scyence of the paryshens Item, all offring is undone before this day, or any other attempted contrary e, besyde, or agaynst thys present wrytyng, by ony person or persons, shall stonde quyte, and not be remembred as unto ony sute or stryf; but all suche thyngs before thys day done shal clere be remet and forgyven on boothe pertyes.

'Be it in mynde, that thys bonde and arbitrement is made the xvii day of Decembre, the yere of the incarnacyon of our Lord M.IIIICLVII. by master Laurence Bothe, master William Radclyf, master Lucas Lancock, master John Aleyn, master John Lyleford, Geffrey Feldyng, William Taylour, master Robert Kent, arbytrators chosen upon the premisse, as in the tenor of the compremysse thereupon openly made it may appere.' N.B. At this time there were 118 parish-churches in London and its suburbs.

The king and queen, together with the dukes of York, Exeter, and Somerset, the earls of Warwick, Northumberland, and Salisbury, and several lords being arrived in the city, and the smallest of their retinues consisting of four hundred men, as their respective guards; Godfrey Buloine, the mayor, for the better securing the peace of the city during the stay of these potent guests, caused five thousand citizens completely armed to mount guard daily under his own command, and two thousand by night, under the command of three aldermen. By this wise precaution peace was preserved in all parts of the city, during the stay of those personages and their respective troops.

About the same time happened a great tumult in Fleet-street, between the students of the inns of court and the neighbouring inhabitants; wherein was killed the queen's attorney: the consequence was, the principals of Furnival's, Clifford's, and Barnard's inns were committed prisoners to the castle of Hertford; and William Taylor, alderman of Farringdon ward without, and others, were committed to the castle of Windsor. At the same time, all the Genoese merchants in this city were by the king's special command committed close prisoners to the Fleet, by way of reprisal for the capture of an English ship in the Levant, by a ship of war of that nation: and to make good all damages sustained by the master and owners of the said ship, the said merchants were amerced in the sum of six thousand marks.*

Henry VI. receiving advice at Coventry of the landing of the carls of March, Warwick, Salisbury, &c. at Sandwich in Kent, from Calais, immediately commanded the lord Scales to march with a considerable body of troops and possess himself of the city of London, as the most important place of the kingdom; which, if he could secure it, would of itself be sufficient to baffle all the efforts of the rebels. Lord Scales, accompanied by the earl of Kendall and baron Lovell, set out immediately for the city; where being arrived, he in the king's name demanded admission, Fab. Chron. part 7, page 417.

assuring the mayor and citizens, that his master, out of his great love to them, had sent him to protect the city from being pillaged by a great body of rebellious traitors, that were now almost at their gates. The mayor, who secretly favoured the designs of the above-named lords, answered, that he wanted no help, either to defend or govern the city; and therefore would not permit an armed power to come within his jurisdiction. This resolute answer highly enraged lord Scales, who perceived the dis-1460 loyalty of the citizens, and plainly foresaw, that they intended to admit the malcontents at their arrival. For the preventing of which, he possessed himself of the Tower of London, and threatened, that in case they admitted the rebels, he would batter and lay the city in ashes. However, it appears that those menaces had but little weight with the citizens; for upon the arrival of the earl of March with his army, they immediately opened their gates, and received him with the greatest demonstrations of joy.

This mighty point gained, of having the city declare for him, March set out with an army of twenty-five thousand men in search of the king; having left the earl of Salisbury with a cousiderable power, to defend the city against the attempt of the lord Scales in the Tower, who incessantly from thence plied the city with his ordnance, and beat down and destroyed a number of houses, with their inhabitants. Wherefore Salisbury blocked up that fortress on all sides; and, by erecting a battery on the opposite bank of the Thames, he reduced the garrison to such straits, that Scales was soon obliged to desist from firing upon the city.*

• Then was the Tower,' says Stow, besieged both by water and land, that no victuals might come to them: and they that were within the Tower cast wild fire into the citie, and shot many small guns, whereby they brent and slew, men, women, and children, in the streetes: also they of the citie laide great gunnes on the further side of the Thames, against the Tower, and break the walls in divers places.'+ Soon afterwards the garrison, for lack of victuals, yeelded, and came forth' but the Jurd Scales attempting to escape by water, to take sanctuary at Westminster, was descried by a woman, and anon the wherry men fell on him, killed him, and cast him a-land by St. Mary Overies.' §

On the 16th of August, the confederate lords came to London with their royal captive, whom they caused to summon a parliament to meet on the seventh October. This delay was wanting to give time for the arrival of the duke of York, who was then in Ireland, and who did not reach London till two days

⚫ Maitland, i. 199.

+ Stow's Ann. p. 669.

loid. p. 670.

§ Ibid.

| Cot. Rec. p. 665.

after the parliament had opened The duke rode immediately to Westminster, and alighting from his horse, went into the painted chamber, where the lords were sitting, and stood for some time under the canopy of state, with his hand on the throne; expecting, as it were, to be desired to seat himself thereon.' But the silence of the peers convincing him that his intentions were not generally approved, he withdrew in chagrin to his own house; and within a short time prepared a writing,' which 'his councell presented to the lords in full parliament, touching his right and claim to the crown of England, and lordship of Ireland.'* This was immediately taken into consideration; yet, after a debate of several days, it was determined that Henry should continue to enjoy the throne during his life; but that the duke should be declared the 6 very heir apparent.'t These, with other resolutions, were subsequently passed into an act; and on the day of All Saints,' the king, wearing the crown upon his head, went in procession with the duke of York and parliament to St. Paul's. On the Saturday following, the duke was solemnly proclaimed heir apparent to the crown, and protector of the realm,' by sound of trumpet, throughout the city.

