slain and with the execution of eight more though five hundred were found guilty this Insurrection is suppressed It was a custom that upon St. Bartholomews day the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of London should go to the Wrestling-place near More-fields where at this time the Prior of St. Johns likewise was to see the sport and a Servant of his being ashamed to be foiled before his Master desired to Wrestle again contrary to custom which the Lord Mayor denied whereupon the Prior fetched Bowmen from Clerkenwel against the Mayor and some slaughter was made the Mayors Cap was shot through with an Arrow yet he would have the sport go on but no Wrestlers came whereupon he said He would stay a while to make Trial of the Citizens respect to him and presently after a great party of them came with Banners displaid and fetched him home in triumph Soon after another Quarrel happened in Holborn between the Gentlemen of the Inns of Chancery and some Citizens in appeasing whereof the Queens Attorney and three more were slain The year after the Apprentices of London upon a very slight occasion fall upon the Foreign Merchants rifling and robbing their houses but the Lord Mayor by his discretion appeased the Tumult punishing some of the Offenders with Death and others by Fine and all things are quieted and appeased The Kings Resloration 1660. The Regicides of Exec at Charingcross The Insurection of Venner c. 1660. As soon as this Parliament was dissolved the Duke sends for the Queen and some others to come out of Scotland But they had raised an Army there and the Duke of York met them with another and at Wakefield Green the Duke is flain with the loss of three thousand of his men and leing dead had his head crowned with a Paper Crown together with many other Circumstances of disgrace However his Son Edward Earl of March prosecutes the Quarrel and puts the Queens Forces to flight which she endeavoured to recruit but some of her Northern Army having robbed the People as they came along the Country saying It was their Bargain to have all the Spoil in every place The Londoners would not suffer any Provision to be sent to them the Commons rising about Cripplegate and stopping the Carts which the Lord Mayor was sending to the Army In the mean time the Earls of March and Warwick having got a considerable Army march to London and were joyfully received there And soon after the Earl of Warwick drawing all his Forces into St. Johns Field by Clerkenwel and having cast them in a Ring he read to them the Agreement of the last Parliament and then demanded Whether they would have King Henry to reign still Who all cryed out No No. Then he asked them Whether they would have the Earl of March Eldest Son of the Duke of York by that Parliament proclaimed King to reign over them Who with great shouting answered Yes Yes Then several Captains and others of the City went to the Earl of March at Baynards Castle to acquaint him what had passed who at first seemed to excuse himself as unable to execute so great a charge but encouraged by the Archbishop of York the Bishops of London and Exeter and the Earl of Warwick he at laft consented to take it upon him and soon after he was generally proclaimed King And here Writers end the Reign of King Henry the sixth though there were several changes For sometimes he was a King and sometimes none yet he was never well setled though he lived twelve years after King Henry was then in the North and raise an Army to oppose Edward but is defeated by the Lord Falconbridge Upon which Henry and his Queen go to Scotland and raise more Forces but are again beaten And now King Edward sits three days together in the Kings Bench in Westminster Hall to hear Causes and regulate Disorders And the Earl of Warwick is sent into France to treat of a Marriage with that Kings daughterâ— but in the mean while the King marries the Lady Elizabeth Gray At which Warwick grows discontented and joins against King Edward and surprizing him takes him Prisoner but he soon made his escape King Henry was taken in disguise and sent to the Tower of London some years before And now Warwick going to France brought a great Army over and proclaimed Edward an Usurper who thereupon endeavoured to raise an Army but could not and therefore fled out of England into the Duke of Burgundies Country and King Henry is taken out of Prison where he had been nine years and again proclaimed King But King Edward by the assistance of the Duke of Burgundy lands an Army in Yorkshire and marches towards London where he was joyfully received And in the year 1471 and the 11 year of his Reign K. Edward made his entry into the City and had King Henry delivered into his hands The Earl of Warwick having notice thereof marcheth with his Army toward St. Albans and King Edward follows him carrying King Henry along with him where the Earl of Warwick and many others are slain and Henries Parry utterly routed And now was the time for King Henry to be delivered out of all his Troubles for the bloudy Duke of Glocester entering the Tower of London where he sound King Henry nothing at all troubled for all his Crosses struck him into the heart with his Dagger and there slew him And now within half a years space we find one Parliament proclaimed Edward an Usurper and Henry a lawful King and another proclaiming Edward a lawful King and Henry an Usurper that we may know there is nothing certain in humane Affairs but uncertainty In the fifth year of King Henry the sixth it rained almost continually from Easter to Michaelmas In his seventh year the Duke of Norfolk was like to have been drowned passing through London Bridge his Barge being set upon the Piles so overwhelmed that thirty persons were drowned and the Duke with others that escaped were fain to be drawn up with Ropes In his seventeenth year was so great a Dearth of Corn that people were glad to make Bread of Fearn roots Next year all the Lions in the Tower died In the thirty third year of his Reign there was a great Blazing Star and there happened a strange sight a monstrous Cock came out of the Sea and in the presence of a multitude of people made a hideous crowing three times beckening toward the North South and West There were also many prodigious Births and in some places it rained bloud About this time the Draw-bridge on London Bridge was made and Leaden Hall was built to be a Storehouse of Grain and Fewel for the poor of the City In the first year of this Kings Reign a Parliament was held at London where the Queen-Mother with the young King in her lap came and sate in the House of Lords In this Kings Reign Printing was first brought into England by William Caxton of
in this manner not only our Streets but our Shops and Houses shall never be free from violence and wrong this we neither will nor can endure for it doth not become us And hereupon they approached the Gates with great Fury But the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs having notice hereof came to them and told them That this â—as not Courage but Outrage which they shewed whereby they would procure both danger to themselves and displeasure against the whole City and that though wrong had been done yet they were not the Persons neither was this the way to redress the same Thus partly by perswasion and partly by their Presence and Authority they suppressed the Riot and sent every man home with strict charge to keep the Peace Hitherto there was no great mischeif done and the quarrel might have been ended without any further trouble had not the Bishops stirred in it and kindled the Coals of Contention afresh For the Londoners were at that time not only secretly suspected but openly noted to be Favourers and Followers of Wickliffs Opinions which were contrary to the Pope and Church of Rome and upon that account the Bishops were malicious against them and most of their Actions were interpreted to proceed from other Causes and to tend to worse Purposes than they outwardly seemed to bear yea many accidental matters were charged upon them to be done out of Design and on purpose Whereupon John Waltham Bishop of Salisbury and Lord Treasurer of England made a grievous Complaint against them for this last Attempt to Thomas Arundel Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor alledging That if upon every slight pretence the Citizens should be suffered in this manner to affront the Bishops without reproof or punishment they would endanger not only the Dignity and State but the Liberty of the whole Church also For said he did they not lately take upon them the punishment of Adulteries and other Crimes appertaining to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction maliciously alledging That either the Bishops and their Officers were infamous for those Vices themselves and did therefore Connive at the same in others Or else by Covetous Commutation and taking of Money did rather set those sins to Sale than endeavour carefully to suppress them Did they not said he rudely and irreverently break open the doors upon the Archbishop of Canterbury and interrupt his Proceedings against John Aston an open Disciple of Wickliff and do we imagine that this is the last Indignity they will offer no certainly nor yet the least for if this boldness and Insolence be not supprest our Authority will soon fall into Contempt and Scorn and will be made a Common Football for every base and unworthy Citizen to kick at Armed with these furious Arguments they went together to King Richard and so incensed him against the Londoners his Mind being before prepared by former Provocations that he was once resolved to have utterly ruined and destroyed the whole City But being perswaded to use more Moderation he in Revenge first caused the Lord Maior Sheriffs and many of the Principal Citizens to be committed to several Prisons the Lord Mayor to Windsor Castle and others to other Places and then seized the Liberties of the City into his hands declaring that no Lord Mayor should for the future be Elected any more but that the King should at his Pleasure appoint a Warden or Governour over the City And this Office was first committed to Sir Edward Darlington who for his kindness toward the City was soon removed and Sir Baldwin Radington put in his place The King was likewise perswaded by Arundel Archbishop of York to remove the Terms and Courts that is the Chancery Exchequer Kings Bench the Hamper Office and the Common-pleas from London to York where they continued from Midsummer 1393. till Christmas next following to the great dammage and loss of the City of London But at last upon the earnest intreaty of the Dukes of Lancaster and Glocester his Uncles the King sent for the Londoners before him to Windsor where having first terrified them with the sight of a great Number of Souldiers he caused all the Priviledges and Charters of the City both old and new to be produced some of which he restored to them and detained others Yet were not the Citizens received fully into favour neither did they recover the Person or Dignity of their Lord Mayor at that time Shortly after the King went to London at whose coming the Citizens turned all their Greif into Joy the Vulgar being without measure in both entertaining him with such joyful Triumphs and Rich Presents as if it had been the day of his Coronation thinking by all these costly preparations to have pacified all former Anger and displeasure against them but they found themselves much deceived there being no Reconciliation to be made without Money for they were not absolutely restored to their Liberties till they had paid Ten Thousand pound to the King as a Fine Thus did the Londoners shew a strange diversity of Disposition in rashly committing an Offence and patiently induring punishment yet upon this Account as soon as the first occasion was offered against King Richard they shewed themselves either his earnest Enemies or faint Friends as by the sequel appears In 1387. King Richard II. held his Feast of Christmas in the Tower of London And in the year 1399 the same King was sent Prisoner to the Tower which being a very remarkable Transaction it may be necessary to give a breif Account thereof Richard the II. was the only Son of a Renowned Father Edward Sirnamed the Black Prince who died before his Father Edward III. and thereupon Richard was by his Grandfather in his Life-time declared to be his Heir and lawful Successor and accordingly after his Death was Crowned King of England at Westminster July 16. 1377. But being of tender age only eleven years old several Persons were commissioned to be his Protectors or Guardians and soon after a Parliament was called at Westminster wherein Alice Peirce the late Kings Concubine was banished and all her Goods Confiscate and two Tenths of the Clergy and two Fifteenths of the Temporality were granted but so as that two Citizens of London William Walworth and John Philpot should receive and keep it to see it bestowed for defence of the Realm At which time Sir Hugh Calverly Deputy of Callice burnt 26 French Ships in the Haven of Bulloigne But one Mercer a Scottish Pyrate came to Scarborough and took divers Ships committing likewise many Outrages and no Order being taken to repel them John Philpot set out a Fleet at his own Charge and encountring him in his own Person took Mercer and all his Ships and returning home instead of being rewarded for his Service he was questioned for presuming to fit out a Navy without Advice of the Kings Council While the King was in his Minority matters were carried indifferent well but in the year 1387 King Richard begins to enter as we
Then had ye wooden Churches nay wooden Chalices but Golden Priests but now you have Golden Chalices and Wooden Priests And to conclude this Argument King Edgar in his Charter to the Abby of Malmsbury dated the year of Christ 974 writes to this Effect All the Monasteries in my Realm to the outward sight are nothing but wormeaten and rotten Timber and Boards and which is worse within they are almost empty and void of Divine Worship Thus much as to Walls in General now to return to London This City was destroyed and burnt by the Danes and other Pagan Enemies about the year of our Lord 839 and was nobly rebuilt and repaired in the year 886 by Alfred King of the West Saxons so that it lay waste and uninhabited for almost fifty years Alfred committed the custody of this new built City to his Son in Law Etheldred Earl of Mercia to whom he had before married his Daughter Ethelsted And that this City was then strongly Walled may appear by divers Accidents William of Malmsbury writes that about the year 994 the Londoners shut up their Gates and defended their King Etheldred within their Walls against the Danes In the year 1016 Canutus the Dane made War against Edmond Ironside King of the West-Saxons and brought his Navy to the West part of the Bridge casting a Trench about the City of London and attempted to have won it by assault but the Citizens repulsed him and drove him from their Walls Likewise in the year 1052 Earl Godwin with his Navy Sailed up by the South end of the Bridge and assailed the Walls of this City William Fitz Stephen in the Reign of Henry 2. writes thus The Wall of London is High and Great well Towered on the North side with due distance between the Towers On the South side also the City was Walled and Towered but the Fishful River of Thames by his ebbing and flowing hath long since subverted them Where by the Northside he means from the River in the East to the River of Thames in the West for so the Wall stretched in his time and the City being far longer from East to West than in breadth from South to North and also narrower at both ends than in the midst is therefore compassed with the Wall on the Landside in the form of a Bow except where it is indented in betwixt Cripplegate and Aldersgate But the Wall on the Southside along the River of Thames was streight as the string of a Bow and fortified with Towers or Bulwarks as we now term them in due distance from each other as our Author says and we our selves may observe at this day this demonstrates that the Walls of this City are of great Antiquity Now for repairing and maintaining this Wall we find That in the year 1215 and the 6th of King John The Barons entring the City by Aldgate first took Assurance of the City and then broke into the Jews houses and seizing their Money and Goods for their own uses they with great diligence repaired the Walls and Gates of this City with Stones taken from the Jews broken Houses In the year 1257 Henry 3. ordered the Walls of this City which were much decayed and without Towers to be handsomely repaired and beautified at the common Charge of the City In the 17th of Edward 4. Ralph Joceline Mayor caused part of the Wall of the City of London to be repaired between Aldgate and Aldersgate He also caused Morefields to be searched for Clay to make brick for that purpose The Skinners made that part of the Wall between Aldgate and Buvies Marks commonly call'd Bevis Marks toward Bishopsgate as may appear by their Arms fixed in three places there The Lord Mayor and his Company of Drapers made all that part between Bishopsgate and Alhallows Church in the Wall and from Alhallows toward the Postern called Moregate A great part of the same Wall was repaired by the Executors of Sir John Crosby Alderman his Arms being in 2 places and other Companies repaired the rest of the Wall to Cripplegate the Goldsmiths repaired from Cripplegate to Aldersgate and there the work ceased The Circuit of the VVall of London on the Lands side that is from the Tower of London in the East to Aldgate is 82 Perches From Aldgate to Bishopsgate 86 Perchees From Bishopsgate to Cripplegate 162 Perches From Cripplegate to Aldersgate 75 Perches From Aldersgate to Newgate 66 Perches From Newgate to Ludgate 42 Perches in all 513 Perches of Assize From Ludgate to Fleet Ditch 60 Perches From Fleetbridge to the River of Thames about 70 Perches So that the total of these Perches amounteth to 643 and every Perch being 5 Yards and an half makes 3536 Yards and an half containing 10608 Foot which is two English Miles and 608 Foot more In former time there were but four Gates in the VVall of this City that is Aldgate for the East Aldersgate for the North Ludgate for the VVest and Bridgate over London Bridge for the South but of late days for the Conveniency of Passengers divers other Gates and Posterns have been made Fitz Stephen saith that in the Reign of Henry 2 there were seven Double Gates in the VVall of this City but names them not we may therefore suppose them to be 1. The Gate next the Tower of London called the Postern 2. Aldgate 3. Bishopsgate 4. Aldersgate 5. Newgate 6. Ludgate 7. Bridge-gate Since which there hath been built Moregate now a Famous Gate and several other smaller Posterns as one between Bishopsgate and Moregate and two between Moregate and Cripplegate besides other in other Places As to the first called the Postern near the Tower which was destroyed by the dreadful Fire in 1666 of which you have a particular Account in this Treatise and never since rebuilt or like to be by that which remained of it before it seemed to have been a fair strong Arched Gate built of hard Stone In the year 1190 and the 2. of Richard 1. William Longshamp Bishop of Ely Chancellor caused part of the City VVall from that Gate to the White Tower to be broken down for inlarging the Tower round which he made a VVall imbattelled which is now the outermost VVall He likewise made a broad deep Ditch without the VVall to let in the Tyde from the Thames But the Southside of this Gate was by undermining the Foundation much weakned and about two Hundred years after that is 1440 the 18 Hen. 6. it fell down and was never since rebuilt The next in the East is ALDGATE or Oldgate of the Antiquity thereof having been one of the four Principal Gates and also one of the seven Double Gates aforementioned It had two pair of Gates and Portcullises though now but one yet the hooks of the other Gate and the place of letting down the other Portcullice are yet to be seen This Gate appeareth to be very Ancient being named in a Charter in King Edgars time and likewise in K. Edward
remarkable John Day a famous Printer dwelt in this Gate and built many Houses upon the City wall toward St. Anns Church You may read more of the new building this Gate in Aldersgate Ward In the sixth year of Edw. 6. Three was a Postern Gate made through the City VVall on the Northside of the late dissolved Cloister of Friars Minors commonly called Gray Friars Now Christ Church and Hospital this was done to make a Passage from Christ Church Hospital to St. Bartholomews Hospital in Smithfield and License was given to Sir Richard Dobbs Lord Mayor to do it by Virtue of an Act of Common Council Aug. 1. in the 6 of Edw. 6. The next Gate is on the Northwest and is called NEWGATE and is the fifth Principal Gate though built later than the rest being erected about the Reign of Hen. 1. or K. Stephen upon this occasion The Cathedral of St. Pauls being burnt down in the Reign of William the Conquerour 1086. Mauritius then Bishop of London did not repair the Old Church as some have thought but laid the Foundation of a new one which it was judged would hardly ever have been finished it was so wonderful for length bredth and height and likewise because it was raised upon Vaults or Arches after the Norman fashion and never known in England before After Mauritius Richard Beumore did very much advance the building of this Church purchasing the large Streets and Lanes round about which ground he incompassed with a strong Stone VVall and Gates By reason of this inclosure for so large a Church-yard the High-street from Aldgate in the East to Ludgate in the West was made so streight and narrow that the Carriage through the City was by Paternoster-Row down Ave-Mary Lane and so through Bouger Row now called Ludgatestreet to Ludgate or else by Cheapside through Watlingstreet and so through Carter-lane and up Creed-lane to Ludgate which Passage by reason of the often turning was very Inconvenient VVhereupon a New Gate was made to pass through Cheapside North of St. Pauls St. Nicholas Shambles and Newgate-street to Newgate and from thence westward to Holbourn Bridge or Turning without the Gate to Smithfield and Islington or Iseldon or to any place North or VVest This Gate hath for many years been a Prison for Felons Murderers Highwaymen and other Trespassers as appeareth by the Records of King John and others and among the rest in the 3. of Hen. 3. 1218. That King writ to the Sheriffs of London commanding them to repair the Goal of Newgate for the safe keeping of his Prisoners promising that the Charges thereof should be allowed them upon their Account in the Exchequer In the year 1241. The Jews of Norwich were hanged being accused for Circumcising a Christian Child their House called the Thor was pulled down and destroyed Aaron the Son of Abraham a Jew and other Jews in London were constrained to pay twenty thousand Marks at two Terms in the year or else to be kept perpetual Prisoners in Newgate at London and in other Prisons In 1255 King Henry 3. lodged in the Tower and upon some displeasure against the City of London for the escape of John Offrem a Clerk Convict Prisoner in Newgate for killing a Prior who was Cousin to the Queen He sent for the Lord Mayor who laid the fault on the Sheriffs to whose Custody the Prisoners are committed the Mayor was discharged but the Sheriffs were imprisoned above a month though they alledged the fault was in the Bishops Officers who though he was imprisoned in Newgate yet they were to see that he was kept safe But however the King required three thousand Marks of the City for a Fine In the third year of Edw. 3. 1326. Robert Baldock the Kings Chancellor was put into Newgate In 1237 Sir John Pouitney gave four Marks a year for releif of the Prisoners in Newgate In 1358 William Walworth gave likewise toward their relief and so have many others since In 1414 the Jaylors in Ludgate and Newgate died and 64 Prisoners In 1418 the Parson of Wertham in Kent was Imprisoned in Newgate In the first of Henry 6 1412. The Executors of Richard Whittington repaired Newgate And Thomas Knowles Grocer sometimes L. Mayor brought the wast water from the Cestern near St. Nicholas Chappel by St. Bartholomews Hospital to Newgate and Ludgate for the Accommodation of the Prisoners In 1431 all the Prisoners in Ludgate were conveyed to Newgate by the Sheriffs of London And soon after they fetcht from thence 18 Persons Freemen of the City who were led pinioned to the Counters like Felons by the false suggestion of the Jaylor of Newgate But Ludgate was a while after again appointed for Freemen who were Debtors and they were all carried back again thither In 1427. There was a great Skirmish in the North Countrey between Sir Thomas Percie Lord Egremond and the Earl of Salisburies Sons whereby many were wounded and slain but the Lord Egremond being taken was found to give the occasion and was thereupon condemned by the Kings Council to pay a considerable Sum of Money to the Earl of Salisbury and in the mean time was committed to Newgate and a while after both he and his Brother Sir Richard Percie brake out by night and went to the King The other Prisoners got upon the Leads over the Gate and defended it against the Sheriffs and all their Officers a great while till they were forced to call more Citizens to their Aid who at last subdued them and laid them in Irons Thus much of Newgate LUDGATE is the next in the VVest and the Sixth Principal Gate of this City and Historians say was built by King Lud near 66 years before our Saviours Nativity which shews its great Antiquity This being built for the VVest as Aldgate for the East In the year 1215. aforementioned being the 17th of King John when the Barons who were in Arms against the King entred this City and pull'd down the Jews Houses repairing the VValls and Gates of the City with the Stones thereof It appeareth that they then repaired or rather new built this Gate For in 1586 when this Gate was pulled down in order to its being repaired there was a stone found within the wall which seems to have been taken from one of the Jews Houses there being several Hebrew Characters ingraven thereon which being interpreted are thus in English This is the Station or Ward of Rabbi Moses the Son of the Honourable Rabbi Isaac This it is thought had been fixed upon one of the Jews Houses as a sign he lived there In 1260 Ludgate was repaired and beautified with the Images of Lud and other Kings but in the Reign of Edw. 6. these Images of the Kings had their Heads smitten off and were defaced by such as judged every Image to be an Idol In the Reign of Q. Mary they were repaired and new heads set upon their old Bodies which remained so till the 28 of Q. Elizabeth 1586.
