Guildford Dudley, and both of them were beheaded on the same day, February 12th, the former on Tower-green, the latter on Tower-hill. Eleven days afterwards, the duke of Suffolk, lady Jane's father, was also decapitated.

On the 14th and 15th of February, about fifty of Wyat's faction were hanged on twenty paire of gallowes made for that purpose in divers places about the citie.'* On the 18th, several more were executed in different parts of Kent; and on the 22d about 400 more were led with halters round their necks to the Tilt-yard at Westminster, and were there pardoned by the queen, ' who looked forth of her gallery.'+ The trial of Wyat was deferred for some weeks, through the expectations of Mary's council that the hope of pardon might induce him to accuse his more secret supporters; and it was said that he charged the princess Elizabeth, and Courteney, earl of Devonshire, with being privy to his intended rising. It seems probable, however, that this was only a scheme of the queen's to compass the ruin of the princess, and of the earl, whose attentions to her sister, and neglect of herself, had long excited her jealousy and hatred. They were both committed to the Tower in March, and underwent a strict examination, yet not a shadow of crime could be proved against them; and Wyat himself, who was beheaded on Tower-hill, on the 11th of April, solemnly absolved them from any knowledge of his design, whilst upon the scaffold, and at the point of death.'

Five days after Wyat's execution, sir Nicholas Throckmorton was brought to trial as an accomplice, in Guildhall, but the jury acquitted him; which so enraged the queen's council, that in defiance of all justice, they commanded the jurors to appear before them at an hour's warning, and fined each of them 500l. On the 25th of April, the lord Thomas Grey, uncle to lady Jane, was beheaded on Tower-hill. On the 18th of May, William Thomas, esq. who had been clerk of the council, was hanged, headed, and quartered' at Tyburn. He was one of the last that suffered through Wyat's rebellion. On the day following, the princess Elizabeth was released from the Tower, and conducted to Woodstock; and about a week afterwards, the earl of Devonshire was also liberated from the Tower; but this was only to change the place of his confinement, and he was sent a close prisoner to Fotheringay castle, in Northamptonshire.

The parliament having confirmed the articles of marriage between the queen and Philip II. of Spain, that prince arrived at Southampton on the 19th of July. The queen had set out on a progress to the west, that she might meet her bridegroom at Winchester, where she intended to be married, and where the ceremony was accordingly performed with great magnificence on the 25th of the same month. On the 18th of August following, the Stow's Ann. p. 1054. + Ibid.

Brayley's London, i. 276.

king and queen made their public entry into London; on which occasion the city was sumptuously adorned and embellished with a great number of stately pageants; nor was any expence spared by the citizens to testify their attachment to the royal pair.

The sumptuous and extravagant manner of living of the city magistrates had gradually risen to such an height, that many of the principal citizens retired from the city, rather than incur the enormous expense of serving the city offices. To remedy this growing evil, an act of common council was passed in this year, whereby it was enacted, That henceforth the mayor should have but one course either at dinner or supper and that, on a festival, being a flesh-day, to consist of no more than seven dishes, whether hot or cold; and on every festival, being a fish-day, eight dishes; and on every common flesh-day, six dishes; and on every common day, seven dishes, exclusive of brawn, collops with eggs, sallads, pottage, butter, cheese, eggs, herrings, sprats, shrimps, and all sorts of shell fish and fruits. That the aldermen and sheriffs should have one dish less than the above-mentioned; and all the city companies, at their several entertainments, to have the same number of dishes as the aldermen and sheriffs; but with this restriction, to have neither swan, crane, or bustard, upon the penalty of 40s. That all the serjeants and officers belonging to the mayor or sheriffs, on flesh days, to have three, on fish days four dishes. But, when any foreign ministers or privy councillors are invited to any of the city entertainments, then the regulations or additions to be left to the discretion of the mayor; provided always, that no other entertainment be given after dinner, except ipocras and wafers. And the annual feasts, on the three days after Whitsunday and Bartholomew-tide, were entirely laid aside.

It was also about the same time and by the same authority enacted, that each of the sheriffs for the future should only have fourteen serjeants and their yeomen, who, instead of having liveries given them, were each to have ten shillings in money annually, to supply themselves and the clerks of the compters; and such as had been accustomed to have liveries, were each to have a gown annually at Christmas.

It was likewise enacted, that henceforth no wyth should be carried away from the mayor's or sheriffs houses, nor shall any of them keep a lord of misrule; and that in consideration of the great and annual expense the mayor and sheriffs are at in providing a sumptuous entertainment every lord mayor's day at Guildhall, for the honour of the city, and regaling of persons of the greatest distinction; it was therefore ordained, that every subsequent mayor, as an alleviation of that charge, shall be paid out of the chamber of the city the sum of one hundred pounds. This act was revived in the year 1683, with reasons shewing that a fifth part of the charge of a shrievalty is in wine.

The keeper of Bread-street Compter, having not only ill

rteated his prisoners, but also converted his prison into a receptacle for thieves and dissolute women, a large and convenient building was erected in Wood-street, at the expense of the corpora. tion, for the reception of debtors and others, in the year 1555, and the prisoners were removed from Bread-street Compter into it on Michaelmas eve.

The citizens of London, being siill greatly injured by the encroachments of foreigners on their respective professions, applied to the lord mayor and commonalty for farther relief; when an act of common council was passed, in which it was ordained, That henceforth no citizen should presume to employ any foreigner in any manner of business, exclusive of felt-makers, capthickers, carders, spinners, knitters, amd brewers, upon penalty of five pounds for every offence; and all offenders, upon conviction, refusing to pay, to be committed to prison, without bail or mainprize, till such fines were paid.