When the queen was informed of the compromise between her husband and the duke, which at once excluded herself from power, and her son from the succession, she was incensed to vengeance, and immediately began to raise an army in the north, for the purpose of releasing the king, and overwhelming her enemies. Her first efforts were successful; in the dreadful battle of Wakefield, the duke of York, who had imprudently engaged the queen's forces with far inferior numbers, was defeated and slain; and his head having been encircled with a paper diadem in derision of his claims, was fixed upon one of the gates of York city. The queen next advanced towards London,, and having worsted the earl of Warwick at the second battle of St. Albans, released the king from captivity, and prepared for her entry into the metropolis.

The citizens had in general supported the cause of the Yorkists, and were now under dreadful apprehensions of being plundered by the queen's troops, to whom a promise of all the spoil south of the river Trent is said to have been given, and who had already committed great ravages in the town and neighbourhood of St. Albans. • The queene

Stow, speaking of the event of the battle, says, having thus got the victorie, sent to the maior of London, commanding him, without delay, to send certaine carts, laden with lenten stuffe, for the refreshing of her armie, which the maior incontinent granted, caused carts to be laden, and would have sent them forward, but the commons of the citie would not suffer

them to passe, but staied them at Criplegate; during which controurversie divers of the northern horsemen robbed in the suburbs of the citie, and would have entred at Criplegate, but they were repulsed by the commoners, and three of them slain.'*

To appease the expected resentment of the queen at these transactions, the mayor, and more eminent inhabitants, sent a deputation to Barnet, where the king's council was assembled; and engagements were made, that the queen's army should be admitted into the city, as soon as the common people were quieted. The queen, therefore, contented herself with detaching certaine lords and knights, with 400 tall persons, to ride to the citie, and there to view and see the demeanour of the people ;'t intending speedily to follow with her whole army. But all her measures were disconcerted by intelligence that the earl of March, son to the late duke of York (who had been engaged in levying forces in Wales at the period of his father's death,) had in conjunction with the earl of Warwick, totally defeated the earls of Pembroke and Ormond, at the battle of Mortimer's Cross, and was now rapidly marching towards the metropolis. The queen knowing she could place very little dependence on the Londoners, judged it prudent to retire into the north; and the earl of March immediately hastened with his troops to the capital, where he was received with every demonstration of joy.

Within a day or two afterwards, on the 2nd of March (anno 1461,) the earls' army was mustered in St. John's fields, Clerkenwell, amidst considerable numbers of people, when the lord Fauconbridge seizing the opportunity, read aloud the agreement which had been made between the king and the duke of York, and appealing to the multitude, told them, that Henry had notoriously violated his contract, and asked whether he' was still worthy to reign?" The people cried, Nay, nay;' and he then enquired whether, agreeably to the settlement ratified by the parliament, they would have the earl of March to be their king?' they answered, Yea, yea;' and this expression of the popular voice being admitted to be legitimate in a great council of prelates, nobility, gentry, and magistrates, held on the ensuing day at Baynard's castle, the earl of March was on the morrowe' conducted in great state to St. Paul's and thence to Westminster hall, where being set in the king's seate, with St. Edward's sceptre in his hand,' an appeal was then made to the people, who, with loud acclamations, declared, that they accepted him for their sovereign. He was then conducted with great solemnity to the bishop of London's palace, where Henry used to lodge when within the walls of the city; and on the day

• Stow's Ann. p. 678-9.

Hall's Chron.

+ Ibid.

following, was proclaimed king in London and the neighbouring places, by the title of Edward the Fourth.*

CHAPTER VIII.

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

EDWARD IV. the same day he was proclaimed, dined at Baynard's Castle, near St. Paul's, and continued there till his army was ready to march in pursuit of the late king. One of the first and most arbitrary acts of Edward's reign, was the causing Walter Walker, an eminent grocer in Cheapside, to be apprehended and tried for a few harmless words innocently spoken by him; viz. that he would make his son heir to the crown,' inoffensively meaning his own house which had the crown for its sign; for which imaginary crime, he was beheaded in Smithfield, in the eighth day of this reign.

Soon after, Edward marched his army through Bishopsgate towards the north, in quest of king Henry, who by this time had assembled a mighty army of 60,000 men; and, both armies meeting, at Towton, or Shyryborn, in Yorkshire, after a terrible and desperate engagement, which continued fourteen hours, with a prodigious slaughter, victory declared in favour of Edward. After Edward had taken care for preserving the peace in the north, he began his march back southward; and in the beginning of June he arrived at his manor of Shene, now Richmond, in Surrey, till all things were got ready for his coronation. On the 27th of June, his majesty set out from thence to London, and was on the way met at Lambeth by the mayor and aldermen in their formalities, dressed in scarlet, attended by four hundred citizens on horseback, all in green, richly accoutred, by whom he was conducted to the Tower of London; from whence, two days after, he rode through the city to Westminster, and was crowned with very great solemnity at St. Peter's; on which occasion the public rejoicings in the city were exceedingly great; and on the next morrowe, hee went crowned in Paul's church of London; and there an angel came downe, and censed him; at which time was so great a multitude of people in Paul's, as ever was seene in any daies?

Edward, in the second year of his reign, to show his gratitude to the citizens of London for the many great and signal services

* Brayley's London, i. 217.