was furnished formerly with Towers and Bulwarks in due distance from each other and the River of Thames with its Ebbing and Flowing had overthrown the Walls and Towers on the Banks thereof whereupon William the Conquerour for the defence of the City which lay open to the Enemy having taken down the second Bulwark in the East part of the Wall toward the Thames built the Great White Tower which hath been since enlarged at several times with buildings adjoining thereto This Tower in the 4th of William Rufus 1092. was much shaken and defaced by a great Tempest of Wind but was again repaired by William Rufus and Henry the first who likewise built a Castle on the South-side thereof toward the Thames intrenching the same round about Historians say of this William Rufus That he challenged the Investiture of Prelates He pilled and shared the People with Tribute especially to spend about the Tower of London and the Great Hall at Westminster The four first Constables or Keepers of the Tower were Othowerus Acolinillus Otto and Jeffry Magnaville Earl of Essex who was also Sheriff of London Middlesex Essex and Hertfordshire He fortified the Tower of London against K. Stephen but the King seizing him at his Court at St. Albans would not discharge him till he had delivered it up together with the Castles of Walden and Plashey in Essex In 1153 the Tower of London and Castle of Windsor were delivered by the King to Richard de Lucie to be safely kept In 1155 Thomas Becket Chancellor to Hen. 2. caused the Flemings to be banished out of England their Castles lately built to be demolished and the Tower of London to be repaired In the 2. of Rich. first 1190. William Longshamp Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellor by reason of some difference between him and Earl John the Kings Brother who was in Rebellion inclosed the Tower and Castle of London with an outward Wall of Stone embatailed and likewise caused a deep ditch to be made about the same designing as is aforementioned to have invironed it with the River of Thames This inclosure and Ditch took away some ground from Trinity Church in London which King Edward recompenced And a great quantity of Ground likewise was taken from the City upon this Account yet the Citizens had no recompence nor were offended thereat since it was done with their liking as being for the defence of the City But another Historian saith that in 1239 Hen. 3. Fortified the Tower of London to another Purpose and the Citizens fearing it was intended to their detriment complained to the King who answered That he had not done it to their hurt but saith he I will do from henceforth as my Brother doth in building and fortifying Castles who beareth the name of being wiser than I. But the next year all these Noble Buildings of the Stone Gate and Bulwark were shaken as with an Earthquake and fell down which the King commanded to be again built better than before And in the year 1241. Though the King had bestowed above 12000 Marks in the work yet the Wall and Bulwarks irrecoverably fell down at which the Citizens were very well pleased for they were threatned that when this Wall and Bulwarks were built if any of them should contend for the Liberties of the City they should be Imprisoned therein Yet were they again rebuilt and finished by Edward the 1. and the Bulwark at the West-gate now called the Lyon Tower added the Original of which name and of Lyons in England we read was thus Henry the 1. built the Mannor of Woodflock and walled the Park about with stone seven Miles in compass destroying to that purpose divers Villages Churches and Chappels and this was the first Park in England and as the Record saith He appointed therein besides great store of Deer divers strange beasts to be kept and nourished such as were brought to him from far Countreys as Lyons Leopards Linxes Porpentines and such other for such was his Estimation among Outlandish Princes that few would willingly offend him In the year 1235 we read that Frederick the Emperour sent Henry 3. three Leopards in token of his Regal sheild of Arms wherein they were pictured since which time the Lyons and other Creatures have been kept in a part of this Bulwark now called the Lyons Tower In the 16 of Edward 3. One Lyon One Lyonefs One Leopard and two Cattes Lyons were committed to the custody of Robert Boure Edw. 4. Fortified the Tower of London and inclosed a peice of Ground West from the Lyon Tower upon Tower-bill with brick now called the Bulwark And in the 6th year of his Reign he ordered a Scaffold and Gallows to be set upon the Hill for the Execution of Offenders upon which the L. Mayor and Aldermen complained to the King but were answered That it was not done in Derogation of the Cities Liberties and caused Proclamation to be made thereof accordingly Richard the 3. and Henry the 8. repaired this Tower but in the 2. of Edward 6 1548. Nov. 22. A Frenchman lodging in the round Bulwark between the Westgate and the Postern by setting fire to a Barrel of Gunpowder in the night blew up that Bulwark yet burnt none but himself this Bulwark was soon rebuilt again This west Gate of the Tower is the Principal Gate for receiving and delivering all manner of Carriages and without it there are divers Bulwarks and Gates turning to the North within this Gate to the South is a strong Postern for Passengers by the VVard-house over a Drawbridge which is let down and pull'd up at pleasure Next to this on the South side East-ward is a large VVater-gate commonly called Traytors Gate because some have been carried in that way this Gate is partly under a strong Stone Bridge from the River of Thames Beyond which was a small Postern with a Drawbridge seldom let down but for receiving in some Great Persons Prisoners Further to the East was a Great and strong Gate called the Iron Gate but not usually opened And so much for the Foundation building and repairing of the Tower with the Gates and Posterns There are many Fair Houses within the walls of the Tower wherein the Officers belonging thereto and other Inhabitants live there is also a Chappel In the year 1196 William Fitz Ozbet a Citizen seditiously moving the People to stand up for their Liberties and not to be subject to the Rich and Mighty was taken and brought before the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Tower where he was condemned by the Judges and being drawn thence by the Heels to the Elms in East-Smithfield he was there hanged In 1214. King John writ to Jeffery Magnaville to deliver the Tower of London with the Prisoners Armour and all other things found therein belonging to the King to William Archdeacon of Huntington In the first of Henry 3. 1216. the Tower was delivered to Lewes of Franse and the Barons of England In 1206 Pleas of the
Crown were pleaded in the Tower and divers times afterward In 1222 the Citizens having made a Tumult against the Abbot of Westminster Hubbert of Burg Cheif Justice of England sent for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to the Tower of London to enquire who were Principal Authors thereof Amongst whom one named Constantine Fitz Aelufe boldly avowed That he was the man and had done much less than he thought to have done whereupon the Cheif Justice sent him with two others to Falks de Brent who with armed men brought them to the Gallows and hanged them In 1244 Griffith Prince of Wales being a Prisoner in the Tower attempted an escape and having in the night tyed the Sheets and hangings together he endeavoured thereby to slide from the top of the High Tower but being a Fat man the weight of his Body brake the Rope and he fell The next morning he was found dead his head and neck being driven into his Breast between the Shoulders In 1253 K. Hen. 3. imprisoned the Sheriffs of London in the Tower above a Month about the escape of a Prisoner out of Newgate as is aforementioned In 1260 this King with his Queen for fear of the Barons lodged in the Tower And the next year he sent for his Lords and held his Parliament there In 1263 As the Queen was going by water from the Tower toward Windsor several Citizens got together upon London Bridge under which she was to pass who not only used reproachful words against her but threw stones and dirt at her forcing her to go back again but in 1265. they were forced to submit themselves to the King for it and the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffs were sent to several Prisons Othon Constable of the Tower being made Custos or keeper of the City About this time Leoline Prince of Wales came down from the Mountain of Snowdon to Montgomery and was taken at Bluith Castle where using reproachful words against the English Roger le Strange fell upon him and with his own sword cut off his head leaving his dead body on the Ground Sir Roger Mortimer caused this Head to be set upon the Tower of London crowned with a wreath of Ivy And this was the end of Leoline who was betrayed by the Men of Bluith and was the last Prince of the Brittish bloud who Ruled in Wales In 1290 Several Judges as well of the Kings Bench as the Assize were sent Prisoners to the Tower and with great Sums of Money obtained their Liberty Sir Thomas Weyland had all his Estate confiscated and himself banished Sir Ralph Hengham Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench paid 7000 Marks Sir John Lovet Cheif Justice of the Lower Bench 3000 Marks Sir William Brompton 6000 Marks Yea their Clerks were fined also as being confederate with their Masters in Bribery and Injustice Robert Littlebury Clerk paid 1000 Marks and Roger Leicester as much But a certain Clerk of the Courts called Adam de Straton paid thirty two thousand Marks of Old and new Money besides Jewels without number and precious vessels of Silver which were found in his House together with a Kings Crown whiâ—h some said was King Johns After this the King constrained the Judges to swear That for the future they should take no Pension Fee or Gift of any man except a breakfast or some such small kindness In the 14 of Edw. 2. The King allowed to the Prisoners in the Tower two pence a day to a Knight and a peny a day to an Esquire for their Diet. In 1320. The Kings Justices sate in the Tower for Trial of divers matters at which time John Gissors late Lord Mayor of London and several others fled to the City for fear of being charged with things they had presumptuously done The next year the Mortimers yeilding themselves to King Edw. 2. he sent them Prisoners to the Tower where they were condemned to be drawn and hanged But Roger Mortimer of Wigmore by giving his Keepers sleepy drink made his escape but his Uncle Mortimer died there above 5 years afterward In 1326. The Citizens of London took possession of the Tower and taking away the keys from the Constable they discharged all the Prisoners and kept both the City and Tower for the use of Queen Isabel and her son Edward who was afterward Edw. the III. In 1330 Roger Mortimer Earl of March was taken and committed to the Tower from whence he was drawn to the Elmes and their hanged on the Common Gallows where he hung two days and two nights by the Kings Command and was then buried in the Gray Friers Church This Earl was condemned by his Peers and yet was never brought to make his Defence before them He himself having procured a Law to that purpose by which the Earls of Lancaster Winchester Glocester and Kent were put to death and now he himself suffered by the same Law In the 3. of Edw. 3. 1344. The King commanded Florences of Gold to be coyned in the Tower Perceval de Port of Lake being then Master of the Mint and this is the first coining we read of there we read likewise that the same year the King appointed his Exchange of Money to be kept in Sernes Tower being part of the Kings House in Buckles or Bucklers Bury And we find that in former times all great Sums were paid by weight that is so many pounds or Marks of Gold or Silver cut into blank peices without any stamp upon them and smaller Sums were paid in Starlings which were pence so called for they had no other Moneys This Starling or Easterling money took its name as it is judged from the Easterlings which first made it in England in the Reign of Hen. 2. though others imagine it so called from a Star stamped in the Ring or Edge of the Peny or of a Bird called a Starling stamped on it others yet more unlikely of being coyned at Striveling or Sterling a Town in Scotland but the first Opinion seems the most probable In 1360. A Peace being concluded between England and France Edward the 3d. came back into England and went to the Tower to visit the French King who was Prisoner there setting his Ransome at three Millions of Florences which being paid he was discharged from his Imprisonment and the King conducted him with Honour to the Seaside In the 4th of Rich. 2. 1381. A grievous Tax was laid upon the Subjects which caused much Trouble For the Courtiers greedy to inrich themselves informed the King that the Tax was not so carefully gathered as it ought And therefore they would pay a great Sum of Money to Farm it which they would raise above what it was before by being more severe in gathering it This Proposition was soon accepted so that having the Kings Authority and Letters these Farmers or Commissioners met in several Places in Kent and Essex where they levied this Tax of Groats or Polemoney with all manner of severity which so discontented the
People that they combined together and resisted the Collectors killing some wounding others and making the rest fly The Tumult began first in Kent upon this occasion as it is related in the Chronicles of St. Albans One of these Exactors coming to the House of John others say Wat Tyler living at Dartford in Kent demanded of Tylers Wife a Groat a piece for her Husband her self and Servants and likewise for a young Maiden her Daughter The woman paid for all but her daughter alleaging she was a Child and underage to pay That will I soon know quoth the Collector and shamefully turned the young Maids Coats up to see whether she were come to ripeness of Age these Villains having in divers other Places made the like base and uncivil Trials Hereupon the Mother crying out divers of the Neighbours came in and her Husband being at work in the Town tyling a house hearing of it taking his Lathing-staff in his hand ran home and finding the Collector asked him who made him so bold the Collector returned ill Language and struck at Tyler who avoiding the blow gave the Collector such a home-blow with his Lathing-staff that his Brains flew out of his head which made a great uproar in the Streets and the People being glad at what had happened they prepared to defend and stand by Tyler And thereupon a great number of them being got together they went from thence to Maidstone and then to Black-Heath perswading and Exhorting all the People as they marched along to join with them in this common Cause and setting Guards upon all the ways to Canterbury they stopped all Passengers compelling them to swear That they would keep Allegiance to King Richard and to the Commons That they would accept of no King whose name was John because of the hatred they had to John Duke of Lancaster who called himself King of Castile And that they should be ready when they were called and should agree to no Tax to be levied from thenceforth in the Kingdom nor consent to any except it were a Fifteenth There joyned with them one John Ball a factious Clergyman who took occasion to rip up the grounds of the Mis-government telling the People That this difference of Mens Estates where some were Potentates and others Bondmen was against Christian Liberty taking for his Text this old Rhyme When Adam Delv'd and Eve Span Who was then a Gentleman This so incensed the Commons that their Number daily increased so that when they were come as far as Blackheath they were esteemed to be an Hundred Thousand so that fearing no resistance they began to commit all manner of Violence sparing none whom they thought to be learned especially if they found a pen or Inkhorn about him for then they pull'd off his Hood and with one Voice cryed out Hale him out and cut off his head The King sent some Knights to them to know the cause of their Assembling To whom they answered That for certain Causes they were come together and desired to talk with the King and therefore willed the Knights to tell him That he must needs come to them that he might understand the desire of their Hearts The King was advised by some to go presently to them but Simon Sudbury Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Chancellor and Robert Hales of St. Johns Treasurer affirmed That it was not fit for the King to go to such a rude Company but rather to take Order to suppress them This the Commons hearing were so enraged that they swore They would go seek the Kings Traytors and cut off their beads And thereupon they marched into Southwark and ruined the Archbishops Palace at Lambeth out of spight to him The Lord Mayor and Aldermen fearing they would do the like to the City ordered the Gates to be shut but the Commoners of the City especially the Poorer sort favouring the Commoners of the Countrey threatned death to all that should attempt it So that the Rebels had free Egress and Regress in and out of London and dayly incouraged the Citizens to favour their Cause declaring Their Purpose was only to bring the Traytors of the Land to Justice and then they would lay down their Arms And hereby they won them to stand by them The first thing they did when they came to London was to send for one Richard Lyon a Grave Citizen who had been Tylers Master and having struck off his head they carried it upon a Pole in Triumph before them The next day they came to the Savoy the Duke of Lancasters House which they set on fire burning all his rich Furniture breaking in peices all his Plate and Jewels and throwing them into the Thames saying They were men of Justice and would not like Robbers inrich themselves with any mans Goods for they only were for destroying Traytors And when one of their Fellows was espied to thrust a fair piece of Silver into his bosom they took him and cast both him and it into the Fire neither took they any thing from any man but at the just price Two and thirty of them were got into the Dukes Wine-cellar where they stayed drinking so long till the Rafters of the House which was on Fire fell upon them and so covered them that not able to get out they were heard cry seven days after and then perished From the Savoy they went to the Temple where they burnt the Lawyers Chambers with their Books and Writings and all they could lay hands on Also the Noble House of St. Johns by Smithfield they set on Fire which burnt for seven days together not suffering any to quench it And likewise the Mannor of Highbury and other Places belonging to St. Johns After this they came to the Tower where King Richard lodged and sent to command him To come to them without delay unarmed and without any Guard which if he refused they would pull down the Tower and be should not escape alive The King finding no other Remedy though he had 600 Armed Men and as many Archers about him yet durst not but suffer them to enter so that in great fear the King went toward them on Horseback his own Guards standing as men amazed Being come into the Tower these Rusticks presumed to enter into the King and his Mothers Chambers with their Weapons and laid themselves on the Kings bed sporting and playing thereon yea they abused the Kings Mother offering to kiss her in such a rude manner that she fell into a Swound They then proceeded with Rage and Fury to search for the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and finding one of his Servants charged him to bring them to the Traytor his Master the Servant being afraid brought them to the Chappel where his Master was at Prayers who being aware of their coming had continued there all night and when he heard they were come he said with great constancy to his Servants Let us now go surely it is best to dye when it is no pleasure to live Upon
which the Rabble cryed Where is the Traytor who answered I am the Archbishop whom you seek not a Traytor Whereupon they dragged him out of the Chappel to Tower-hill where being incompassed with many Thousands and seeing many drawn swords about his head he said What is it dear Brethren you purpose to do what is mine offence committed against you for which you will kill me you were best take heed that if I be killed who am your Pastor there come not on you the Indignation of the just Revenger or at least for such a fact all England be not put under Interdiction or the Popes Curse But they cried out with a great noise That they did not fear the Interdiction neither did allow the Pope to be above them The Archbishop seeing death at hand spoke them fairly and granting forgiveness to the Executioner he kneeled down and offered his Head to be cut off The Hangman struck him on the neck but not deadly he putting up his hand said Aha it is the hand of God and being struck again before he removed his hand his fingers ends were cut off and part of the Arteries with which he fell down but died not till they had mangled him with eight several strokes in the Neck and Head His body lay two days unburied none daring to do it His Head they cut off and nailing his hood thereon fixt it upon a Pole on London Bridge This Simon Sudbury was eighteen years Bishop of London and being translated to Canterbury he in 1375. repaired the Walls of London from the West-gate which he built to the North-gate which had been destroyed by the Danes before the Conquest of William the Bastard He was at last buried in the Cathedral at Canterbury Sir Robert Hales Lord Treasurer of England suffered with him at the same time a most Valiant Knight and Lord of St. Johns together with John Leg one of the Serjeants at Arms and William Apledore a Franciscan Friar who was the Kings Confessor Many more were beheaded daily for no cause but the pleasure of the Commons for it was pastime to them to take any who were not sworn of their Party and pulling off their Hoods behead them They took 13 Flemings out of the Augustine Friers 17 out of another Church and 32 in the Vintry and beheaded them all And to make a distinction of Flemings they put them to pronounce Bread and Cheese and if they spake it like Brot and Cawse off went their Heads as a sure sign that they were Flemings The King coming according as he was required to Mile-end was much astonished at the madness of the People who with frowning Countenances made the following demands which they presented in writing â—nd would have them confirmed by the Kings Letters Patents 1. That all men should be free from Servitude or Bondage so that from thenceforth there should be no Bondmen 2. That he should Pardon all men of what Estate soever all manner of Actions and Insurrections committed and all Treasons Felonies Transgressions and Extortions by any of them done and to grant them Peace 3. That all men henceforth might be infranchised or made free to buy and sell in every County City Burrough Town Fair Market and other Places within the Realm of England 4. That no Acre of Land holden in Bondage or Service should be holden but for four pence and if it had been held for less in former time it should not now be inhanced These and many other things they required telling the King That he had been ill Governed to that day but for the time forward he must be otherwise governed The King finding himself in danger yeilded hereunto and so desiring a Truce the Essex men returned home Next day the King went to Westminster to visit St. Edwards Shrine and coming back by Westsmithfield he found the place full of Kentishmen to whom he sent word That their Fellows the Essex men were gone home and that if they desired it he would grant them the same Conditions of Peace But their Chief Captain named John or as others say Walter Hilliard alias Tyler being a cunning Fellow answered He desired Peace but upon his own Conditions intending by fair words to have delayed the business till the next day for he designed that Night to have killed the King and the Nobility about him and then to have pâ—â—ndred the City and burnt it But he was wonderfully disappointed in his Pride having refused Conditions of Peace which were sent him in three several Charters three times Upon which the King at last sent Sir John Newton not to Command but to Intreat him to come and discourse with him concerning what he demanded among which one particular was That Wat Tyler desired a Commission to behead all Lawyers Escheators and others whatsoever that were learned in the Law conceiving that afterward all would be managed according to the Humour of the Common People And it is reported that the day before putting his hand to his Lips he had said That before four days came to an end all the Laws of England should proceed from his mouth When Sir John Newton desired Tyler to dispatch him he scornfully answered If thou art so hasty thou mayst go to thy Master for I will come when I please However Sir John Newton followed him slowly on Horseback and by the way a Doublet-maker brought threescore Doublets to the Commons and demanded thirty Marks for them but could have no Money Upon which Wat Tyler told him Friend be quiet thou shalt be well paid before this day be ended keep nigh me and I will be thy Creditor Wat Tyler then set Spurs to his Horse and rid up toward the King coming so near that his Horse touched the Crouper of the Kings to whom he said Sir King seest thou all yonder People Yes truly said the King but why dost thou ask Because said Tyâ—er they are all at my Command and have sworn their Truth and Faith to me to do whatever I bid them In good time replyed the King I believe it well Then said Tyler Believest thou King that these People and as many more that are in London will depart from thee thus without having thy Letters No said the King you shall have them they are ready and shall be delivered to them all Wat Tyler observing Sir John Newton to be near him bearing the Kings Sword was offended saying Thâ— it became him better to be afoot in his presence Thâ— Knight answered stoutly That surely there was no haâ—â— in it since he himself was on Horseback This so iâ— raged Wat that he drew his Dagger and offered 〈◊〉 strike the Knight calling him Traytor Sir John toâ—â— him he lied and drew his Dagger likewise Wat Tylâ— seeming much disturbed at this Indignity attempteâ— before his Rustick Companions to have run upon thâ— Knight whom the King to preserve from the dangeâ— commanded to alight from his Horse and deliver hiâ— Dagger to Wat Tyler But his
