter into any treaty with the king of France about the delivering up of Calais.

Which proceedings of the citizens were in a proper time highly resented by the king, who intended to punish them severely for their insolence: but, by the mediation of their good friends, Roger Walden, archbishop of Canterbury, and their own worthy bishop, Robert Braybroke, they were again taken into favour.

Richard became at last so odious to his subjects, that the principal of the nobility, gentry, and people, invited Henry, duke of Hereford, son to John of Gaunt, late duke of Lancaster, and grandson to Edward III. then an exile in France (who some time before was unjustly banished the kingdom) to come and head them, in order to extricate an oppressed nation from the abyss of slavery they were sunk into. Henry accepted of their invitation, and landing at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire, was quickly joined by the nobility and gentry of those parts, and by persons of all ranks on his march southward; so that his army in a few days increased

* Stow's Ann. p. 505.

to sixty thousand men. With these he hastened to London, wisely concluding, if the capital should declare for him, he would have nothing to fear from the king or his adherents. The citizens received their deliverer with open gates, hearts, and hands, (supplying his army with a superfluity of all sorts of provisions,) ex pressing their joy with magnificent shows, solemn processions of the clergy, and loud acclamations of the people.

The duke, having his interest greatly strengthened by the accession of this potent and opulent city, thought he might safely march thence to secure the western parts of the kingdom, where Richard soon after arrived with his army from the reduction of Ireland. But the king, being soon deserted by most of the great men about him, thought proper to accept of the terms offered him by the earl of Northumberland, on behalf of the duke of Lancaster, which the earl solemnly swore to see performed; nevertheless he perfidiously seized upon the king's person, carried him prisoner to Rothland castle, and thence to that of Flint, and there delivered him to the duke, who brought the king to London. At some distance from which, he was met by the recorder of the city, accompanied by a great number of knights and esquires, who, in a most inhuman and barbarous manner, desired the duke, in the name of the whole community of London, to behead the king and all those that were taken with him. But the duke would, by no means, oblige them in the perpetration of such an unparallelled and horrid act of cruelty; telling them, that if he should agree to their unreasonable request, it would be an eternal reproach to him and all his adherents; wherefore, he would leave him and them to the disposal of the ensuing parliament. But other authors only write, that the London rabble intended to have assassinated Richard on his approach to the city, had they not been prevented by the mayor and aldermen.

At the duke's approach to London with his prisoners, he was received in great pomp by the mayor, aldermen, sheriffs, and all the several companies in their formalities, with the people incessantly crying, Long live the good duke of Lancaster, our deliverer!' And the duke, having secured the king in the Tower of London, went to St. Paul's church to return thanks to God for his great success.

In the parliament which met in Westminster-hall, on the 30th of September, 1399, the duke of Lancaster was declared king in place of the deposed Richard, who was cruelly murdered in Pomfret castle, on the 14th of the ensuing February.

CHAPTER VII.

History of London from the reign of Henry the Fourth to the reign of Edward the Fourth.

In the first year of Henry the Fourth, on the 13th of October, 1399, being the day appointed for his coronation, the mayor and aldermen of the city, dressed in scarlet, and mounted upon stately horses, rode to the Tower of London, where they received and attended the king to Westminster; where the mayor, assisted by his brethren, the aldermen, officiated as chief butler to the kingdom; and Henry, to declare his affection to the citizens, caused all the blank charters that had been extorted from them in the late reign, to be burnt at the standard in Cheapside.*

By an act of parliament made in the 27th of Edward the Third, the mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs of London, in default of good government in the city, were to be tried as delinquents by a foreign inquest, to be taken out of the counties of Kent, Essex, Sussex, Herts, Bucks, and Berks; and who, upon their being found guilty, for the first default were to pay 1,000 marks; for the second, 2,000 marks; and for the third, the franchises of the city to be forfeited to the king: he also caused these several forfeitures to be repealed by parliament. As a further encouragement to them, it was by the same parliament enacted, that the merchants of London should have the same liberty of packing their cloths, as foreign merchants have within the city; and that all foreign fishermen in amity with the king, as well as domestic, shall have the privilege of retailing their fish in the city, either whole, or in pieces, to all persons whatsoever, exclusive of fishmongers.†

These favors were partly awarded in return for the ready assistance furnished to the king by the mayor and citizens, on the discovery of the conspiracy projected against him by the dukes of Aumerle, Surrey, and Exeter, and others, friends of the deposed sovereign.

Towards the end of the year 1400, the Grecian emperor, John Emanuel Palæologus, arrived in England, to solicit succour against the Turks. The king and principal nobility met him in great state at Blackheath, and conducted him to London, where he was received with great pomp by the corporate officers and citizens.

In 1401, the parliament, through the influence of the clergy, and the policy of the king, who, having but a dubious title, felt the necessity of paying court to ecclesiastical power, passed the detestable act for burning of obstinate heretics:' a statute entirely aimed against the Lollards, or followers of the doctrines of Wick

* Stow's Ann.

+ Stat. Larg. 27 Edw. III.

liffe. The first victim was William Sautree, who had been parish priest of St. Osyth, in Syth-lane, London; and was condemned by the ecclesiastical court as soon as the act was made. Being immediately delivered over to the secular arm, he was burnt alive, by virtue of the king's writ, directed to the mayor and sheriff's of London, and bearing date on February the 26th.*

In the same year, the prison called the Tun, in Cornhill, was converted into a cistern or conduit for Tyburn water; on one side of which was erected a cage, with a pair of stocks over it, for the punishment of night walkers; together with a pillory, for punishing of cheating bakers and thievish millers.

The merchants of Genoa, upon their petitioning the parliament, had the privilege granted them of importing their merchandize into London, without paying to the city the duty called scavage, provided they landed their goods first at Southampton. And in the same year, we read, that the citizens petitioned against the liberty of St. Martin's-le-Grand, as a receptacle of murderers, thieves, bankrupts, &c., humbly praying that their privileges might be annulled. To which it was answered, that upon sight of their liber ties, order should be taken therein by the king's council.

The year 1407 became memorable for a dreadful and destructive plague which raged in this city, and carried off thirty thousand of its inhabitants; whereby corn became so cheap that wheat was sold at three shillings and four-pence the quarter. But this affliction did not prevent the public diversions; for we read, that the company of parish clerks of this city acted, with great applause, for eight days successively, at Skinner's-well, near Clerkenwell, a play, concerning the creation of the world, at which were present most of the nobility and gentry of the kingdom; who from thence went to Smithfield, where solemn justs were holden between the marshal of Henault, and divers of his countrymen, challengers, and the earl of Somerset, and the like number of English gentlemen, defendants; in which engagement the last gained abundance of honour, being all victors, save one. Two of each side, after a long and sharp engagement, were parted by the king, without a decision in favour of either party. However, Henry was so well satisfied of the gallantry of those foreign gentlemen, that he not only entertained them in a sumptuous manner, but likewise made them divers presents of great value, whilst he rewarded his own subjects' bravery with the honour of knighthood, which, on such occasions, was more acceptable to the magnanimous than loads of treasure.

The princes Thomas and John, two of the king's sons, being at an entertainment in Eastcheap, a difference happened between their servants and some belonging to the court; which at last got to such a head, that the mayor, sheriffs, and other citizens, found

Rym Fœd. vol. viii. p. 178.