In this year we find that an Englishman, named Thomson, making a voyage from Cadiz to New Spain, touched at the Canaries, and found the factors of some London merchants already settled there.* This is the first mention of a commercial intercourse between London and these islands.

The statutes against heretics were now revived by the commons, whose obsequiousness indeed was so great, that the council thought it prudent to check their zeal, lest despair should induce the Protestants to fly to arms. The bloody tragedy was, however, resolved on, and the first decided victim of religious persecution was John Rogers, the vicar of St. Sepulchre's, who, with Bradford, had assisted Bourne to escape from the rage of the populace at Paul's Cross. He was burnt in Smithfield on the 4th of February, 155.5. Before his death, he requested to have a parting interview with his wife, whom he tenderly loved; but Gardiner, blending insult with cruelty, ironically answered, that being ́a priest, he could not possibly have a wife.'t Many other persons were burnt in Smithfield in the course of the year; and the fires of persecution were now lit in every part of the kingdom. Among the sufferers in London were John Cardmaker, canon of Wells; John Bradford, prebend of St. Paul's; and John Philpot, archdeacon of Winchester.

On the last of September, by occasion of great wind and raine that had fallen, was such fluds, that that morning the king's palace at Westminster, and Westminster hall, was overflowen with water unto the staire focte going to the Chauncerie and King's Bench, so that when the lord maior of London should come to present the sherifes to the barons of the exchequer, all Westminster-hall was full of water; and by report there that morning, a wherrie-man rowed with his boate over Westminster-bridge

Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. i i.

+ Fox's Mar. iii. 119.

to the palace court, and so through the Staple-gate and ali the Wooll Staple into the king's streete; and all the marshes on Lambeth side were so overflown, that the people from Newing ton church could not passe on foote, but were carried by boate from the said church to the Pinfold, neere to St. George's in Southwarke.'*

A raging fever prevailed in London from the end of 1555, to the autumn of 1556, which carried off great numbers of people. Seven aldermen fell victims to its ravages within ten months.

In the year 1556, alderman Draper, of Cordwainer's ward, first instituted the office of bellman, whose business was to so about the ward by night, and ringing his bell at certain places, exhort the inhabitants, with an audible voice, to take care of their fires and lights, to help the poor, and to pray for the dead. This institution was soon after adopted in all the other wards of the city.

According to the author of the Present State of England, printed in 1683, it was in the year 1557, that glasses were first begun to be made in England. The finer sort was made in the place called Crutched Friars, in London; and the fine flint glass, little inferior to that of Venice, was first made in the Savoy-house, in the Strand.

This was a year both of dearth and plenty. Before harvest, wheat was sold at two pounds thirteen shillings and four-pence the quarter, malt at two pounds four shillings, beans and rye two pounds, and pease two pounds six shillings and eight-pence the quarter; but after harvest, wheat was sold at five shillings, malt at six shillings and eight-pence, and rye at three shillings and four-pence the quarter! so that,' says Howes, the penny wheat loaf that weighed in London the last year, but eleven ounces troy, weighed now fifty-six ounces troy, according to the assize set down by the mayor at the time.'

6

According to the same author, the Michaelmas term of this year did not produce a single cause either in the courts of King's Bench or Common Pleas.

In March 1551, the queen borrowed twenty thousand pounds of the city companies, on the security of certain lands; and allowed them twelve per cent. interest for it.

On the 23rd of the same month, king Philip entered London on a visit to the queen, whom he had not seen for two years and a half. The chief aim of his visit appears to have been to engage her in a war with France: which having done he passed over to Calais on the 6th of July. In the following winter, the French took Calais in a few days, it having been left almost totally unprovided for defence. This loss, conjoined to the neglect of her

Stow's Ann. p. 1064.

husband, so affected the queen, that she gradually declined in health, and at length died on the 17th of November, 1558. When near death, she said to her attendants, that were the cause of her disorder to be sought by opening her body, the loss of Calais would be found at her heart.'

CHAPTER XI.

History of London, during the reign of Elizabeth.

UPON the demise of queen Mary, her sister, the princess Elizabeth, was, on the 17th of November, proclaimed queen in London, with the usual solemnities, and such unfeigned demonstrations of joy by the citizens, as probably never appeared before on the like occasion. And the next day, on her approach from Hatfield to London, she was met at Highgate by the lord mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs, who conducted her to the city, where she took up her residence in the Charter-house, wherein she continued till the 28th of the said month, when she removed; and passing through Barbican, entered the city at Cripplegate, and riding by Londonwall, Blanch-Appleton, Mark-lane, and Tower street, amidst the ioyful and incessant acclamations of an incredible multitude of people, she entered the Tower of London, and from thence, on the 1st of December following, removed to Somerset house.*

On the first of January, 1559, the church service was again read in English throughout London by proclamation, and it was commanded that all churches in the kingdom should conform to the practice of the queen's chapel: the elevation of the Host was also expressly forbidden. These innovations were considered by the Catholic bishops as sufficiently significant of Elizabeth's designs in respect to religion, and they all refused to assist in the ceremony of her coronation. At length, Oglethorpe, bishop of Carlisle, was prevailed on to officiate, and she was crowned January 15th, in Westminster abbey. On the 14th she rode through the city to Westminster in great state, amidst the accustomed display of pageantry and expensive magnificence. The following tract is so curious, we have printed it verbatim.

The passage of our most dread Soveraigne Lady Quene Elyzabeth through the Citie of London to Westminster, the daye be

Holins. Chron. Engl.