haughty mind would no be so pacified for he demanded his Sword also 〈◊〉 which Sir John Newton answered It is the Kings Sword and thou art not worthy to have it neither durst thou 〈◊〉 it of me if there were no more here but thou and I. 〈◊〉 my Faith said Wat Tyler I will never eat till I haâ— thy Head and would thereupon have fallen upoâ— him But at that very Instant William Walworth Loâ—â— Mayor of London a stout Couragious Person accoâ—â— panied with divers Knights and Esquires came 〈◊〉 assist the King to whom he said My Leige it were great shame and such as had never before been heard 〈◊〉 if in such a presence they should permit a Noble Knight 〈◊〉 be shamefully Murdered and that before the face of thâ—â— Severaign therefore he ought to be rescued and Tyler tâ— Rebel to be Arrested The Lord Mayor had no sooner spoke thus but thâ— King though he were very young yet began to takâ— Courage and commanded him to lay hands upon him Walworth being a man of an incomparable Spirit anâ— Courage immediately arrested Tyler with his Mac upon his Head and that in such a manner as he seâ— down at the feet of his Horse and those who attended the King presently encompassed him round thâ— his Companions could not see him and John Caveâ— dish an Esquire of the Kings alighting from his Horse rust his Sword into Tylers Belly Although some â—ite that the Lord Mayor did it with his Dagger many â—hers followed and wounded him in divers places to â—ath and then they drew his body from among the â—ople into St. Bartholomews Hospital The Commons perceiving their Captain to be slain â—yed out Their Captain was Traiterously murdered â—d incouraged one another to fight and revenge his â—eath and bent their Bows Upon which the King 〈◊〉 to them and said What work is this my Men what 〈◊〉 you mean to do Will you shoot at your King Be not â—â—tinous nor concerned for the death of a Traytor and Riâ—ld I am your King I will be your Captain and Leaâ—r follow me into the Field and there you shall have â—hatsoever you desire This the King said for fear in â—eir fury they should fire the Houses in Smithfield â—here there Captain was slain They thereupon followed him intothe open Feild though the Souldiers â—â—at were with him were uncertain whether they â—ould kill the King or whether they would be â—iet and depart peaceably home with the Kings â—harter In the mean time William Walworth the ever reâ—owned Lord Mayor to prosecute his first worthy â—ct which had succeeded so happily went only with â—â—e man with all speed into the City and there beâ—â—n to cry out You good Citizens come to help your â—ing who is in danger to be murdered and succour me â—ur Mayor who am in the same danger or if you will not â—â—lp me yet leave not the King destitute The Citizens who had a great Esteem and Affection or the King no sooner heard this but with a Noble â—nd Loyal forwardness they immediately raised a thouâ—nd Men who being compleatly armed stayed in â—â—e streets for some Commander who with the Lord â—ayor might lead them to the Assistance of the King 〈◊〉 this his great distress when by good chance Sir Robert Knowls a Freeman of the City came at that instant whom they all desired to be their Leader which he willingly accepted and so with the Lord Mayor and some other Knights they were led to the King who with all his Company rejoyced very much at this unexpected Assistance from these brave armed Citizens who all on a sudden incompassed the whole Body of the Commons And here in an instant was a very strange and Remarkable Alteration for the Commons presently threw down their Arms and falling on their knees begg'd Pardon and they who just before boasted that they had the Kings Life in their power were now glad to hide themselves in Caves Ditches and Corn-fields The Knights being desirous of revenge intreated the King that they might be permitted to take off the heads of an hundred or two of them but the King would not grant it but commanded the Charter which they demanded written and sealed to be delivered to them at that time for preventing further mischief as doubting if they were not satisfied the Commons of Essex and Kent might rise again Having got their Charter they departed home The Commons being thus dispersed and gone the King called for the worthy Lord Mayor and with great Honour deservedly Knighted him in the Field and gave him a hundred pound a year in Fee he also Knighted five Aldermen his Brethren girding them about the waste with the Girdle of Knighthood as the manner was in those days but Stow saith it was thus To cause the Person to put a Basenet on his Head and then the King with a Sword in both his Hands to strike him strongly on the Neck And for an Eternal Remembrance of this happy day the King for the Honour of the City granted that a Dagger should be added to the Arms of the City in the right Quarter of the Shield they before this time bearing only a Cross without the Dagger After this the King marched into the City with great Joy and went to His Mother who lodged in the Tower Royal called then the Queens Wardrobe where she had continued two days and nights in great fear and trouble But when she saw the King she was extreamly comforted saying Ah fair Son what great sorrow have I suffered for you this day To whom the King answered Certainly Madam I know it well but now rejoyce and thank God for I have this day recovered mine Inheritance and the Realm of England which I had almost lost Then the Arch-Bishops Head was taken off London Bridge and Wat Tylers set up in the Place Now since some Writers have reported that the Rebel so Valiantly struck down by Sir William Walworth was named Jack Straw and not Wat Tyler it may be necessary to give an Account of the Principal Leaders and Captains of the Commons of whom Wat Tyler was the Cheif as being the first man who judged himself offended there were likewise Jack Straw John Kirkby Allen Thredder Thomas Scot and Ralph Rugg these and divers others were Commanders of the Kentish and Essex men And at the same time there were gathered together to the number of fifty thousand in Suffolk by the incitement of John Wraw a lewd Priest who made one Robert Westbrome take upon him the name of King these fell to destroying Houses but especially those of Lawyers and seizing Sir John Cavendish Lord Cheif Justice of England they beheaded him and set his Head upon the Pillory in St. Edmundsbury The like Commotion of the Commons was at the same time also in Cambridgshire the Isle of Ely and Norfolk conducted by John Litester a Dyer and to countenance their proceedings the more they designed to have brought William Ufford Earl
of Suffolk into their Fellowship but he having notice of their intent suddenly rose from supper and got away Yet they compelled many other Lords and Knights to be sworn to them and to ride with them as the Lord Scales the Lord Morley Sir John Brewis Sir Stephen Hales and Sir Robert Salle the last of whom not enduring their Insolencies had his Brains dashed out by a Countrey-man that was his Bondman The rest terrified by his Example were glad to carry themselves submissively to their Commander John Littester who named himself King of the Commons and counted it a Preferment for any to serve him at his Table in taking Assay of his Meats and Drinks with kneeling humbly before him as he sate at Meat And now these Fellows upon Consultation send two Choice Men namely the Lord Morley and Sir John Brewis with three of their Chief Commons to the King for their Charter of Manumission and freedom from Bondage who being on their way they were met near Newmarket by Henry Spenser Bishop of Norwich who examining if there were any of the Rebels in their Company and finding three of the Chief present he instantly caused their Heads to be struck off and then pursued on toward Northwalsham in Norfolk where the Commons stayed for an Answer from the King and though he had at first but eight Lances and a small number of Archers in his Company yet they so increased as to become a compleat Army with which he set upon the Rebels and routed them taking John Littester and other Principal Ringleaders whom he caused all to be Executed and by this means the Countrey was quieted After this the Lord Mayor of London sate in Judgment upon Offenders where many were found guilty and lost their Heads among others Jack Straw John Kirkby Alane Tredder and John Sterling who gloried that he was the man who had slain the Archbishop Sir Robert Tresilian Chief Justice was likewise appointed to sit in Judgment against the Offenders beforâ— whom above fifteen hundred were found guilty anâ— in divers places put to death and among them John Ball their Priest and Incendiary of whom it is not impertinent to relate a Letter he wrote to his Fellow Rebels in Essex by which we may see how fit an Orator he was for such an Auditory and what strength of perswasion there was in Nonsense John Sheep St. Mary Priest of York and now of Colchester greeteth well John Nameless and John the Miller and John Carter and biddeth them that they beware of Guile in Burrough stand together in Gods name and biddeth Peirce Plowman go to his work and chastize well Hob the Robber and take with you John Trueman and all his Fellows and no moe John the Miller ye ground small small small The Kings Son of Heaven shall pay for all Beware or ye be woe know your Friend from your Foe Have enough and say Hoe and do well and better Elee Sin and seek Peace and hold you therein and so biddeth John Trueman and all his Fellows Neither may it be amiss to declare the Confession of Jack Straw at his Execution The Lord Mayor being present spake thus to him John Behold thy death is at hand without remedy and there is no way left for thy escape therefore for thy Souls health without making any lye tell us what your Intentions were and to what end you Assembled the Commons After some pause John seeming doubtful what to say the Lord Mayor added Surely John thou knowest that if thou perform what I require of thee it will redound to thy Souls Health Being hereupon incouraged he made his Confession to this purpose It is now to no purpose to lye neither is it lawful to utter any untruth especially knowing that my Soul must suffer more bitter Torments if I do so And because I hope for two advantage by speaking Truth First that what I shall say may profit the Common-wealth and Secondly That after my death I trust by your Suffrages to be helped and succoured according to your promises by your Prayers I will therefore speak Faithfully and without deceit At the same time when we were Assembled upon Black-Heath and had sent to the King to come to us our purpose was to have slain all such Knights Esquires and Gentlemen as attended him And for the King we would have kept him amongst us that the People might have more boldly repaired to us since they would have thought that whatever we did was by his Authority Finally when we had got strength enough so as not to fear any attempt made against us we would have slain all such Noblemen as should either have given Counsel or made Resistance against us but especially we would have slain all the Knights of the Rhodes or St. John of Jerusalem and lastly we would have killed the King himself and all men of Estates with Bishops Monks Canons and Parsons of Churches Only we would have saved Friers Mendicants for Ministring the Sacraments to us When we had been rid of all these we would have devised Laws according to which the Subjects of this Realm should have lived For we would have created Kings as Wat Tyler in Kent and others in other Countreys But because this our purpose was disappointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury who would not permit the King to come to us we sought by all means to dispatch him out of the way as at length we did And further the same Evening that Wat Tyler was killed we were resolved having the greatest part of the Commons of the City inclined to join with us to have set Fire in four corners of the City and so to have devided among our selves the Spoil of the chiefest Riches that could have been found And this said he was our purpose as God may help me now at my last end After this Confession he was beheaded and his head was set on London Bridge by Wat Tylers And thus by the happy and prosperous success at London this dangerous Rebellion was fully quieted In 1392. and the Fifteenth of Richard II. there happened some difference between that King and the Londoners One occasion was that the King would have borrowed of them a thousand pound but they feeling much and fearing more the Kings daily Exactions not only refused it but abused a certain Italian Merchant who would have laid down the Money Another occasion was That one of the Bishop of Salisburies Servants named Walter Roman taking an House Loaf out of a Bakers basket in the Streets ran with it into the Bishops House The Citizens demanded the delivery of the Offender but the Bishops men shut the Gates and would not suffer the Constable to enter upon which many people got together threatning to break open the Gates and Fire the House unless Roman were brought forth What said they are the Bishops men Priviledged or is his house a Sanctuary or will he protect those whom he ought to punish if we may be abused
the Lords as believing them to be Loyal and true to the King that it was not in their power to raise any great force against them They were then commanded to take care That no Knights nor Burgesses should afterward he chosen to any Parliament but those whom the King and his Council should name They replyed It was a hard matter in those times of Jealousy and suspition to deprive the People of their Ancient Liberties in choosing their Representatives after which they were dismissed And some of the Judges of the Realm being called that is Robert Tresillian Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Benâ—â— Robert Belknap Chief Justice of the Common-pleas John Holt Roger Fulthorpe and William Borough Knights and Judges men learned chiefly in one point that is without considering Truth or Falshood to please those in high Place These were charged upon their Allegiance to give True and full Answers to the following Questions I. Whether the Statute and Commission in the last Parliament that is against Michael de la Pool were against the Kings Prerogative or not To which they all answered It was II. How they were to be punished who procured that Statute c. or who moved or compelled the King to consent thereunto They Unanimously answered They ought to be put to death as Traytors unless the King would please to pardon them III. When a Parliament is Assembled and the Cause of their Meeting declared and common Articles limited by the King upon which the Lords and Commons in that Parliament should proceed if the Lords and Commons will go upon other Articles and not these appointed by the King till the King hath first answered their desires though injoyned by the King to the contrary whether the King in this Case ought not to command the Parliament and oblige them to do his pleasure before they proceed further They answered That in this Case the King should over-rule and if any presumed to do contrary he was to be punished as a Traytor IV. Whether the King may at his pleasure dissolve the Parliament and Command the Lords and Commons to depart They answered That the King at his Pleasure may dissolve the Parliament and whoever shall after proceed against the Kings Mind as in a Parliament he is worthy to be punished as a Traytor V. Since the King may at his pleasure remove any of his Officers and Justices and punish them for their Offences whether may the Lords and Commons without the Kings Will accuse them in Parliament They replied They cannot and whosoever doth the contrary deserveth to be punished as a Traytor VI. What punishment they deserve who moved in Parliament that the Statute whereby K. Edward of Carnarvan was deposed in Parliament should be produced whereby a new Statute should be made It was answered That as well he that moved it as he that brought the Statute into the House were to be punished as Traytors Lastly Whether the Judgment given in Parliament against Michael de la Pool were erroneous and revocable They answered It was Erroneous and Revocable and that if the Judgment were now to be given the Justices would not give the same At this time the Londoners incurred much obloquy for having before been pardoned by the King of some Crimes lay'd to their Charge they were now ready to comply with his desires and a Jury of them being Impanneled they indicted some Lords of many crimes laid to their Charge And now the King and the Duke of Ireland sent into all parts of the Realm to raise men in this Quarrel against the Lords And required the Mayor of London to give an Account how many able men he could raise in the City who answered That he thought they could make fifty Thousand men at an hours warning Well said the King go and try what may be done But when the Mayor went about it the Citizens answered That they would never fight against the Kings Friends and the Defenders of the Realm About this time the King intended to have apprehended the Duke of Glocester but he made his escape and with other Lords had got together a great power of men at Harringey Park Upon which the King commanded that no Citizen of London should sell to the D. of Glocester the E. of Arundel or any of the Lords any Armour or Furniture of War under a great penalty After this the King is perswaded to send to the Lords to come to him to Westminster upon Oath given by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the Chancellor that no fraud nor evil practice should be used against them which the Lords were content to do but when they were ready to come they understood there was an Ambush laid to intrap them of a Thousand men in the Mews which the King absolutely denied he had any knowledge of yet the Lords after this receiving a safe Conduct from the King came to Westminster of whose coming when the King heard he apparelled himself in his Royal Robes and with his Scepter in his hand came into the Great Hall before whom the Lords upon their Knees presented themselves the King bidding them welcome and taking each of them by the hand Then the Lord Chancellor made a Speech wherein he blamed them for raising Arms desiring to know the Cause who answered They had done it for the good of the Kingdom and to remove the Traytors about the King Upon which the King himself spoke and asked them whether they thought to compel him by strong hand Have not I saith he sufficient power to beat you down truly in this behalf I make no more account of you than of the basest Skullion in my Kitchen Yet after these great words he lift up the Duke of Glocester who all this while was kneeling and commanded the rest also to rise and then led them Courteously to his Chamber where they sate and drank together and at last it was concluded they should all meet again as well these Lords as those they accused at the next Parliament which the King promised he would speedily call and each party to receive there according to Justice and in the mean while all Parties should be under the Kings Protection But when the Favourite Lords heard this they told the King plainly they neither durst nor would put themselves to the hazard of such a Meeting and therefore the Duke of Ireland and the rest of that Faction left the Court to be out of the way but the King not enduring their absence appointed Thomas Molineux Constable of the Castle of Chester to raise an Army and to safe conduct the Duke of Ireland to his presence But they being come as far as Radcoat Bridge were encountred by the Earl of Derby and the Duke of Ireland not daring to joyn battel with him fled and being to pass a River cast away his Gauntlets and sword to be more nimble and spurring his Horse lept into the River and so escaped though it was reported he was drowned till
Parliament called wherein Justice might be done and himself pardoned all Offences he would be ready to come to him on his knees and as an humble Subject to obey him Yet upon this Conference with the Earl some say the King required only that himself and eight more whom he would name might have honourable allowance with assurance of a private quiet Life and that then he would resign his Crown and that upon the Earls Oath that this should be performed the King agreed to go with the Earl to meet the Duke but after four miles riding coming to the place where they had laid an Ambush the King was seized and carried Prisoner to Flint Castle where the Duke of Lancaster came to him and bowing the knee thrice came toward him whom the King took by the hand and lifted up saying Dear Cousin you are welcome the Duke humbly thanking him said My Soveraign Lord and King the Cause of my coming at this present is your honour saved to have restitution of my Person my Lands and Heritage whereto the King answered Dear Cousin I am ready to accomplish your Will so that you enjoy all that is yours without exception After this coming out of the Castle the King called for Wine and then mounted on Horseback and by easie Journeys came to London and the next day he was committed to the Tower As the King was carried toward London divers Citizens conspired to lye in wait by the way and suddenly slay him partly for private Grievances and partly for the Severity he had used toward the whole City But the Maior having notice thereof prevented it and rid forth with a Considerable Company to conduct him safely to the Tower and soon after a Parliament was called by the Duke of Lancaster but in the name of King Richard where many heinous points of Misgovernment were laid to his Charge and were drawn up into three and thirty Articles the Cheif whereof were Thâ—t be had wastefully spent the Treasure of the Realm upon unworthy Persons whereby great Taxes were laid upon the People That he had borrowed great sums of Money and given his Letters Patents to repay the same and yet not one peny ever paid That he had taxed men at the pleasure of himself and his unhappy Council and had spent the money in folly and not in paying poor men for their victual and viand That he said the Laws of the Realm were in his Head and Breast by reason of which phantastical Opinion he destroyed Noblemen and Impoverished the Commons That he most Tyranously and unprincely said that the Lives and Goods of all his Subjects were in his hands and at his disposition That when divers Lords as well spiritual as Temporal were appointed by Parliament to Treat of matters concerning the good of the Kingdom while they are busie therein he and others of his Party went about to impeach them of Treason and that the King caused all the Rolls and Records to be kept from them contrary to his promise made in Parliament and to his open dishonour That he had private Spies in every place and if any discoursed of his Lascivious living or his Illegal Actings he presently apprehended them and grievously fined them That he changed Knights and Burgesses of Parliament at his Pleasure putting out divers Persons and placing others in their Room to serve his Will and Appetite That when divers Lords and Justices were sworn to speak the truth in many things which concerned the honour and profit of the Realm the King so threatned them that they durst not speak what was right That by force and threats he compelled the Judges of the Realm to condescend to him for destruction of divers of the Lords That he caused his Fathers own Brother the Duke of Glocester without Law to be Attached and sent to Callice and there without Cause to be secretly Murdered That contrary to the Great Charter of England he caused several lusty young men to Challenge divers old men upon matters determinable at Common Law in the Court Martial where Tryal is only by battel which old men fearing submitted themselves to his mercy whom he fined unreasonably at his pleasure That in all his Leagues with Forreign Princes his way of Writing was so subtill and dark that no other Prince nor his own Subjects could beleive or trust him That he craftily devised certain private Oaths contrary to Law causing several to swear the same to the utter undoing of many honest men That he assembled certain Lancashire and Cheshire-men to make War upon the Lords and suffered them to rob and spoil without prohibition That notwithstanding his pardon granted them he inforced divers of those who joined with the Lords to be again Intollerably fined to their utter undoing Upon these and some other Articles which were read it was demanded of the Nobility and the Commons what they judged both of the Truth and desert of these Articles who all agreed that the Crimes were Notorious and King Richard was worthy for the same to be deposed from all Princely Honour and Kingly Government The Duke of York who a little before had been Governour of the Realm for the King and directed him much thought it best that King Richard should both Voluntarily Resign and also be Solemnly deposed by consent of all the States of the Realm for Resignation only would be imputed to fear and deprivation to force and therefore this being concluded on there came Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury the Archbishop of York the Bishop of Hereford the Duke of Lancaster and several other Lords and Abbots to King Richard in the Tower of London When all were set in their places King Richard was brought forth apparelled in his Royal Robes the Crown on his head and the Scepter in his hand and was placed among them in a Chair of State Never was Prince so Gorgeous with less Glory and greater Grief to whom it was not disgrace sufficient to lose both the honour and Ornaments of a King but he must openly do even in great scorn renounce the one and deliver up the other After a little Pause and expectation the King rose from his Seat and spake to the Assembly these words or to this effect I assure my self that some at this present and many hereafter will account my Case lamentable either that I have deserved this Dejection if it be just or if it be wrongful that I could not avoid it Indeed I do confess that many times I have shewed my self both less Provident and less painful for the benefit of the Commonwealth than I should or might or intended to do hereafter and have in my Actions more respected the satisfying of my own particular humour than either Justice to some private persons or the Common Good of all yet I did not at any time omit duty or Commit Grievance upon natural dulness or set malice but partly by abuse of Corrupt Councellors partly by Error of my Youthful Judgment
give it him but that not sufficing he pulled out an handfull of Angels and gave him a good many a Knight that was in his Company telling him that he was glad to see him have so many Angels Yes answered he I love to carry my Friends always about me Not long after the Lady Jane was beheaded there and upon the Scaffold she made a most ingenious Speech full of Pity That she came thither to serve for an Example to Posterity that Innocence cannot be any Protection against Greatness and that she was come thither not for aspiring to a Crown but for refusing one when it was offered her In King James his time there was no Blood spilt in the Tower or upon Towerhill only Sir Gervase Elways was hanged there when he was Lieutenant about the Murder of Sir Thomas Overbury and one remarkable passage there was in his Speech upon the Ladder That being in the Low-Countreys and much addicted to Gaming he made a serious wish that if ever he played more above such a sum he might be hanged but he Violated the Oath and so the just Judgment of Heaven fell upon him according to his words The Earl of Castle haven in the year 1631 was brought from the Tower to be Executed for Horrid Crimes and divers others since have been Executed there as the Earl of Strafford Arch-Bishop Laud and many more This stately Tower serves not only for a Goal to detain Prisoners but for many other uses it is a strong Fort or Citadel which secures both City and River It is the Treasury of the Jewels and Ornaments of the Crown It conserves all the Old Records of the Courts of Justice at Westminster it is the place for the Royal Mint and the Coynage of Gold and Silver it is the chief Magazine and Armory of the whole Land for Martial Engines and Provision and there only is the Brahe or Rack usually called the Duke of Exeters Daughter because he was the first Inventor of it and Lastly it is a great Ornament by the situation of it both to the River and City This City hath had divers other Towns besides one at the North End of London-Bridge which is now utterly demolished and the other at the South End which hath suffered many Accidents of Fireing and otherwise and was still repaired at the charge of the City Upon this Gate the Heads of Traytors are commonly placed and some there are thereon at this day Historians mention two Castles that were built in the West part of the City one called the Castle of Montfiquet built by a Lord of that name which is now demolished and the Black Fryers rose up instead of it the other called Baynards Castle from one Baynard whose Family long enjoyed it and after that Robert Fitz-Walter who was called Banner Bearer of the City of London and had great Priviledges This Castle fell afterwards to the Earl of March who was Crowned there by the Title of Edward the Fourth to whom this City always stuck very close but in the Seventh Year of his Reign many of the greatest men in London were accused of High Treason and divers Aldermen whereof they were acquitted yet did they forfeit their Goods to the value of Forty Thousand Marks and among them Sr. Thomas Cook formerly Lord Mayor without Hawkins were committed to the Tower neither could be discharged without paying Eight Thousand Marks to the King Henry the Seventh repaired Baynards Castle and rid through the City in State with all the Knights of the Garter from the Tower to St. Paul's Church where they heard Mass and Lodged that Night at Baynards Castle Queen Mary was likewise proclaimed at Baynards Castle though the Lady Jane had been proclaimed a little before There was also another Tower or Castle near Baynards Castle but there is now no sign of it remaining And another in the place where Bridewell now stands which being demolished yet there was a Royal Palace left where the Kings of England kept their Courts and King John summoned a Parliament there and afterwards Henry the Eight repaired it and made it much more stately for the entertainment of his Nephew Charles the Fift Emperour and King of Spain who in the year 1522 was Magnificently Treated there There was another Tower called the Tower Royal where King Stephen kept his Court Barbican was likewise another Tower There was another called Sernes Tower in Bucklersbury where we read Edward the III. kept his Court and gave it afterward to his free Chappel of St. Stephens in Westminster now called Henry the sevenths Chappel who spent fourteen thousand pound in building of it and about the same time he built a Great Ship which cost just so much Thus much for the Towers and Castles of London CHAP. IV. The Rivers Wells Conduits Ditches and Bridges c. in and about this City IN former times before William the Conquerour and long after the City was watered besides the famous River of Thames in the South with the River of Wells as it was then called and in the West with a water called Walbrook running through the midst of the City into the River of Thames There was also another Water which ran within the City through Langbourn Ward watering that part in the East There were three Principal Fountains or Wells in the other Suburbs that is Holywell Clements Well and Clarkes Well and near to the last were divers other Wells as Skinners Well Fogs Well Todewell and Radwell all which flowing into the River afore-mentioned much increased the stream and gave it the name of Wells It is recorded that in West-Smithfield there was a Pool called Horse-pool and another in the Parish of St. Giles Besides which they had in divers streets and Lanes of the City fair Wells and fresh Springs by which the City was served with sweet Water and many Conduits were built in divers Streets which continued till the dreadful Fire in 1666. Since which time for the Conveniency and enlargement of the Streets and likewise by reason of the new River Water contrived by Sir Hugh Middleton most of these Conduits are taken down and removed For Queen Elizabeth having before granted to the Citizens of London by Act of Parliament Liberty for cutting and conveying a River from any part of Middlesex or Hertfordshire to the City of London with a limitation of Ten years time her life ended before any would undertake it whereupon the like Act was passed by King James but without Date of time and when all others refused it Sir Hugh Middleton undertook to bring a River from Chadwell and Amwell to the Northside of London near Islington where he built a large Cistern to receive it This work was begun Feb. 20. 1608 and in the five years space was fully accomplished though with great difficulty by reason of the difference and unevenness of the Ground the depth of the River in some places being Thirty Foot and in other places the water is carryed
parts of the known world now for the preservation of the River Thames there is a Court of conservacy kept by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London under whom is a VVater Bayliff and other Officers they commonly fish eight times every year in the four Counties of Middlesx Surrey Kent and Essex where they have power to Impanel Juries and to make Inquisition into and punish all Offences committed upon the River within their Jurisdiction and Extent which begins at a place called Colny Ditch a little above Stanes-bridge Westward and from thence all along through London Bridge to a place called Yendal alias Yenleet and the waters of Medway near Chatham in Kent Eastward This River as we have say'd is full of all sorts of Excellent Fish as sweet Salmons after the time of the Smelt is past wherein no River in Europe exceeds it It hath likewise store of Barbels Trouts Chevins Pearches Smelts Breams Roches Daces Gudgeons Flounders Shrimps Eels c. only it seems not to be so stored with Carps except that by Land-Flonds they are sometimes brought out of Gentlemens Ponds There are great numbers of Swans dayly seen upon this River and above Two Thousand Wherries and small Boats whereby Three Thousand poor Watermen are maintained by carrying Goods and Passengers thereon besides those large Tilt-boats Tyde-boats and Barges which either carry People or bring Provision from all parts of the Counties of Oxford Berks Buchingham Bedford Hertford Middlesex Essex Surry and Kent to the City of London To conclude this famous River of Thames taking all her advantages together surpasseth all others that pay Tribute to the Ocean if we consider the streightness of its course the stilness of its streams considering its bredth as also its length running above Ninescore Miles before it comes into the Sea and the conveniency of its situation being toward the middle of England It hath likewise one peculiar property more that the entrance into this River is safe and easy to Englishmen and Natives but difficult and hazardous to Strangers either to go in and out without a Pilot insomuch that in the whole the Thames may be said to be Londons best Friend as may appear by a passage in the Reign of King James who being displeased with the City because they would not lend him a sum of money which he required and the Lord Mayor and Aldermen attending him one day being somewhat transported with Anger the King said He would remove his own Court with all the Records of the Tower and the Courts of Westminster Hall to another place with further expressions of his Indignation The Lord Mayor calmly heard all and at last Answered Your Majesty hath power to do what you please and your City of London will obey accordingly but she humbly desires that when your Majesty shall remove your Courts you would please to leave the River of Thames behind you having been thus long upon the Water 't is now time to Land and take a view of the great and stupendious Bridge which if the scituation and structure thereof be well considered may be said to be one of the Wonders of the World of which an Ingenious Gentleman deceased made this Poem When Neptune from his Billows London spy'd Brought proud'y thither by a High Spring Tyde As through a floating Wood he steer'd along And dancâ—â—g Castles clustered in a Throng When he beheld a mighty Bridge give Law Unto his Surges and their Fury awe When such a Shelf of Cataracts did roar As if the Thames with Nyle had chang'd her Shore When he such Massy Walls such Towers did eye Such Posts such Irons on his back to lye When such vast Arches he observ'd that might Nineteen Rialto's make for depth and height When the Cerulean God these things surveyed He shook his Trident and astonisht said Let the whole world now all her wonders count This Bridge of wonders is the Paramount At first there was only a Ferry kept where the Bridge now is and the Ferry-man and his Wife dying left it to their only Daughter a Maiden named Mary who with the profits thereof and money left her by her Parents built a House for Nuns in the place where the East part of St. Mary Overies Church now stands above the Quire where she was buried and unto those Nuns she bequeathed the benefit and oversight of the Ferry but that being afterwards turned to a House of Priests they built a Bridge of Timber which they kept in good repair till at length considering the vast charge thereof by the contribution of the Citizens and others a Bridge was built of Stone Several Accidents have happened concerning this Bridge of which we shall mention some hereafter in the Reign of the several Kings In the first year of King Stephen a Fire began near London-stone and burnt stands in the Quire wher of she was buried to those Nuns she bequeathed the benefit and oversight of the Ferry but that being afterwards turned to a House of Priests they built a bridge of Timber which they kept in good repair till at length considering the vast charge thereof by the contribution of the Citizens and others a Bridge was built of Stone Several Accidents have happened to this Bridge In the first year of King Stephen a Fire began near London Stone and burnt East to Algate and West to St. Paul's Church the Bridge of Timber upon the Thames was also burnt but afterward repaired In 1163 it was rebuilt all of new Timber by Peter of Cole-Church a Priest which shews that there was a Timber Bridge 215 years before the Bridge of Stone was erected which was maintained partly by Gifts and partly by Taxes in every Shire In 1176 the Foundation of the Stone-Bridge was laid by the aforesaid Peter near the place of the Timber-Bridge but somewhat more to the West for we read that Buttolph's Wharf was at the end of London-Bridge the King assisted in the work to perform which the course of the River Thames was turned another way about by a Trench cast up for that purpose beginning in the East about Rotherhith and ending in the West at Battersea This Bridge with the Arches Chappel c. was 33 years in building and finished in 1209 by the worthy Citizens W. Serle Mercer W. Alman Senedict Botecorite who were Overseers of it for Peter of Cole-Church died four years before and as he principal Benefactor being buried in the Chappel on London-Bridge a Mason who was Master-workman of the Bridge built this large Chappel from the Foundation at his own Charge was which endowed for two Priests and four Clerks after the finishing the Chapel which was the first building on those Arches divers Mansion Houses were erected and many Lands Tenements and sums of Money were given toward the maintenance of the Bridge all which were â—ormerly registred in a Table for Posterity and bung up in the Chappel till it was turned into a dwelling House and was then
of the River against an Invasion and securing Merchandizing and Navigation by Block-Houses Forts or 〈…〉 There are divers Courts of Judicature belonging to the Lord Mayor and City of London the highest and most ancient Court is called the Hustings which preserves the Laws Rights Franchises and Customs of the City There is a Court of Requests or Conscience the Court of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen where also the Recorder and Sheriffs sit two Courts of the Sheriffs one for each Counter the Court of the City Orphans whereof the Lord Mayor and Aldermen have the Care The Court of Common-Council consisting as the Parliament of England of two Houses one of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and the other of Commoners but they fit all together In which Court are made all B. -Laws which bind all the Citizens of London for every man either by himself or by his Representative gives his assent thereto wherein consists the happiness of the English above all other Subâ—â—cts in the world that neither in Laws By Laws Taxes nor Imposts no man is obliged to pay any thing but by his own consent There is another Court of the Chamberlain of the City to whom belong the Receipts of the Rents and Revenues thereof and likewise the Inrolling and making Free Apprentices over whom he hath great Authority Also the Courts of Coroner and Escheator and another Court for the conservation of the River of Thames lastly the Court of Goal Delivery at Newgate held usually eight times a â—ear at the Old Baily both for the City and Middlesex for the Trial of Criminals whereof the Lord May or is cheif Judge There are other Courts called Wardmote or the meeting of Wards whereof there are 26 in the whole City every Alderman having a several Ward In this Court Inquiry is made into all things that conduce to the Regulating and well Governing of the City Also the Court of Hallmote or Assembly of every Guild and Fraternity for Regulating what belongs to every company in particular There are two Sheriff belonging to this City which like the Lord Mayor are only for a year and are elected generally upon Midsummerday The name is thought to be Saxon from Shire or Country and Rive Governour His Office is to serve the King's Writs of Attachment to return indifferent Juries to see that the publick Peace be kept and that condemned Persons be executed c. Newgate Ludgate and the two Counters are put into the Custody of the Sheriffs For the Ecclesiastical Government there is a Bishop and the present is Dr. Henry Compton and to the Cathedral of St Paul's belongs a Dean a Chapter a Treasurer and 〈◊〉 Prehends A Rector or Vicar is placed in every Parish for the Cure of Sâ—uls and there is in most Parishes a Parsonage or Vicarage-House for the Minister and a Competent Allowance of Tithes CHAP. VI. The several Companies or Corporations of the City of London with the Arms of each Company and the time of their Incorporating THE Traders of the City of London are divided into Companies or Corporations and are so many Bodies Politick enjoying large Priviledges by the Charters of divers Kings granted to them and have Halls to meet in some like Pallaces with Arms belonging to each Company The Arms of this famous City of London are Argent Cross Gules with the Sword of St. Paul say some and not the Dagger of William Walworth for they say it is recorded this Coat did belong to the City long before Wat Tyler's Rebellion The ARMS of London The ARMS of the rest of the Companies follow Merchant Adventurers Incorporated by Ed. 4. consirmed by Q. Eliz. Turkey Merchants Incorporated by Q. E. their Charter inlarged by K. James 1. East-India Company They were first Incorporated by Q. E. 1600. 1. Mercers They were Incorporat 17 Rich. 2. 1393. 2. Grocers First called Pepperers Incorporated 28 E. 3. 3. Drapers They were Incorporâ—â—â— in the 17 H. 6. 4. Fishmongers The Stock and Salt Incorporated 28 H. 8. 5. Goldsmiths They were made a Company 16 R. 2. 6. Skinners Incorporated first by Edw. 3. confirmed 18 Rich 2. 7. Merchant Taylors They were compleatly Incorporated by Hen. 7. 1531. 8. Haberdashers Incorporat 17 Hen. 7. called St. Kath. Society 9. Salters Had their Arms 22 Hen. 8. Crest and Supporters by Q. Eliz. 10. Iroâ—mongers They were made a Company the 3d of Edward 4. 11. Vintners Incorpor by Edw. 3. and confirmed by Hen. 6. 12. Clothworkers Grew to be a Company the 22 of Henry 8. 13. Dyers Incorporated first by a Charter from Henry 6. 14. Brewers Incorporated by Hen. 6. confirmed by Q. Eliz. 15. Leathersellers First Incorporated in the 6th of Richard 2. 16. Prwterers They were made a Society by K. Edw. 4. 17. Barber-Chirurgeons First Incorporated by Edw. 4. and confirmed by every Prince since 18. Armorers Incorporated by Hen. 6. himself being of the Company 19. White Bakers They are Ancient being Incorporat 1 Edw. 2. 20. Wax Chandlers In great credit in the times of Popery Incorporat 2 Rich. 3. 1484. 21. Tallow Chandlers Incorporated 2 Edw. 4. and confirmed by King James 1. 22. Cutlers They were made a Company by Henry 5. and others since 23. Girdlees They were made a Company 27 Henry 6. 24 Butchers They were not Incorporated till 3 of King James 1. 25. Sadlers They are Ancient from Edw. 1. 300 years ago 26. Carpenters They were Incorporated 7 July 17 Edw. 4. 27. Cordwinders or Shoemakers were Incorporated 17 Hen. 6. and confirmed since 28. Painters or Painter Stainers were Incorgor 23 Q. E. 1580. 29. Curriers They are ancient but not Incorporated till 12 Jnne 3 of King James 30. Masons or Free Masons were made 〈◊〉 Company 12 Hen. 4. 31. Plumbers They were made a Corporation 9 K. James 1. 32. Inholders They were made a Company 6 Henry 8. 33. Founderes Incorporated the 18 Sept. 12 K. James 1. 34. Embroiderers They were Incorporated in the 4 of Q. Eliz. 35. Poulterers Incorporat by Henry 7. and confirmed 33 Q. E. 36. Cooks Indorpor 12 E. 4. confir by Q. E. K. J. 1. 37. Coopers They were made a Company the 18 H. 7. 38. Bricklayers or Tylers Incorporated by Q. E. confirm 2 K. J. 1. 39. Bowyers The of their Incorporated was 21 K. J. 1. 40. Fletchers They are also a Corporation but when made is uncertain 41. Blacksmiths Incorporated 20 Q. E. confirmed 2 K. Ja. 1. 42. Joyners Incorporated 13 Q. E. 43. Plaisterers They were Incorporain the Reign of King Henry the 7. 44. Weavers now Silk Weavers very ancient having 3 Societies 45. Fruiterers Incorporated 3 K. J. 1. 49. Scriveners Ancient yet not Incorporated till 14 K. J. 1. 50. Bottlemakers Horners are of great Antiquity but not Incor 51. Stationers Of great Antiquity before Printing Incorporated 3 Phil. and M. 52. Marblers Not Incorporat unless joined with the Masons 53. Wool-packers They flouâ—â—â—hed in the time of the Woâ—â—staple 54. Farriers They rise
of the Common Law â—ow kept at Wallingford-House The next thing considerable is the Collegiate Church called Westminster-Abby or St. Peters It was â—aised out of the ruins of a Temple formerly dedicated to Apollo wherein there is King Henry VII's Chappel a magnificent and curious Edifice beautified with the stately Tombs of the Kings and Queens of England and many other Persons of Honour and Renown are buried in this Church and here the Kings of England are commonly crowned Then there is Somerset-house a large and stately â—tructure belonging to the King Northumberland house York-house now turned into Streets and Buildings the new Exchange stored with variety of Shops and Goods the Statue of K. Charles I. lately erected at Charing cross Salisbury-house now a fine Street the Savoy Arundel-house Bedford-house and divers other Places worth observing The Limits of Westminster end at Temple-Bar and there the bounds of London begin Westminfter is so mightily enlarged by the building of St. James's Fields and the adjaceat Places into stately large Streets that it is thought to be as big again as formerly To conclude London is the Epitome of England the Seat of the Brittish Empire the Chamber of the King the chiefest Emporium or Town of Trade in the World and to describe all things in it worthy to be known would make a Volume The City of London with the Suburbs and parts adjacent is from Lime-house to the end of Tothill street in Westminster East and West above 7500 Geometrical Paces or 7 English Miles and an half and from the further end of Blackman-street in Southwark to the end of Shoreditch North and South 2500 Paces or two Miles and an half Historical Remarks OF LONDON and WESTMINSTER PART II. ENgland in the time of the Saxons was divided into an Heptarchy or seven Kingdoms in the year of Christ 527. One of these Kingdoms contained Essex and Middlesex and continued about 281 years during the Reign of 14 Kings The third of whom was Sebert who built the Cathedral of St. Paul which had formerly been the Temple of Diana The ninth King was Sebba who after thirty years peaceable Reign relinquished the Crown and took upon him a Religions Habit in the Monastery of St. Paul where dying his Body was intombed in a Coffiâ— of Gray Marble and stood in the North Wall of the Chancel of the Church till the Fire in 1666. About 872. the Danes invaded this Kingdom and got into London making great spoil upon which King Elfred who then reigned compounded with them allowing them a great quantity of Land to secure the rest from Plunder and Ruine for we find these words in the end of the Laws published by this King Let the Bounds of our Dominion stretch from the River Thames and from thence to the Vale of Lea even unto the head of the same Water and so forth straight unto Bedford and finally going along by the River of Ouse let them end at Watling-street But the Danes ufurped daily upon other places so that King Elfred was many times forced to hide himself in the Fens and Marshes and with his small Company to live by Fishing Fowling and Hunting Wild Beasts for Food and being one time entertained alone in a Country man's house disguised in very mean attire as he was sitting by the Fire a Cake was baking on the Hearth before him but the King being intent in trimming his Bow and Arrows the Country woman coming in and seeing the Cake burn she furiously took the Bow from him and checking him as her Slave said Thou Fellow dost thou see the Bread burn before thy Face and wilt thou not turn it and yet mayest be glad to eat it before it be half baked Little suspecting him to be the man that used to be treated with more dainty Food This King more minding the Benefit of his Subjects than the Majesty of State disguised himself in the habit of a common Fidler and went in Person to the Danes Camp who lay wallowing in Wantonuess and Security and being a skilful Musician and a Poet he addded his Voice thereto singing Songs of the Valour of the Danes whereby he had admittance to the Company and Banquets of their chief Commanders and Princes and observing their carelesness and understanding their Designs he returns to his poor disconsolate Soldiers and tells them how easie it was to surprize their Enemies and thereby recover their ruined Country who immediately fell upon the Danes in their Camp and made a very great slaughter and pursuing their Victory they beat them in all Places and at last followed them to London from whence all the Danes fled The Inhabitants were very glad to see the Face of their King and he restored the City to its former Liberty and Splendor again the Danes making their escape by shipping into France In 982 the Danes again invade England and destroy all Places near the Shore Etheldred was then King whose elder Brother called the Martyr was treacherously murdered by his Mother-in-Law for the King being a hunting in the Isle of Purbeck went alone out of kindness to 〈◊〉 his Mother-in-Law and Brother who dwelt hard by where this cruel Woman out of ambition to bring her Son to the Crown caused one to run him into the back with a Knife as he was drinking a Glass of Wine on Horseback at his departing who feeling himself hurt set spurs to his Horse thinking to get to his Company but the Wound being mortal and he fainting through loss of Blood fell from his Horse and one Foot being entangled in the Stirrup he was dragged up and down through the Woods and afterward found dead and was buried at the Minster in Shaftsbury Etheldred was then crowned King by Dunstan Arch Bishop of Canterbury who at his Coronation denounced the wrath of God against him in these Words Because saith he thou hast aspired to the Crown by the death of thy Brother whom thy Mother hath murdered therefore hear the Word of the Lord The Sword shall not depart from thy House but shall furiously rage all the days of thy Life killing all thy Seed till such time as thy Kingdom shall be given to a People whose Customs and Language the Nation thou now governest know not Neither shall thy sin the sin of thy Mother nor the sins of those men who were Partakers of her Councils and Instruments of her wicked Designs be expiated and appeased but by long and most severe Vengeance Which Prediction was seconded by Prodigies for it is said that a Cloud of Blood and Fire appeared after his Coronation and miserable Calamities fell upon him and his House This King was neither forward nor fortunate in any of his undertakings so that he was called The Vuready he spent his Youth in debauchery his middle Age in carelesness and neglect of his Government maintaining Dissentions amongst his own Subjects and his latter end in resisting the blood thirsty Danes who made continual Destruction of his People
and Country who had been quiet for 22 years before so all these calamities were imputed to the Misgovernment of this unhappy Prince The Danes perceiving the Hearts of the Subjects to be drawn from their Sovereign landed in Kerâ— with seven Ships spoiling the Country for eleven years together till at last the King by advice of his Lords paid them ten thousand Pounds to depart the Realm This served for the present but they returned year after year and still obliged the King to give them more Money till at last it came to forty thousand Pound a year which emptied the Land of all the Coin and the English were forced to plough and sow while the Danes sate idle and eat the fruit of their Labours abusing also their Wives and Daughters whereupon they were called Lord Danes now Lurdains signifying a Lazy Lubber In this distressed State the King thought of this expedient to be rid of them He sent out Commissions into every City in his Dominions that at an appointed time they should Massacre all the Danes that were amongst them The Day was Novem. 13 1002 his Command was accordingly performed and that with such Rigour that in Oxford the fearful Danes for refuge took into the Church of St. Frideswide as a Sanctuary of venerable Antiquity but they in their fury regarding neither Place nor Person set the Church on fire wherein many Danes were burnt with divers rich Ornaments and the Library utterly defaced At which time it is said King Etheldred himself was in Oxford and had summoned a Parliament both of English and Danes to meet there and afterwards repaired the Ruins the fire had made In this Masfacre the Lady Gunhild Sister to the King of Denmark and a continual Friend to the English with her Husband and Son were slain Upon the News of this Massacre King Swain with a great Navy of Danes lands in several parts in England and carries all before him and other Danes with 94 ships sailed up the River of Thames and besieged London but the Citizens made such valiant Resistance that they forced them to retire however they fell severely upon Essex Kent Sussex and Hampshire These Calamities were seconded with others as fearful for about this time the City was destroyed by Fire whose beauty then chiefly extended from Ludgate Westward for that within the Walls where the heart of the City now is was then neither beautiful nor orderly built To add to these Miserie 's a dreadful Sickness raged in London and most parts of England hitherto anknown in this Kingdom being a burning Fever and the bloody Flux there was also great scarcity by reason of the Murrain and Death of all sorts of Cattel All these Judgments were imputed to the King and his Abettors Dunstan prophecying further woes to the Land after his death though the King made great lamentation for the Murther of his Brother K. Edward for which his Mother beat him so violently with a wax Taper which stood before her that he could never after well endure the sight of a Taper In 1013 K. Swain came again from Denmark landing a great number of Men in the River Humber and conquered all before him till he came to London and presently besieged King Etheldred within it Swain doubted not of carrying the City but the Citizens considering they had their King with them and that London was the Eye of the Land grew very couragious beating the Danes from the Walls and then sallying out slew them on heaps so that King Swain himself was in great danger had he not desperately ran through the midst of his Enemies Swords and by flight escaped marching day and night in great fear till he had got to Bath where Ethelmere Earl of Devonshire and his people submitted to him but this last overthrow and want of Victuals caused him after he had received a sum of Money to hasten into Denmark but returning with greater Strength he met with the English again and utterly defeated them by reason of the treachery of some English who revolted to the Danes So that the whole Kingdom yea Loudon it self was forced to comply with the calamity of the Times wherewith Etheldred being utterly dejected he sent his VVife Emma and his two Sons to his Brother Richard Duke of Normandy and went himself in one of his Ships to the Isle of Wight and afterwards to Normandy to his Brother leaving the Danes sole Lords and Masters of the Realm A while after King Swain coming to St. Edmundbury in Suffolk threatned to burn down the Church unless they would give him a sum of Money having done the like in several other Places which the Iuhabitants refusing to pay he went to disturb the Bones of St. Edmund so called which while he was doing he suddenly cried out saith the Historian that He was struck by St. Edmund with a Sword being then in the midst of his Nobles and no man seeing from whose hand it came and so with great Horror he died three days after and the Danes advanced Ganutus his Son to the Throne Soon after King Etheldred died also and his third Son called Edmund Ironside of his enduring Labour succeeded A great part of the English both feared and favoured Canutus especially the Clergy who at Southampton swore fealty to him But the Londoners stood firm to Prince Edmund and elected him King In revenge whereof Canutus who had besieged the City before the death of King Etheldred caused his Ships to be towed up the Thames to the East side of the Bridge and from the River with a deep Trench encompassed the City shutting up all the Passages in or out of it But the coming of their new King Edmund to their assistance did much encourage them and disheartned the Danes so that they brake up the Seige King Edmnnd having sent a Challenge to Canutus to fight him in single Combat which he neither accepted nor staid at London but sailed down the Thames to the Isle of Shâ—ppey where he wintred with his Navy and in the Spring assailed the West of England where the Danes were routed After this at a place called Sherostan in Worcestershire another Battle was fought where the Danes were like again to have been discomfited which Edrick an English Man perceiving he cut off the Head of a Soldier whose name was Osmearus who was like King Edmund both in Hair and Countenance and shaking his bloody Sword with the gasping Head cried out to the English Army Fly wrethes fly and get away for your King is slain behold here is his Head therefore seek now to save your own Lives Edmund having notice of this treacherous Stratagem hastned to shew himself whose sight so encouraged his Men that they had got a total Victory if night had not prevented them The Soldiers bent their Bows against Dake Edrick and had shot him to death had he not excused the Fact as being mistaken in the Countenance of the Man and desirous to save the blood
of the English upon which false Pretence he was taken into favour again Three days after both Armies prepared again for Battle yet stood still without skirmishing only refreshing their tired Bodies and burying those that were slain in the two days before The night following nutus brake up his Camp and marched toward London he having great displeasure against the Citizens and desiring to conquer that place which was already besieged by the Danish Ships Next morning the Centinels gave notice to King Edmâ—nd who was preparing to Battle that his Enemies were marched away Who followed them with all speed to London where with little difficulty he raised the Siege and entred the City triumphantly The Danes being thus discomfited Edmund taking advantage of their fear routed them two days after at Brainford though in passing the Thames many of his Men were drowned Upon this Ioss the Traytor Edrick fearing the Ruine of the Danes persuaded his Brother in Law King Edmund to come to a Truce with Canutus who kept it but till he had increased his Forces and then another Battle was fought wherein it is reported Canutus lost 4500 Men and King Edmund only 600. But Canutus a while after recruiting his Army Edmund marched toward him who lay at Ashdown 3 Miles from Saffron Walden in Essex where at first the Victory seemed doubtful till the Danes began to retreat which the ever traiterous Edrick perceiving he with all his Forces revolted to the Danes whereby they got the day and the poor betrayed English were utterly overthrown There were slain of Edmund's Nobility Duke Alfred Duke Godwin Duke Athelward Duke Athelwin and Earl Vrchil with Cadnoth Bishop of Lincoln and Wolsey Abbot of Ramsey and several other of the Clergy who came thither to pray for the good success of King Edmâ—nd and his Army There are some signs of this Battle in that Field to this very day divers small hills still â—emaining there from whence have been digged the Bones of Men Armour and he chains of Horses Bridles King Edmund being thus treacherbusly forced to quit the Field went on Foot to Glocester with a very small Army leaving Canutus flushed with Victory who marched to London and forced the City to submit to him with many other great Towns After which he followed Edmund into the West who had again raised a considerable Army resolving at once to try the utmost of his fortune The Armies met with a full Resolution to establish the Title of the one by the ruine of the other But a Captain in King Edmund's Army proposed that for preventing Bloodshed the two Kings only should fight in single Combat it chiefly concerning them or else divide the Kingdom between them This was agreed to and the two Kings in sight of both Armies went into a small Island called Alney near Glocester encompassed with the River Severn being compleatly armed they first assaulted each other very stoutly on Horseback ' and afterward on foot But Edmund was strong and fought for a Kingdomâ— Canutus for Honour And the Combat seemed equal till Canutus having received a dangerous Wound and finding himself over matched desired to treat and spake thus to Edmund What necessity is there most valiant Prince that we for obtaining a Title should thus endanger our Lives it were better to lay Malice and our Armour aside and condescend to a loving Agreement let us therefore become sworn Brothers and divide the Kingdom between us and keep such Amity that we may both use the others share as his own so shall this Land be peaceably governed and we jointly assist each other in necessity Upon this Speech they both cast down their Swords and embraced as Friends to the great joy of both Armies who stood wâ—vering before betwixt hope and fear expecting their own fortunes according to the success of their Champions Thus was the Kingdom divided betwixt these two Princes Edmund enjoying the West part toward the Coast of France and Canutus the rest And thus was the Saxon Monarchy come to its â—â—st Period and the tottering Crown was soon Severn and being compleatly armed they first assaulted each other very stoutly on Horse-back and afterward on Foot But Edmund was strong and fought for a Kingdom Canutus for Honour and the Combat seemed indifferent equal till Canutus having received a dangerous wound and finding himself overmatched in strength desired to treat and spake thus to Edmund What necessity is there most valiant Prince that we for obtaining a title should thus endanger our lives It were better to lay Malice and our Armour aside and condescend to a loving Agreement let us now therefore become Sworn Brothers and divide the Kingdom between us and keep such amity that we may both use the others share as if it were his own so shall this Land be peaceably governed and we jointly assist each others necessity Upon this Speech they both cast down their Swords and embraced as Friends to the great joy and rejoycing of both Armies who stood doubtfully wavering before betwixt hope fear as expecting their own fortunes according to the success of their Champions Thus was the kingdom divided between these two Princes Edmund enjoying the West part toward the Coast of France and Canutus the rest And thus was the Saxon Monarchy come to its last period and the tottering Crown was soon after torn from Edmunds head For Duke Edrick a Traitor in grain being much in favour with both Kings yet to oblige Canutus contrived the death of renowned Edmund who going into a place of casement was suddenly thrust from under the Vault into the body with a sharp Spear which being done the Villain Edrick cut off his Sovereigns head and presented it to Canutus with this flattering salutation All hail thou now sole Monarch of England for here behold the head of thy Copartner which for thy sake I have adventured to cut off Canutus though ambitious enough of Sovereignty yet being of a Princely temper he was much astonished at this base and treacherous Act and vowed That in reward of that Service the Bringers own head should be advanced above all the Peers of his Kingdom Which high honour while this prodigious wretch greedily expected and indeed for some time saith our Author he had some shew of favour from the King he suddenly by the Kings command had his head struck off and placed upon the highest Gate of London to overlook that great City Canutus being possessed of half the Kingdom by composition with Edmund now after his death seized the whole and that all things as was pretended might proceed with Justice and Concord he called a Council of the English Nobility at London wherein it was demanded whether in the Agreement between Edmund and him any Claim or Title to the Crown had been reserved for King Edmunds Brethren or his Sons The English who had paid dear for resisting the Dane hitherto and being afraid to provoke him absolutely answered No. And knowing that Princes
are generally appeased with flattery they offered their Swords against any such Claims and took themselves the Oath of Allegiance to Canutus who being a very wise and Politick Prince had never the better opinion of them for their fawning rightfully judging that those who were false to their natural Prince would never be true to him nor his posterity who were Foreigners Canutus being thus freed from all his Opposites was Crowned King of England at London in 1017. by Elstane Archbishop of Canterbury being the second King of Denmark of that name and the first of England and the 34. Monarch of this Land King Canutus dying left the Kingdom of Norway to his eldest Son Swain and England to his youngest called Hardyknute who being at that time in Denmark Harold his elder Brother by a former wife taking advantage of his absence laid claim to the Crown and enjoyed it four years having neither wife nor child After his death the English as well as Danes who had been for Harold thought best to send for Hardyknute and offer him the Crown who soon after came to London in great state and was there proclaimed King of England and crowned He spent his Reign in doing nothing but doing ill For no sooner had he power to command but he ordered the body of his Brother the deceased King Harold to be taken out of his Grave and disgracefully thrown into the River Thames where it remained till a Fisherman found it and buried it in the Churchyard of S. Clement commonly called St. Clement Danes because say some it was the burying-place for that Nation This Hardyknute altogether neglected his Government delighting in nothing but eating and drinking to excess having his Tables spread with fresh Victuals four times every day which caused all manner of Debauchery to reign among his Subjects by his evil example since it is natural for people to imitate the Vices of their Sovereign He died suddenly at the celebration of a Marriage at Lambeth near London for while he was revelling and carousing in the midst of his Cups he suddenly fell down without speech or breath whose loss was little lamented by reason of his Riot and Excess and the severe Taxes he laid upon the People for maintaining his extravagancies yea so far were any from bewailing him that in remembrance of their Freedom from the Danish yoke he being the last King of the Danes the common people for a long time after celebrated the day of his death which was the eighth of June with open Pastimes in the Streets as the Romans formerly kept their Fugalia for chasing out their Kings which time is called Hocktide or Heuxtide signifying a time of Scorning and Contempt which fell upon the Danes by his death Edward the third of that name before the Conquest half-brother to the deceased Hardy-Canute and Son to King Ethelred by Queen Emma his wife succeeded him and was called Edward the Confessor between whom and Godwin Earl of Kent there happened such differences that they raised Forces against each other and fitted out divers Ships King Edward appointed sixty Ships for a Guard to the Thames mouth but Godwin being a man of very great Authority sollicited the People of Kent Sussex and Surrey to his aid and entering the Thames with his Ships invited the Londoners to join with him which they accordingly did though King Edward were in the City so that without resistance his Navy came up with the Tide to the South end of London-bridge and a very great Army attended to aid him on Southwark side The Nobility observing the People to be divided into Parties and one English man ready to destroy another they so prevailed with King Edward and Godwin that they made a Reconciliation between them and Pledges were delivered for the true performance of the Agreement About this time that is in 1047. there fell a very great Snow in January which covered the ground to the middle of March so that most of the Cattle and Fowl perished and the Year following a strange and terrible Earthquake happened which seemed to rend the earth asunder and such Lightnings withall as burnt up the Corn â—rowing in the Fields whereby an extraordinary Dearth and Faâ—ine followed In the Year 1066. William the Conquerour landed at Pemsey in Sussex and immediately sent a Messenger to King Harold at London whereby he claimed no less than the Crown of England upon pretence of a Donation from King Edward deceased and required that Harold should be a Vassal to him The Messenger urged the same with so much confidence that Harold in his fury could hardly forbear though against the Law of Arms to lay violent hands on the Ambassadour And thereupon he returns a threatning Message to William to depart immediately back into Normandy at his utmost peril He then proceeds to muster his Forces which were not so many as he expected though divers Noblemen Gentlemen and others who were inflamed with the love of the Rights and Liberties of their Native Country joined with him to keep out this dangerous Foreigner However King Harold with an undaunted courage led his men into Sussex against the earnest intreaty of his Mother who endeavoured to hinder him and pitching his Tents in a large fair Plain not above seven miles from the Enemy he sent forth his Spies for discovery who being taken by Duke William he ordered that they should view all his Tents and then sent them safely back to Harold They commended Williams clemency and his great strength but told Harold that they thought all his Army were Priests for their Beards were all shaved whereas the use of the English was then to reserve the hair of the upper lip without cutting King Harold replied they were no Priests but men of great courage and valour to his knowledgeâ— he having been formerly in that Country Harold was thereupon persuaded not to venture himself in the Battle but to go on to levy more Souldiers And his Brother told him that William charged him that he had taken an Oath to settle him in the Throne and said he Thou knowest what Oath thine own mouth hath made unto William if it were lawful and thou tookest it willingly withdraw thy self out of the Field lest for thy great sin the whole Army be destroyed for there is no power that can resist God But Harold reproved his Brother for his freedom and disdainfully undervalued the strength of the Normans and seemed to conceive that nothing which he did being a private man could now bind him when he was a Prince Duke William being now come into the Field and both Armies facing each other as ready for Battle to spare the effusion of Christian bloud he sent a Monk as a Mediator for Peace offering Harold either to resign the Kingdom to himself and acknowledge him his Sovereign or to trie the quarrel in single Battle in the sight of both Armies or lastly to stand to the Arbitrement of the Pope who should
Doomsday-book and is kepâ— to this day in the Kings Exchequer at Westminster Yet he was kind to the Londoners suffering then to enjoy their Rights and Priviledges which the had in Edward the Confessors time by the procurement of William Bishop of London who waâ— buried in St. Pauls Church and this Epitaph pâ—â— upon his Grave-stone in Latine and English To William a man famous in wisdom and holiness of life who first with St. Edward the King and Confessor being familiar of late preferred to be Bishop of London and not long after for his prudence anâ— sincere fidelity admitted to be of Council with 〈◊〉 most victorious Prince William King of England of that name the first who obtained of the same greâ— and large Priviledges to this famous City The Senâ— and Citizens of London of him having well deserâ—ave made this He continued Bishop twenty Years â—nd died in the Year after Christs Nativity 1070. These Marble Monuments to thee Thy Citizens assign Rewards O Father far unfit To those deserts of thine Thee unto them a faithful Friend Thy London People found And to this Town of no small weight A stay both sure and sound Their Liberties restor'd to them By means of thee have been Their publick weal by means of thee Large Gifts have felt and found The Riches Stock and Beauty brave One hour hath them supprest Yet these thy Vertues and good deeds With us for ever rest The Lord Mayor of London and Aldermen upon the day of his coming into his Office used â—ll of late days to walk round the Grave-stone â—f this Bishop in remembrance of their former Priviledges obtained by him And there was â—n Inscription fastned to a Pillar near his Grave â—ntituled The Recital of a most worthy Prelates Reâ—embrance which was erected at the charge of Sir Edward Barkham Lord Mayor 1622. which speaks thus to the Walkers in S. Pauls Walkers whosoe're you be If it prove your chance to see Vpon a solemn Scarlet day The City Senate pass this way Their grateful memory to shew Which they the Reverend ashes owe Of Bishop Norman here inhum'd By which this City hath assum'd Large Priviledges those obtain'd By him when Conquerour William reign'd This being by Barkhams thank ful mind renew'd Call it The Monument of Gratitude King William brought with him from Roan in Normandy certain Jews whose posterity inhabiting in London and several other chief Cities they were accused that they used to steal Christian male children from their Neighbours which they would circumcise crown with thorns whip torture and crucifie in mockery despite and scorâ— of our Lord Jesus Christ William Rufus his Son appointed a Disputation to be held in London between the Christians and the Jews but before the day came the Jewâ— brought the King a present to the end they might be heard impartially The K. received their gift encouraging them to quit themselves like menâ— and swore by S. Lukes face his usual Oath Theâ— of they prevailed in Disputation he would himself turâ— Jew and be of their Religion A young Jew was as that time converted to the Christian Faith whose father being much troubled at it he presented thâ— King with threescore Marks intreating him tâ— perswade his son to return to his Judaisin where upon the King sent for his son and commandeâ— him without more ado to return to the Religioâ— of his Nation But the young man answered Hâ— wondred His Majesty would use such words for beinâ— a Christian he should rather perswade him to Christiâ—nity with which answer the King was so confourâ—ded that he commanded the young man out of hâ— presence But his father finding the King could do no good upon his son required his money aâ— gain Nay saith the King I have taken pains enough for it and yet that thou mayest see how kindly I will deal you shall have one half and you cannot in conscience deny me the other half and so dismist him And now we are Treating of the Jews it may not be amiss to add all at once what we read concerning them in this City In the year 1235. the 19 of H. 3. seven Jews were brought before the King at Westminster who had stolen a Boy and kept him private from the sight of any but their own Nation for a whole year and had circumcised him intending also to have crucified him at the solemnity of Easter as they themselves confest before the K. upon which they were convicted and their bodies and goods remained at the Kings pleasure In the 39 of this K. Nov. 22. 102 Jews were brought from Lincoln to Westminster and there accused for crucifying a child of 8 years old named Hugh These Jews were upon examination sent to the Tower of London the murther being discovered by the diligent search of the Mother of the child Upon which eighteen of them were hanged and the other remained long in Prison In the Reign of Henry 2. the number of the Jews throughout England was very great yet whereforever they dwelt they were commanded not to bury their dead any where but in London which being many times inconvenient to bring dead bodies from remote Places the K. gave them liberty to bury in the same place where they lived In 1189. at the Coronation of R. 1. Son of H. 2. at Westminster a great disaster befel the Jews for King Richard not favoring them as his Father had done had given a strict charge that no Jew should be spectator of the solemnity yet several Jews as though it had been the Crowning of King Herod would needs be pressing in and the Officers appointed refusing they should enter there arose a Quarrel which proceeded from words to blows whereby many Jews were hurt and some slain and thereupon a report was suddenly spread abroad that the King had commanded to have all the Jews destroyed upon which it is incredible what rifling there was in an instant of the Jews Houses and cutting their throats and though the King fignified by publick Declaration that he was highly displeased with what was done yet there was no quieting of the multitude till next day and many of the Mutineers were afterward punished by the Law In the Reign of King John 1202. Great sums of money were exacted and gathered from the Jews among whom there was one who would not pay the money charged upon him till the King caused one of his great Teeth to be pulled out every day for seven days together upon which he was at last compelled to give the King Ten Thousand Marks of silver that no more might be pulled out since he had but one left in his head K. Henry 3. being very profuse was brought so low for want of money that he was forced to borrow nay almost beg it of his Subjects but the Jews who were ever exposed to his will felt the weight of his necessities and one Abraham a Jew in London being found a Delinquent was constrained to redeem himself for
him for their Sovereign and so upon St. Stephens day 1135. he was crowned King at Westminster and to ingratiate himself be eased the People of divers Taxes and Impositions Yet Stephen was no sooner set in his Chair of State but David King of Scots enters England with an Army to defend the right of Maud but he was soon compounded with and so was Geoffrey Duke of Anjou Mauds husband Soon after Maud her self comes into England and was received by some Persons for Queen and Stephen hearing that some of her Forces had besieged Lincoln goes thither where his Army was overthrown and himself taken Prisoner and carried to Maud who committed him to Bristol Castle And being flusht with this success she takes her journey toward London and was there received joyfully as well as in other places where Matilda wife of King Stephen made humble suit to her for the Liberty of her Husband and that he might be suffered onely to live a private life The Londoners likewise having received her into the City as their Queen thought now as Subjects usually do with new Princes they might have what they would reasonably ask and therefore humbly besought her that the severe Laws imposed upon them by her Father might be remitted and those of King Edward might wholly be in force But she rejected both these Petitions some say out of Pride others out of mistaken Policy as thinking it most safe to act matters of importance not upon intreaty but freely and to govern the Subject with severity rather than mildness But those harsh and insulting Answers she gave them were at that time very unseasonable and though they might have been more proper in a setled Government yet in this her green and unstable estate they gave a stop to the Current of all her Fortunes For Matilda finding by this how high the Empresses pulses beat sent to her son Eustace to raise Forces in Kent since their suits must be onely obtained by the Sword The Nobles likewise who set up King Stephen finding themselves slighted and the Londoners being as much discontented as they join with them and contrive how to seize upon the Empress in the City and so redeem King Stephen to whom their affections were firm Of which Maud having notice fled secretly out of London and went to Oxford and from thence sent strict command that King Stephen should be laid in Irons and narrowly watched and fed with very mean Commons and sending to David King of Scots for assistance they laid fiege to Winchester Matilda King Stephens wife hearing of this she with her Son Eustace and the assistance of the Londoners came presently to the relief of the place where a fierce Battle was fought and Matilda's Party prevailed and the Empress Maud to make her escape was fain to be laid upon a Horse back like a dead Corps and so conveyed to Glocester But Earl Robert her Brother disdaining to flie was taken Prisoner and used more hardly by Queen Matilda for her Husband King Stephens sake but a while after whether by agreement or connivance both Stephen and Robert also made their escape out of Prison King Stephen being at liberty seeks out the Empress to requite the kindness she had she wed him in Prison and hearing her to be at Oxford he follows her thither and lays siege to the Town and brought the Empress to such distress that she had now no way to save her self but by flight But being a Woman whose Sex hath often deceived wise men she resolved once more to over-reach her Enemy by Craft since she could not do it by Force For it being a very cold Winter the River Thames that runs by the Walls of Oxford was very hard frozen and at the same time a deep Snow covered the ground Maud takes the advantage thereof and clothing her self and four of her company in white linen garments to deceive the eyes of the Centinel she goes secretly in the night out of a Postern Gate and passing the frozen River ran on foot through Ice and Snow Ditches and Vallies for five miles together till she came to Abington the falling Snow beating in their faces all the way and there taking Horse the same night got into Wallingford Castle But though Maud escaped this present danger vet it left such an Impression of fear upon her that she never after had a mind to appear upon the Stage of War but left the prosecution of it to her son Henry who was now about sixteen years of Age. And not long after Eustace King Stephens only son died and being left destitute of Issue to succeed him he was the more easily drawn to conditions of Peace and so it was at last concluded that Stephen should hold the kingdom of England and adopt Henry as his Heir to succeed him This Agreement thus made and confirmed by Parliament Henry accounted King Stephen ever after as his Father and Stephen Henry as his son and well he might if it be true which some write that Maud his Mother when a Battle was to be fought between King Stephen and her son went privately to him asking him How he could find in his heart to fight against him that was his own Son Could he forget the familiarity he had with her in her Widowhood But however it was King Stephen and Henry continued in mutual love and concord as long as they lived together In the eighth year of King Stephen a Synod was held in London by Henry Bishop of Winchester where it was decreed that whosoever should lay violent hands upon any Clergy-man should not be forgiven but by the Pope himself and from this time forward Clergy-men were exempt from the power of the Civil Magistrate In this Kings time there appeared two Children a Boy and a Girl clad in Green in a Stuff unknown of a strange Language and of a strange Diet the Boy being baptized died shortly after but the Girl lived to be an old Woman and being asked from whence they were she answered They were of the Land of St. Martin where there are Christian Churches erected but that no Sun did ever rise unto them but where that Land is or how she came hither she her self knew not This Story is related by many very credible Historians and if true we may thereby learn that there are other parts of the World than those which to us are known In the fifteenth year of this King the River of Thames was so frozen at London that Horse and Cart passed over upon the Ice In his time likewise lived Johannes 〈◊〉 Temporibus of whom it is recorded that he lived Three hundred Sixty one years he was one of Charlemain the Emperours Guard and died in the Reign of Conradus the Third 1139. After the death of King Stephen Henry Duke of Anfou succeeded according to Agreement by the Title of King Henry the Second and was crowned at Westminster in the Year 1155. This King had very much vexation from
Thomas Becket that proud and insolent Archbishop of Canterbury a Londoner by birth The King requiring to have it ordained That the Clergy who were malefactors should be tried before the Secular Magistrate This Becket opposed it alledging it was against the Liberty of the Church and therefore against the honour of God Many Bishops stood with the King and some few with Becket the Contention grew long and hot so that the King being extreamly disturbed said on a time Shall I never be at quiet for this Priest If I had any about me that loved me they would find some way or other to rid me of this trouble Which complaint four of his Knights that stood by hearing they presently went to Canterbury and finding Becket in the Cathedral they struck him on the head and felling him down killed him in the place But this created more trouble for though with much Intercession the Pope pardoned the four Knights being onely enjoined Pennance to go on Pilgrimage to Jerusalem Yet the Kings was more severe for going to Canterbury as soon as he came in sight of Beckets Church alighting off his Horse and putting off his Hose and Shoes he went barefoot to the Tomb and for a further Penance suffered himself to be beaten with rods upon his bare skin by every Monk in the Cloister This King Henry first ordained that the Lions should be kept in the Tower of â—â—ndon In the tenth Year of his Reign London Bridge was new built with Timber by Peter of Colechurch a Priest And in his twenty second Year after the foundation of St. Mary Overies Church in Southwark the Stone Bridge began to be founded toward which a Cardinal and an Archbishop of Canterbury gave a thousand Marks This King had many Concubines and among the rest Rosamond daughter of Walter Lord Clifford whom he kept at Woodstock in Lodgings so cunningly contrived 〈◊〉 â—o Stranger could find the way in Yet Queen Eleanor did by a clew of silk fallen from Rosamonds â—ap as she sate to take the Air who suddenly flying from the sight of her Pursuer the end of the silk fastned to her foot and the Clew still unwinding remained behind which the Queen followed till the found her whom she sought for in her Labyrinth So much is the Eye of Jealousie â—uicker in finding out than the Eye of Care is in hiding What the Queen did to Rosamond when she came to her is uncertain but this is certain that Rosamond lived but a short time after King Henry had two sons by her William called Long-Sword Earl of Salisbury and Jeffery Archbishop of York In the sixteenth year of his Reign King Henry caused his eldest son Henry to be crowned at Westminster by the hands of Roger Archbishop of York and caused all the Lords to swear Allegiance to him as having found by Experience That Oaths for Succession are commonly eluded but Oaths for present Allegiance can have no evasion At the Feast of this Solemnity King Henry to honour his son would needs carry up the first dish to his Table Whereupon Archbishop Roger standing by and saying merrily to the new King What an honour is this to you to have such a Waiter at your Table He briskly replied Why what a matter is it for him that was but the son of a Duke to do service to me that am the son of a King and a Queen Which the old King hearing began to repent of what he had done yet he passed it over and set the best side outward This young King died before his Father so that Richard the First the eldest son then living succeeded his Father in the Throne and was crowned at Westminster 1189. He drained great sums of money from the Londoners and made them recompence in Franchises and Liberties And indeed the Laws and Ordinances in his time were chiefly made for the Meridian of London For whereas before his time the City was governed by Portgraves this King granted them to be governed by two Sheriffs and a Mayor as it is now And to give the first of these Magistrates the honour to be remembred the names of the Sherifts were Henry Cornhill and Richard Reyner and the name of the first Lord Mayor was Henry Fitz-Alwin who continued Mayor during his life which was four and twenty Years But Fabian who was himself Sheriff of London and therefore most likely to know the truth affirmeth That the Officers ordained now by K. Rich. were but only 2 Bailiffs and that there was no Mayor nor Sheriffs till the tenth of King John But however the City now began first to receive the Form and State of a Common-wealth saith the Historian and to be divided into Fellowships and Corporations as at this day and this Priviledge was granted the first of Richard 1. 1189. This King left no Children behind him that we have any certain account of unless we reckon as a Popish Priest did who coming to King Richard told him that he had three very wicked Daughters which he desired him to bestow or else Gods wrath would attend him But the King denying he had any Daughters at all Yes saith the Priest thou cherishest three Daughters Pride Covetousness and Lechery The King apprehended his meaning and smiling thereat called his Lords attending and said My Lords this Hypocritical Priest hath descovered that I maintain three Daughters Pride Covetousness and Lechery which he would have me bestow in Marriage and therefore if I have any such I have found out very fit Husband for them all My Pride I bequeath to the haughty Templers and Hospitallers who are as proud as Lucifer himself my Covetousness I give to the White Monks of the Cistercian Order for they covet the Devil and all but for my Lechery I can bestow it no where better than on the Priests and Bishops of our times for therein they place their greatest felicity and happiness In this Kings time for three or four years together there happened so great a drougth that a Quarter of Wheat was sold for eighteen shillings eight pence and thereupon followed so great a Mortality of People that the living scarce sufficed to bury the dead King Richard being dead the Right of Succession remained in Arthur son of Jeffery Duke of Anjou elder brother to E. John but John thinking Arthurs Title but a Criticism of State and not so plain to common capacities as his own who was Son of a King and Brother to a King ascended the Throne as confidently as if he had no Competitor onely Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury made an Oration on his behalf wherein waving the Right of Succession he insisted wholly upon the Right of Election by the People whereby it would follow that those who brought him in might throw him out Of which the Bishop being told said He did it on purpose to cause King John to be more careful of his Government by making him sensible upon what an uncertain foundation his Regality stood King
John took notice of this but since it would serve his present purpose he let it pass knowing that his turn once served he could afterward carve out what Title he pleased and so upon Ascension day 1199. he was crowned King at Westminster But Constantia the Mother of Arthur applies her self to Lewis the French King on behalf of her son who promised his assistance but yet afterwards a Peace was made between King John and Lewis After which King John being at leisure gave himself wholly up to pleasure and committed many extravagancies which so far disobliged some of his Lords that they joined with the French King to assist Prince Arthur but King John coming upon them unawares routed their Forces and took Arthur Prisoner who died soon after The Death of whom and also of Geoffry Fitz-Peter who while the King lived kept him in some awe left the King at full liberty to his own wild desires For at the first hearing of Geoffries death he swore By the Feet of God that now at length he was King of England and with great rejoicing said to some Lords about him Now when this man comes into Hell let him salute the Archbishop Hubert whom certainly he shall find there After this the Lords of the Realm having often required their Ancient Rights and Liberties and finding nothing but delusions they would no longer endure to be abused but meeting together they consider of some remedy and conclude to go to the King themselves in person and make their demands producing likewise a Charter which had been granted in Henry the First 's time Whereupon coming to the King after Christmas lying then in the New Temple in London and acquainting him with their demands he answers That within a few days he will give them satisfaction and causeth the Bishops of Canterbury and Ely and William Maâ—sha Earl of Glocester to pass their words for him that it should be performed But the King never intending to do as he said falls presently to raise Souldiers which the Lords understanding they all did the like and going to the Bishop of Canterbury they deliver him a Copy of their demands and require the Kings Answer who shewed it to the King with a Message of their Resolutions That if he did not presently seal the Charter then delivered to him they would compel him thereto with forcible entrance into all his Possessions The King being highly offended asked Why they did not also require his Kingdom these their demands being grounded on no colour of Reason and then swore a great Oath That be would die before he would enslave himself to them by such Concessions The Lords by this answer knowing what they must trust to appointed Robert Fitzwater to be their General whom they stiled The Marshal of Gods Army and Holy Church Then they besieged Northampton and Bedford and the Governour of the last being a Confederate delivered it up to them But the Londoners displeased with the King for burthening them with Taxes not onely admitted them but invited them to enter the City by night The Lords having now this key of the Land at their dispose sent such threatning Letters and Messages abroad that they drew most of the Nobility from the King who being at Windsor providing an Army And having notice thereof and that the Londoners were joined with them he thought good to proceed rather by Fraud than Force and thereupon sends to the Lords That if they would come to him to Windsor he would grant their demands The Lords coming thither but in a Military manner for they durst not trust his word the King saluted them all kindly and promised to give them satisfaction in all they demanded And so in a Meadow between Windsor and Stanes called Running Mead and afterward Council Mead he freely consented to confirm their former Liberties contained in Magna Charta and Charta Forestae and likewise that there should be Twenty five Peers Elected who should have a sway in the Government and whose commands all the rest of the Barons were bound by Oath to obey and he was contented some grave Personages should be chosen to see it performed But the next day when it should be done the King goes privately the night before to Southampton and from thence to the Isle of Wight where advising with his Council It was concluded he should send to the Pope to acquaint him with this Mutiny of the Lords and require his help while the King in the mean time lived skulking up and down in corners that no man might know where to find him or which is worse as some write roving about and Practising pyracy And now the Lords begin to suspect fraud when shortly after the Kings Messengers who were Walter and John Bishops of Worcester and Norwich return with the Popes Decree whereby the Barons Charter was by definitive Sentence cancelled and made void and the King and Barons accursed if either of them observed the Composition This Decree the King after he had staid three Moneths in the Isle of Wight coming back to Windsor acquaints the Lords with but they accusing the Messenger for falsly informing the Pope and the Pope also for making a Decree without hearing of both sides betake themselves to Arms and swear by the holy Altar to be revenged for this injurious dealing The Ting finding the Lords nothing moved upon the Popes Decree sends again to him to acquaint him with it who being mightily incensed to have his Decree so slighted adjudgeth the Lords to be Enemies of Religion and gives power to Peter Bishop of Winchester and the Abbot 〈◊〉 Râ—dding to Excommunicate them Whereby a 〈…〉 a Child in England K. Willi Rufus Kild in Hunting 〈…〉 k to Wind 〈…〉 they ac 〈…〉 the Pope 〈…〉 without 〈…〉 to Arms 〈…〉 for 〈…〉 〈…〉 moved up 〈…〉 to ac 〈…〉 incensed 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 power 〈…〉 Abbot o◠〈…〉 hereby al◠〈…〉 with the City of 〈◊〉 〈…〉 still stand on these 〈…〉 London scorning and defying the Popes 〈…〉 and Decreeing that neither themselves 〈…〉 Londoners should observe them nor the 〈…〉 dare to denounce them alledging That it 〈…〉 to the Pope to deal in Temporal Affairs 〈…〉 Peter received power of our Saviour onely in 〈…〉 matters and why should the Roman 〈…〉 coverousness extend it self hither to us 〈…〉 have Bishops to do to intermedale in Wars 〈◊〉 are Constantines Successors not St. Peters â—â—om as they represent not in good actions so neither do they in authority Fie upon such mercenary Rascals who having little knowledge of Ingenuity or Art being 〈◊〉 wretched Vsurers and Simoniacks that they would dare by their Excommunications to domineer 〈◊〉 the World O how unlike they are to St. Peter 〈◊〉 have usurped St. Peters Chair With these Remonstrances the Lords went on â—olvedly in their course In the mean time King 〈◊〉 with the assistance of some Forces which 〈◊〉 had hired beyond Sea had within half a year 〈◊〉 all the Castles of the Barons into
King John went with a full Resolution having now got a very great Army together to give present Battle to Lewis but as he was passing the Washes of Lincolnshire which are always dangerous all his Carriages Treasure and Provision were irrecoverably lost in the the Sands himself and his Army hardly escaping The kingdom was now made the Stage of all manner of Rapine and Cruelty having two Armies in it at once each of them seeking to prey upon the other and both of them upon the Country Which the Lords seriously reflecting upon and finding likewise their faithful Services to Lewis little regarded since he bestowed all places that were conquered upon French men onely they began to consider how they might free themselves from these Calamities But that which startled them most was that a Noble French man called Viscount de Melun whâ— was very much in esteem with Lewis being upon his death-bed in London desired to have somâ— private conference with those English Lords and Londoners to whom Lewis had committed the Custody of that City to whom he discovered That lamentable desolation and secret and unsuspected ruine and destruction hung over their heads since Lewis with sixteen others of his chief Earls and Lords of whom himself was one had taken an Oath that if ever the Crown of England were setled on his head they would condemn to perpetual banishment all such as now adhered to him against King John as being Traitors to their own Sovereign and that all their Kindred and Relations should be utterly rooted out of the Land This he affirmed to be true as he hoped for the salvation of his now departing soul and thereupon counselling them timely to prevent their approaching miseries and in the mean while to lock up his words under the Seal of Secresie he soon after departed this life These dreadful Tidings strangely amazed the Auditors and though many of the Lords doubted whether if they returned to their Allegiance toward King John he would ever accept of their Repentance since they had so highly provoked him Yet forty of them immediately sent submissive Letters to the King therein expressing their sorrow and hoping that true Royal Bloud would be ever ready to yield mercy to such as were ready to yield themselves prostrate to intreat for it But these solicitors for mercy came too late for King John through vexation of mind for the loss of his Carriages fell into a high Fever whereof within few days he died Though the manner of his death is otherwise reported by other Authors one of whom saith he was poisoned at Swinshead Abby by a Monk of that Covent upon the following account The King being told that Corn was very cheap said That it should be dearer ere long for he would make a penny loaf to be sold for a shilling At which Speech the Monk was so offended that he put the poison of a Toad into a Cup of Wine and brought it to the King telling him There was such a cup of Wine as he had never drank in all his life and therewithal drank first of it himself which made the King drink more boldly of it but finding himself very ill upon 〈◊〉 he asked for the Monk and when it was told him that he was fallen down dead Then saith the King God have mercy upon me I doubted as much Others say Poison was given him in a dish of Pears and add that this was judged such a meritorious act that the Monk had a Mass appointed to be said for his soul for ever after by his Fellow-Monks This King is charged with Irreligion by the Monks of those times who did not love him and therefore we know not how far they are to be believed And among other Speeches That having been a little before reconciled to the Pope and afterward receiving a great overthrow from the French he in great anger cried out That nothing had prospered with him since he was reconciled to God and the Pope And that at another time being a hunting â—e merrily said at the opening of a fat Buck See how this Deer hath prospered and how fat he is and yet I dare swear he never heard Mâ—ss He is likewise charged that being in some distress he sent Thomas Hardington and Ralph Fitz-Nichols Knights Ambassadors to Miramâ—malim King of Africa and Morocco with offer of his kingdom to him if he would assist him and that if he prevailed he himself would become a Turk and renounce the Christian Religion To this time the City of London had been governed by two Bailiffs but the King in his tenth Year taking displeasure against them for denying his Purveyors Wheat he imprisoned them till 35 of the chief Citizens repaired to him and acquainted him with what small store the City had and how the Commons were ready to make an Insurrection about it he was then satisfied and likewise at their suit he by a New Charter granted â—o the Citizens to elect a new Mayor and 2 Sheriffs to be chosen yearly nine days before Michaelmas which Order hath continued to this day though with some alteration as to time In this Kings time likewise five and thirty of the most substantial Citizens were chosen out and called the Common Council of the City In this Kings time there fell Hail as big as Goose eggs with great Thunder and Lightning so that many Men Women and Cattle were destroyed Houses overthrown and burned and Corn in the Fields beaten down In 1202. and the 4. of King John there began a Frost the 14. of January which continued to the 22. of March that the Ground could not be tilled so that in the Summer following a Quarter of Wheat was sold for a Mark which in the days of Henry the second was sold for twelve pence and a Quarter of Beans or Oats for a Groat and why the disproportion in the prices is now so great since the price of Silver is much less altered for an ounce of Silver was then valued at twenty pence which is now valued at five shillings must be left to Philosophers to give the reason for since scarcity makes things dear why should not plenty make them cheap About this time Fishes of strange shape were taken armed with Helmets and Shields like armed men onely they were much bigger A certain Monster was likewise found stricken with Lightning not far from London which had an head like an Ass a belly like a Man and all other parts far differing from any other Creature And in another place a Fish was taken alive in the form of a Man and was kept six Months upon Land with raw flesh and fish and then because they could not make it speak they cast it into the Sea again In the ninth of King John the Arches and Stone bridge over the Thames at London was quite finished by Serle Mercer and William Alman then Procurators and Masters of the Bridge-house and soon after a great Fire happened there of which
you have already an account After the death of King John his eldest Son Henry being not above ten years old succeeded him and was therefore very unfit to govern in such a distracted time when a great part of the kingdom had sworn Allegiance to Prince Lewis However upon October 8. 1216. he was crowned at Glocester by the name of Henry the Third where besides the usual Oath taken by all Kings he did Homage also to the Church of Rome and to Pope Innocent for the kingdoms of England and Ireland and promised the true payment of the Thousand Marks a year which his Father had granted to the Church of Rome And then William Marshal Earl of Pembroke was by general consent made Protector of the Realm during the Kings Minority In the mean time Lewis who thought himself sure of the kingdom by the death of King John now hearing of the solemn Crowning of the young King with such unanimous consent he begins to grow jealous of the English Lords who indeed had some conflicts in their minds whom they should obey they thought it great ingratitude to forsake Prince Lewis whom they themselves had invited to come and yet it seemed extream disloyalty to stand in opposition to Henry their innocent natural Soveraign but the discovery of Viscount Melun that Lewis intended to extirpate all the English Nobility and the curse of Wallo the Popes Legate against all who should join with Lewis with divers other reasons caused the principal of them to shrink from Lewis and join with King Henry as thinking no obligation so great as Allegiance many others staid with Lewis as thinking none greater than an Oath And now Prince Lewis fearing that his enemies having gotten an head should likewise gather a head and draw more Forces together staying himself in London sent his Lieutenant with an Army of Twenty thousand to take in what Towns he could get some of which they took with small resistance but William Earl of Pembroke the Protector coming against them with an Army utterly routed Lewis and took most of the Lords that adhered to him Prisoners and though his Father Philip sent him more Forces yet they were defeated at Sea so that Lewis upon payment of some monies and other conditions returned into France and King Henry took an Oath and for him the Popes Legate Wallo and the Protector That he would restore to the Barons of the Realm and other his Subjects all their Rights and Priviledges for which the discord began between the late King and his People And afterward he confirmed the two Charters of Magna Charta and Charta Forestae granted by his Father King John In the Tenth year of King Henries Reign and the nineteenth of his Age he claimed to take the Government upon himself and no longer to be under a Protector after which there presently appeared the difference between a Prince that is ruled by good counsel and one that will do all of his own will and take no Advice For thirteen years he was ruled by a Protector and then all passed as it were in a calm without noise or clamour but as soon as he took upon him the Government storms and tumults presently arose neither was there any quietness with the Subject nor himself nothing but Grievances all the long time of his Reign For as soon as he was crowned again he presently cancels and annuls the Charter of the Forests as granted in his Nonage and therefore not bound to observe it and then makes a new Seal forcing all that had Grants by the former to renew them whereby he got abundance of money After which he goes over into France to recover his Rights there to which purpose he raises great sums of money from the Londoners for Redemption of their Liberties About which time Constantine Fitz-Arnulf a Citizen of London upon a tumult which arose in the City at a Wrestling which he purposely appointed endeavoured to set up Lewis again and in the heat of the disturbance he traiterously cried out Mountjoy Mountjoy God for us and our Lord Lewis And though the Lord Mayor who was a very discreet person earnestly persuaded them to be quiet yet Constantine by his seditious Orations had made the people incapable of good counsel so that there was little hope of appeasing them The Lord Chief Justice having notice hereof presently raised Forces and entered the Tower of London and sent for the principal men of the City to come before him who all disclaimed their being concerned therein and charged Fitz Arnulph to be the chief Author thereof But he resolutely answered That he had not done so much therein as he ought Whereupon he was condemned to die together with the Crier who published the Proclamation and his Nephew and was accordingly executed though when he saw the Halter about his neck he offered Fifteen thousand Marks for the saving of his life This Execution being done without noise or the knowledge of the Londoners the Lord Chief Justice comes into the City and apprehending several who where guilty of this Tumult he causeth their hands and feet to be cut off for a terrour to the rest and then set them at liberty The King likewise deposed several of the Magistrates but afterwards finding that the baser sort of People onely were concerned in the Disorder he thereupon was reconciled to the City About this time an Execrable Impostor was brought before the Archbishop of Canterbury who observing how easily the People were deluded in those times of Darkness and Superstition he impudently caused himself to be wounded in his hands feet and sides that by the resemblance of these bloudy Impressions he might be acknowledged for their very Saviour who was thereupon deservedly immured up between four Walls and with him a wretched Woman who pretended to be Mary the Mother of this Christ and some say another who called her self Mary Magdalene this punishment being thought fittest for such Miscreants as Monsters too impious and unworthy to die by Humane hands though it is very remarkable that this man should have such a severe judgment at Oxford and yet St. Francis who was guilty of the same Imposture as to the wounds of Christ though not the name should soon after be canonized at Rome for the chief of Saints and perhaps if this Monster had been at Rome he had been likewise Sainted and if Saint Francis had been at Oxford he had been immured King Henry returning from France brought over many French men with him which he puts in places of Trust and Profit and removes and fines his old Officers The Lords could no longer endure so many indignities to see themselves slighted and Strangers advanced their Persons likewise exposed to danger and their Estates to ruine for which they could find no remedy but the Kings confirming their Charter of Liberties wherein it is strange to see upon what different grounds the King and the Lords went It seems the King thought that to
confirm their Charter was to make himself less than a King and the Lords thought as long as that was denied they were no better than Slaves and as the King could endure no Diminution so the Lords could endure no Slavery But the King might keep his own with sitting still the Lords could not recover their own but by motion And hereupon they confederated together the chief among them being Richard the Brother of William late Protector and now Earl Marshal who repair to the King and boldly tell him of his faults and require satisfaction Whereupon the King presently sends for whole Legions of French men over and withal summons a Parliament at Oxford whither the Lords refuse to come After this a Parliament is called at Westminster whither they likewise refuse to come unless the King would remove the Bishop of Winchester and the French from the Court and more than this they send him word that unless he did this they would expel both himself and his evil Counsellors out of the Land and create a new King Upon this threatning Pledges are required of the Nobility for securing their Allegiance and Writs are sent out to all who held by Knights Service to repair to the King by a certain day which the Earl Marshal and his Associates refusing the King without the Judgment of the Couâ—â— and his Peers causeth them to be proclaimed Outlaws and seizeth upon all their Lands which he gives to the French men and directs out Writs to attach their Bodies where-ever found Upon which some of the Confederate Lords went over to the King and the Earl Marshal is persuaded to do the same which he refusing a design is laid to draw him over into Ireland to defend his Estate there which was seized upon by the King where being circumvented by Treachery he lost his life Yet the King disavows being concerned therein and lays the fault upon his Officers An easie way saith the Historian for Princes never to be found in any fault After this the Lords went into Wales and joined with Prince Lewellin whither also came Hubeâ—t de Burg Earl of Kent Hereupon the King is advised to go himself thither who complained That he was not able in regard of his wants saying that his Treasurers told him all the Rents of his Exchequer would scarce maintain him in Clothes Victuals and Alms. Whereupon some of his Lords answered That he might thank himself if he were poor since he gave so much of his Revenue to his Favourites and had so far alienated his Lands that he was onely a King in name rather than for his Estate though his Ancestors were magnificent Princes who abounded in all worldly glory and wealth and had heaped up vast Treasures onely by the Rents and Profits of the Kingdom The King being stung with this just Reprehension began by their advice to call his Sheriffs Bailiffs and other Officers to a strict account and squeezed great sums of money out of them forcing Ralph Briton his Lord Treasurer to pay him a thousand pound and others very considerable sums whereby he at this time filled his Coffers After two years affliction a Parliament is called at Westminster wherein the Bishops admonish the King by his Fathers Example to be at peace and unity with his People and remove from him Strangers and to govern the Kingdom by Natives of the Realm and by the Laws otherwise they would proceed by Ecclesiastical Censure both against himself and his Counsellors The King â—â—ing no way to subsist but by temporizing removes all Strangers from about him calls his new Officers to account and restores the Lords to their places and possessions Soon after another Parliament is called which the King would have to sit in the Tower whither the Lords refusing to come a place of more freedom is appointed in which Parliament the Sheriffs are removed for corruption and the King would have taken the Great Seal from the Bishop of Chichester who refused to deliver it as having received it from the Common Council of the kingdom In the 21 Year of this Kings Reign another Parliament is called at London where the King requires a great sum of money which being directly opposed the King promiseth by Oath never more to injure the Nobility so they would but relieve him at present and that he would use onely the Counsel of his Natural Subjects and freely grant the inviolable observation of their Liberties Whereupon a Subsidy was granted him but with this condition that four Knights in every County be appointed to receive and pay in the same either to some Abby or or Castle where it may be safely kept that if the King fail of performing his Oaths and Promises it may be restored to the Country from whence it was collected About this time the King to please the Lords ordered Peter de Rivalis and some other of his French Favourites to appear in Westminster Hall as Delinquents and he him self coming thither sate in person upon the Bench among his Judges And Peter de Rivalis being first called the King looking sternly upon him spake thus to him O thou Traitor by thy wicked advice I was drawn to set my Seal to those treacherous Letters for the destruction of the Earl Marshal in Ireland the Câ—tents whereof were to me unknown And by thine and such like wicked counsel I banished my natural Subjects and turned their minds and hearts from me By the bad counsel of thee and thy Accomplices I was stirred up to make War upon them to my exceeding loss and the dishonour of my Realm for thereby I wasted my Treasure and lost many worthy persons together with much of my former honour and respect I therefore require of thee an exact account as well of my Treasure as the Custody of the Wards together with many other Perquisites and Profits belonging to the Crown To whom Rivalis denying nothing whereof he was charged but falling to the ground thus answered My Sovereign Lord and King I have been raised up and enriched with worldly goods onely by you confound not therefore your own Creature but please to grant me some time to make my defence against what I am charged with Thou shalt said the King be carried to the Tower of London there to deliberate of it till I am satisfied And he was sent accordingly But Stephen de Seagrave Lord Chief Justice whom the King likewise called most wicked Traitor had time till Michaelmas to make up his accounts and so had others But afterward by Mediation and paying very great Fines to the King they obtained their Liberty and were a while after again taken into grace and favour In the midst of these distractions and troubles it pleased God to inflict upon this City and the Kingdom the Plague of Famine as well as the Sword whereby the Poor miserably perished for want of Bread The Authors of those Times relate this Story very credibly to shew how displeasing Unmercifulness and want of
Charity is in the sighâ— of God Several poor people plucked the ears of Corn while they were green in the common Fields meerly to keep themselves from starving at which the Owners being much offended desired the Priest of the Parish to curse and excommunicate them all the next Sunday but one in the Company adjured the Priest in the Name of God to exempt his Corn from the Sentence saying That it pleased him well that the Poor being pinched with Famine had taken his Corn and so commended what was left to the blessing of God The Priest being compelled by the importunity of the others had no sooner begun the Sentence but a sudden Tempest of Thunder Lightning Wind Hail and Rain interrupted him whereby all the Corn-fields thereabout were laid waste and destroyed as if they had been trodden under foot with Cart and Horses yea no kind of Fowl nor Beast would feed upon it But this honest tender-hearted man found all his Corn and Ground though mingled among theirs altogether untouched and without the least harm Awhile after the K calls another Parl. at London in order to the raising of more mony having tried before to borrow of the Londoners and found them to incline to the Lords To this Parliament the Lords come armed for their own defence and make Richard the Kings Brother Spokesman wherein they aggravate his breach of promise since neither were Strangers removed from about him but taken more into favour than before Nor was the former money disposed of according to appointment but the King made bold to make use of it at his own pleasure the Earl of Provence the Young Queens Father and Simon Montford a new Favourite and a French man born now made Earl of Leicester having a good share of the money collected they acquaint him also with all the rest of the disorders of the kingdom The King was so moved at this their Remonstrance that taking his Oath to refer the matter to divers grave men of the kingdom Articles were drawn sealed and publickly set up to the view of all And soon after the Earl of March solicites the King to make another journey into France whereupon he calls a Parliament at London and demands Aid which was not onely opposed but an account required of all the Taxations hitherto given with an absolute denial of any more Upon which the King comes to the Parliament in Person earnestly and indeed humbly craving their Aid for this once But all prevailed not for they had made a Vow to the contrary and the King is driven to get what he can of particular men of whom partly by Gift and partly by Loan he gets so much that he carries over with him thirty Barrels of Sterling money This Expedition had no better success than the former for after a whole years stay the King was forced to make a dishonourable Truce with the French and upon his return home he laid new Exactions on the Jews and the Londoners In the next Parliament at Westminster enquiry was made how much money the Pope had yearly out of England and it was found to be annually threescore thousand Marks which was more than the Revenue of the Crown which the King ordered an account to be taken of and sent it to the Council at Lyons This so vexed the Pope that he said It is time to make an end with the Emperour with whom he was then at variance that we may crush these petty Kings for the Dragon once appeased or destroyed these lesser Snakes will soon be trodden down Upon which it was absolutely ordained that the Pope should have no more money out of England But the King being of an irresolute and wavering nature and afraid of Threats soon gave over and the Pope continued his former Rapine The King had now abundance of Grandees come to see him from Foreign parts and having called a Parliament at London he is sharply taxed for his Expences and severely reprehended for his breach of promise having vowed and declared in his Charter never more to injure the State again also for his violent taking up Provisions of Wax Silk Robes and especially of Wine contrary to the will of the Seller and many other Grievances they complain of All which the King hears patiently in hope of obtaining Supplies which yet they would not give and thereupon the Parliament is prorogued till Midsummer following and the King growing more furious than before it was then dissolved in discontent But the Parliament not supplying him he is advised to supply his wants with sale of his Plate and Jewels of the Crown being told That though they were sold yet they would revert again to him And having with great loss received money for them he asked who had bought them Answer is made The City of London That City said he is an inexhaustible Gulph if Octavius Treasure were to besold they would surely buy it In his two and fortieth year another Parliament is held which by some was called Insanum Parliamentum the Mad Parliament because at this Parliament the Lords came with great Retinues of armed men and many things were enacted contrary to the Kings Prerogative And now to vex the City the King commands a Fair to be kept at Westminster forbidding under great penalties all exercise of Merchandize within London for fifteen days But this Novelty came to nothing for the inconvenience of the place as it was then and the foulness of the Weather brought more damage to the Traders than benefit At Christmas likewise he demands New-years-gifts of the Londoners and shortly after writes unto them his Letters imperiously commanding them to aid him with money and thereby gets twenty thousand pound of them for which the next year he craves pardon of them But notwithstanding his continual taking up of all Provisions for his house without money yet he lessens his House-keeping in no honourable manner Now seeing he could get nothing of the States assembled in Parliament he sends or writes to every Nobleman in particular declaring his Poverty and how he was bound by Charter in a debt of thirty thousand pound to those of Burdeaux and Gascoign who otherwise would not have suffered him to come back to England But failing of any relief from the Temporal Lords he addresseth his Letters to the Bishops of whom he finds as little relief yet by much importunity and his own presence he got an hundred pound of the Abbot of Ramsey but the Abbot of Burrough had the confidence to deny him though the King told him It was more charity to give money to him than to a Beggar that went from door to door The Abbot of St. Albans was yet more kind and gave him threescore Marks to such lowness did did the profuseness of this indigent King bring him But now the Lords assemble again at London and press him with his promise that the Lord Chief Justice Châ—ncellor and Treasurer should be appointed by the General Council of
the Kingdom but they go home again frustrate of their desiâ—es Not long after a Parliament is assembled at London and Henry de Bath one of the Judges and Councellour to the King who by corruption had got a vast Estâ—te is accused by Philip Darcy and Bath thereupon appears strongly guarded with his Friends The Accusations were many but especially two That he troubled the whole Realm and stirred up all the Lords thereof against the King and that for reward he had discharged a Malefactor out of Prison The King was so enraged to see him with so many men that mounting into an high place he cries out aloud Whosoever kills Henry de Bath shall be pardoned for his death and I do here acquit him and so departs But Sir John Mansel one of his Council spake thus to some who was ready to execute his will Gentlemen and Friends It is not necessary for us to put that presently in execution which the King commandeth in his anger for it may be when his wrath is over he will be sorry for what he hath said Besides if any violence be offered to Bath here are his friends ready to revenge it to the utmost And so Sir Henry Bath escaped the present danger and afterwards with money and friends made his peace About this time the King by Proclamation calls the Londoners to Westminster and there causeth the Bishops of Worcester Chichester to declare his intentions and to exhort the People to undertake the recovery of the Holy Land from the Saracens the King being persuaded thereto by the Pope who usually sent Princes abroâ—d to recover Palestine on purpose that he might fleece the Subjects of some and seize the Lands of others at home in their absence But the Londoners had no mind to this Pilgrimage and therefore all the Bishops Arguments prevailed onely upon three poor Knights whom the King thereupon in open view embraceth kisseth and calls his Brethren but checks the Londoners as ignoble Mercenaries and there himself takes his Oath for performing this Journey and to set forth upon Midsummer day next In taking his Oath he lays his right hand upon his Brest according to the manner of a Priest and after on the Book and kist it as a Layman Now for money to carry on this the King demands a Tenth of the Estates of the Clergy and Laiety for three years together To which end a Parliament is called at London where the Bishops are first dealt withal as being a work of Piety but they absolutely refuse it then the Temporal Lords are set upon and they answer as the Bishops which put the King into so great a rage that he drove out all that were in his Chamber as if he had been mad Then he falls to persuade them apart sending first for the Bishop of Ely and tells him how kindly he had formerly been to him the Bishop dissuades him from the Journey by the example of the French King and useth many other Arguments which the King hearing commanded the Bishop in great passion to be thrust out of doors and perceiving by this what he might expect from others he falls upon his former violent courses and the City of London is compelled to contribute a thousand Marks Gascoign is likewise ready to revolt unless speedy succour be sent them and general Musters are made which occasions another Parliament at London who it seems began to consider that the Kings turn must be served one way for other and therefore they agreed to relieve him the usual way rather than force him to those extravagant courses which he took Yet so as the Reformation of the Government and the Ratification of their Laws and Liberties might once again be solemnly confirmed After fifteen days consultation a Tenth is granted for this holy expedition and thereupon those often confirmed Charters called Magna Charta and Charta de Forestae are again ratified and that in the most solemn and ceremonious manner that State and Religion could possibly devise The King with all the chief Nobility of the Realm in their Robes and the Bishops in their Vestments with burning Candles in their hands assemble to hear the terrible Sentence of Excommunication against the Infringers of the same and at the lighting of those Candles the King having received one in his hand gives it to the Prelate that stood by saying It becomes not me who am no Priest to hold this Candle my heart shall be a greater testimony and withal laid his hand spred upon his brest during the reading the Sentence Which done he caused the Charter of King John his Father granted by his free Consent to be openly read And then having thrown down their Candles which lay smoaking on the ground they cried out So let them who incur this Sentence be extinct and have no better savour than these snuffs And the King with a loud voice said As God help me I will as I am a man a Christian a Knight a King crowned and anointed inviolably observe all these things And therewithal the Bells rung out and the People shouted for Joy Yet was not all quieted by this Grant for Siâ—â—â— Mâ—â—tford Earl of â—ercester a while after charâ—â—g the King with breach of promise the King in great rage replied No promise was to be kept with an unworthy 〈◊〉 At which words Montford riseth up and protested That the King lied and were he not or 〈◊〉 by his Royal Dignity he he would make 〈◊〉 â—â—pent his words The King commanded his Attendants to lay hold of him but the Lords would not suffer it Yet after this great affront Montford is again sent to Gascoun with a great Fleet by the King who goes also himself into France and there spends a vast deal of money but it is the Londoners must pay for all for returning home about Christmas they presented him with an hundred pound in Money and two hundred pound in plate which was so slighted and so ill taken that advantage was soon found against them about the escape of a Prisoner which cost them Three Thousand Marks and commonly he had every year one quarrel or other with the Citizens which they are sure to make satisfaction for Soon after another Parliament is called at London wherein the Lords again expostulate about their former Liberties requiring that the Lord Chief Justice c. should be chosen by Parliament They likewise require twenty four Conservators should be elected twelve by the King and twelve by themselves to see to the due execution of these Charters which the King knowing their strength yielded to and both he and his Son the Prince sware to confirm the same A while before the King sent to some Monasteries to borrow money his Officers alledging that the King was Lord of all they had who answered they acknowledged that but yet so as to defend it not to destroy it or take it illegally away from them K Henry 6 Murdered in the Tower K. Edward 5.4
his brother Murdered Q. Elizabeth Prisoner in the Tower The Lords having thus got the Government into their hands obliege the King to free them from all Obedience and Allegiance whensoever he infringed their Charter Yet soon after the King sends to Râ—me to be freed from his Oath which he obtained Whereupon the Lords put themselves into arms and Moniford Earl of Leicester their General takes many Castles The King likewise raises Forces The Barons march toward London under a Banner richly and beautifully flourished with the Kings Arms. And as they passed by the Houses or Possessions of those that favoured the Popes Bulls whereby the King himself and all others who had formerly sworn to observe and maintain those new Ordinances and Laws and to support the Authority of the twenty four Peers were fully absolved from their Oaths they robbed and wasted them as Enemies to the King and kingdom They then approached the City of London and by their Letters desired the Lord Mayor and Citizens to send them word whether they resolved to support the Authority of the Peers or not protesting before God themselves intended nothing else and that if any thing were defective in those Laws they should be reformed The Lord Mayor sends these Letters with all speed to the King who desired likewise to know whether they would support the Laws of the twenty four Peers or not they stoutly answered that they would since by the Kings command they had all sworn so to do The King was extreamly enraged at this answer but he could get no other and the same answer they sent to the Lords who thereupon proceeded in their march and were with much joy and kindness received into London and soon after routed the Prince who came against them with a considerable Army But some of the meaner sort of the City intending under the pretence of these disturbances to do mischief elected two ambitious Fellows whom they called the two Constables of London and agreed that at the tolling of a great Bell in St. Pauls Church as many as would join with them should be ready to act whatever the two Constables commanded them and though all endeavours were used to prevent them yet their desire of plunder so furiously transported them that upon the tolling that Bell a great number met together and marching about eight miles Westward from London they ruined and destroyed the House and Possessions of the Kings Brother Richard King of the Romans carrying away all his Goods with them Which insolent outrage much furthered the succeeding Wars for whereas before Richard being of a mild and virtuous disposition had used all his endeavours to make peace upon all occasions he now became a professed Enemy both to the Barons and the City of London After this the Lords sent a Letter to the King and protested with all humility and submission that they intended nothing but the performance of their Oaths by defending those Laws and Ordinances which had been established in Parliament for the benefit of the King and the Realm But the King his Brother Richard and Edward the young Prince thinking nothing more disdainful than that Subjects should rule and command their Sovereign resolved to revenge it and bid utter defiance to the Lords and both Armies met near a Town called Lewis in Sussex where a cruel Battel was fought and the King his Brother and the Prince were all taken prisoners with many other great Commanders and twenty thousand men slain Yet a while after upon some Conditions they were all three set at Liberty and the former Laws and Ordinances were confirmed in Parliament and the King took an Oath for confirming the power of the twelve Peers After which the Earls of Leicester and Glocester the two Generals of the Lords Party fell into a great difference which Prince Edward taking advantage of raiseth an Army and persuading the Earl of Glocester to join with him they fell upon the Earl of Leicesters Army and utterly routed them himself his eldest Son and many others being slain Which overthrow utterly defeated the Barons and revived the Melancholy King who calling a Parliament all the former Decrees were made void together with the power of the twelve Peers and the King regained his former Liberty and Authority When this Parliament was ended the King perhaps by the instigation of his Brother Richard who was so horridly abused without cause by the baser sort of the Inhabitants of the City resolved utterly to destroy and consume the City of London by Fire because he said the Magistrates and Inhabitants had always hated him and taken part with the Lords against him Whereupon those of the Nobility who were most in favour with the King humbly besought him By no means to do such an execrable deed which would not onely weaken his own Kingdom and Government but would likewise make him infamous throughout the World to all Generations They were very earnest in their suit and their Reasons were unanswerable yet the King prorested That he was resolved to do it and his determination should be unchangeable and his Justice upon such Rebellious Villains should be a President to deter all perverse and obstinate Rebels and Traitors in time to come This severe Resolution made the Citizens tremble at the indignation of their angry King so that perceiving his rage and fury not to be mitigated they caused an instrument to be drawn in writing which was confirmed with their Common Seal wherein they confessed their Rebellion and humbly craved pardon for the same and without any exception or reservation they wholly submitted their Lands Goods and Lives together with the whole City to the Kings Grace and Mercy This Instrument they sent to Windsor to the King by some of the chiefest of the Citizens who were ordered to present it on their knees but so furious was the Kings wrath against them and so implacable was his anger that he reputed none to be his Friends who interposed as Mediators on their behalf neither would he admit any of them into his presence but commanded them immediately to be thrown into prison and five of the principal of them he gave to the Prince together with all their Lands and Goods and all the rest he bestowed among his Attendants who made them Slaves and suffered them to enjoy the least part of their own But when the King had thus a little revenged himself and time had cooled his mighty passion he began to hearken to the importunate intercession of Prince Edward his Son and soon after received the City and all its Inhabitants into favour again and laying onely a Fine upon them of a thousand Marks he restored to them all their Charters Liberties and Customs which for their transgressions he had seized into his hands And now though these Intestine Troubles and Civil Wars which like an outragious Fire dispersed into the midst of a well compacted City had end angered the whole State of the kingdom were thus appeased
and though the Earl of Glocester by his revolt from the Barons and joining with the Prince had greatly furthered this good work and had caused the King to enjoy a happy peace yet was this Earl so little trusted that he found neither favour nor reward but was much slighted and had but cold entertainment at Court which he highly resented and meditated revenge In this fury he came headlong into the City of London and complaining of his ill usage the common people flockt in Troops about him and daringly committed many notorious outrages within the City forgetting the great Calamity they had lately suffered and what favours they had received From thence they went to the Kings Palace at Westminster which they most barbarously rifled spoiled and ransacked This might have produced another Civil War but the Tumult was in a little time dispersed and the Prince again interposed himself an earnest Mediator between the King and all the Offenders and procured a large and free pardon for the Earl of Glocester whereby all things were again appeased and quieted After which the Earl of Glocester and Prince Edward went into the Holy Land where he continued till after the death of his Father It is observed of this King Henry the third that he was never constant in his love nor his hate for he never had so great a Favourite but he cast him off with disgrace nor so great an Enemy whom he received not into favour An example of both which Qualities was seen in his carriage to Hubert de Burgh who was for a time the greatest Favourite yet cast out afterward in miserable disgrace and then no man held in greater hatred yet received afterward into Grace again And it is strange to read what Crimes this Hubert was charged with at his Arraignment and especially one That to dissuade a great Lady from marrying with the King he had said The King was a squint-eyed Fool and a kind of Leper deceitful perjured more faint-hearted than a Woman and utterly unfit for any Ladies Company For which and other crimes laid to his charge in the Kings Bench where the King himself was present he was adjudged to have his Lands Confiscate and to be deprived of his Title of Earl yet after all he was restored to his Estate again and suffered to live quiet There is likewise an instance of his Timorousness in the following passage The King being in his Barge on the Thames on a sudden the Air grew dark and there followed a terrible Shower with Thunder and Lightning of which the King being impatient commanded himself to be put to Land at the next Stairs which was Durham-house where Simon Montford Earl of Leicester lived which the Earl having notice of came to wait on the King saying Sir Why are you afraid the Tempest is now past Whereunto the King with a stern look replied I fear Thunder and Lightning extreamly but by the head of God I fear thee more than all the Thunder and Lightning in the World Whereto the Earl answered My Leige it is injurious and incredible that you should stand so much in fear of me who have been always loyal both to you and your Kingdom whereas you ought to fear your Enemies even those that destroy the Realm and abuse your Majesty with bad Counsels In this Kings Reign the two great Charters of Magna Charta and Charta de Forestae were ratified and confirmed The Pleas of the Crown were likewise pleaded in the Tower of London All Wears in the Thames were in this Kings time ordered to be pulled up and destroyed Also the Citizens of London were allowed by Charter to pass Toll-free through England and to have free liberty of Hunting about London they had likewise licence to have and use a Common Seal It was also ordained that no Sheriff of London should continue in his Office longer than one Yearâ— whereas before they continued many and the City were allowed to present their Mayor to the Barons of the Exchequer to be sworn who before was presented to the King where-ever he were In the 32 year of his Reign the Wharf in London called Queen-Hith was farmed to the Citizens for fifty pounds a year which is scarce now worth fifteen This King caused a Chest of Gold to be made for laying up the Reliques of King Edward the Confessor in the Church of Westminster Hubert de Burgh Earl of Kent was buried in the Church of the Friars Preachers in London to which Church he gave his Pallace at Westminster which afterward the Archbishop of York bought and made it his Inn then commonly called York Place and now Whitchall In the thirteenth year of this King there were great Thunders and Lightnings which burnt many houses and slew both Men and Beasts In his 15. year upon S. Pauls day when Roger Wiger Bishop of London was at Mass at S. Pauls the Sky suddenly grew dark and such a terrible Thunder-clap sell upon the Church that it was shaken as if it would have fallen and so great a flash of Lightning came out of a dark Cloud that all the Church seemed to be on fire so that all the people ran out of the Church and fell on the ground with astonishment In 1233. five Suns were seen at one time together after which followed so great a Dearth that people were forced to eat Horse-flesh and Barks of Trees and in London twenty thousand were starved for want of Bread In 1236. the River of Thames overflowed the Banks so that in the great Pallace at Westminster men rowed with Boats in the midst of the Hall In 1240. many strange Fishes came ashore and among others forty Sea Bulls and one of a huge bigness passed through London Bridge unhurt till he came to the Kings House at Moreclack where he was killed In 1263. the Thames again overflowed the Banks about Lambeth and drowned Houses and Fields for the space of six Miles And the same Year there was a Blazing Star seen for three Moneths In 1264. seven hundred Jews were slain in London their Goods spoiled and their Synagogue defaced because one Jew would have forced a Christian to have paid above two pence a Week for the use of twenty shillings In 1268. there happened a great quarrel between the Goldsmiths and Taylors of London which occasioned much mischief to be done and many men were slain for which Riot twelve of the Ringleaders were hanged In 1269. the River of Thames was so hard frozen from the last of November to Gandlemas that men and Beasts passed over from Lambeth to Westminster and Goods were brought from Sandwich and other Port Towns by Land In 1271. the Steeple of Bow in Cheapside fell down and slew many people both Men and Women About the same time a Child was born near London who is reported at two years old to have cured all Diseases And at Greenwich near London a Lamb was yeaned which had two perfect bodies and but one head King
and odious to the Lords and the People as the other was for they inclined the King to a lewd and wanton course of life among Whores and Concubines and to forsake the company of his modest and vertuous Queen which made him a Scorn to Foreign Princes and hateful in the sight of all honest men yet the King in despight of his Lords supported the Spencers in whatever they did Whereupon the Lords rise in Arms and the King likewise raiseth Forces where a great Battle was fought and the Barons were overthrown and after the Fight two and twenty of the Lords were beheaded which increased the pride and insolence of the Spencers Yet the Queen who fled to Germany soon after returned accompanied with 300 Knights and select men at Arms with whom the Lords and the Londoners joined and seizing upon the Spencers the Father who was fourscore and ten years old was cruelly executed having his heart pulled out and his body left hanging on the Gallows while he was alive and the Son with the King himself were imprisoned and soon after young Spencer was drawn hanged and quartered his Head set upon London Bridge and his four Quarters bestowed in several Cities Then was a Parliament called wherein it was agreed to depose the King and set up his Son which he because they threatned to exclude both him and his Son and set up a King of another Race consented to And thereupon the Bishop of Hereford and other Commissioners came and sate at a place appointed to take his Resignation and the King coming forth in mourning Robes upon a sudden fell down in a swound and could hardly be recovered After which the Bishop of Hereford declared the cause of their coming To which the King answered That as he much grieved his People should be so hardened against him as utterly to reject him so iâ— was some comfort to him that they would yet receive his Son to be their Sovereign Whereupon Sir William Trussel Speaker of the Parliament in the name of the whole kingdom renounced Homage to the King in these words I William Trussel in the name of all the Men of the Land of England and of all the Parliament Procurator do resign to thee Edward the Homage that was made to thee sometimes and from this time forward now following I defie thee and deprive thee of all Royal Power and I shall never be tendant to thee as for King after this time Not long after this King was murthered by Sir John Matravers and Thomas Gourney by thrusting an hot Spit up his Fundament into his Bowels after he had reigned nineteen Years and 6 months 1327. In the eighth year of his reign was so great a Dearth that Horses and Dogs were eaten and Thieves in Prison pulled in pieces those that were newly brought in amongst them and eat them half alive Which continuing three years in the end brought such a Pestilence that the living scarce sufficed to bury the dead In this Kings time digging the Foundation of a Work about St. Pauls were found above an hundred Heads of Oxen and Kine which confirmed the opinions that of old time it had been the Temple of Jupiter and that there was the Sacrifice of Beasts Edward of Windsor eldest Son of King Edward the second by the order of Parliament upon his Fathers Resignation was proclaimed King of England Jan. 25. 1327. and soon after a Parliament was called wherein Edmund Earl of Kent the Kings Uncle is accused for intending to restore his Brother upon which he was condemned and brought to the Scaffold but was so generally beloved of the People that he stood there from one of the Clock till five in the Afternoon before any Executioner could be found to do the Office till at last a silly Wretch in the Marshalsey was gotten to cut off his head But the authors of his death escaped not long themselves for in the third year of the Kings Reign another Parliament is holden wherein the Queen hath all her great Jointure taken from her and is put to her Pension of a thousand pound a Year and her self confined to a Castle where she remained the rest of her days no fewer than thirty years Time long enough to convince her that her being the daughter of a King the wife of a King and the mother of a King were glorious Titles but all not worth the Liberty of a mean Estate And Roger Mortimer her great Minion and Favourite lately created Earl of the Marches of Wales was seized on this manner The King taking others with him went secretly one night by Torch-light through a private way under ground till they came to the Queens chamber where leaving the King without some of them went in and found the Queen with Mortimer ready to go to bed and laying hands on him they brought him out after whom the Queen followed crying Good Son good Son take pity upon the gentle Mortimer suspecting her Son had been amongst them This way was taken to apprehend him to prevent Tumult he having no less than ninescore Knights and Gentlemen besides other meaner Servants about him continually Being thus seized he is committed to the Tower and accused of divers crimes and amongst the rest that he had been too familiar with the Queen by whom she was thought to be with child Of which Articles he was found guilty and condemned and thereupon is drawn and hanged at the common Gallows at the Elms now called Tyburn where his body remained two days an opprobrious spectacle to all beholders This King Edward the third was a victorious Prince and with the assistance of his Son Edward called the Black Prince won many considerable Victories against the French and Scetch taking both their Kings prisoners who were committed to the Tower of London This King instituted the Order of the Garter upon what cause is uncertain the common opinion is that a Garter of his own Queen or as some say of the Countess of Salisbury slipping off in a dance King Edward stooped and took it up whereat some of his Lords that were present smiling as at an amorous action he seriously said It should not be long ere sovereign honour were done to that Garter Whereupon he added that French Motto Honi soit qui maly pense Evil to him that evil thinks therein checking his Lords sinister suspicion In the fourth year of his Reign the Sea Banks were overflown through all England but especially in the River Thames so that all the Cattle and Beasts near thereunto were drowned There was likewise found a Serpent having two heads and two faces like a Woman one face drest after the new fashion and another like the old with Wings like a Bat and men and women perished in divers places by Lightning and Thunder Fiends Devils and Apparitions were likewise seen by men and spoke to them as they travelled At this time upon the Petition of the Londoners an Act was made that no common Whore
should wear any Hood except striped with divers colours nor Furs but Garments turned the wrong side outward This King confirmed the Liberties of the City of London and ordained that the L. Mayor should sit in all places of Judgment within the Liberty of the same as chief Justice the Kings person only excepted and that every Alderman that had been Mayor should be Justice of Peace in all London and Middlesex and every Alderman that had not been Mayor should be Justice of Peace in his own Ward Also he granted to the Citizens of London that they should not be forced without their own consent to go out of the City to fight or defend the Land and likewise that after that day the Charter and Franchises of the City should not be seized into the Kings hands but onely for Treason and Rebellion done by the whole City Likewise that Southwark should be under the Government of the City and the Lord Mayor to chuse a Bailiff there as he pleased He also granted to the Citizens of London that the Officers of the Mayor and Sheriffs should from that day forward use Maces of silver parcel gilt In the twenty second year of his Reign a contagious Pestilence arose in the East and South parts of the World and coming at last into England it so wasted the people that scarce the tenth person of all sorts were left alive There died in London some say in Norwich between the first of January and the first of July 57374 persons This Plague lasted nine Years In the thirty fifth year of his Reign another Plague happened which was called the second Pestilence in which died many Lords and Bishops In this Kings time a Frost lasted from the midst of September to the Moneth of April In the fourth year of his Reign a solemn Just or Turnament was held in Cheapside London between the great Cross and the great Conduit In the eleventh year of his Reign was so great plenty that a Quarter of Wheat was sold at London for 2 s. a fat Ox for a noble a fat Goose for 2 d. a Pig for a penny and other things after that rate But in his 27 year there was a great scarcity by reason there fell little or no Rain from the end of March to the end of July and was therefore called the Dry Summer John Barns Mayor of London gave a chest with three Locks and a thousand Marks to be lent to young men upon security and for the Use of it if learned they were to say the Psalm De Profundis c. for the soul of John Barns if otherwise to say a Pater Noster but however the money is lent the cheft stood long after in the Chamber of London without money or security In the time of the Princes sickness the King calls a Parliament at Westminster and demands supplies upon which they demand redress of the Grievances of the Subjects and among the rest that John Duke of Law after and Alice Perice the Kings Concubine with others might be removed from the Court this Woman presuming so much upon the Kings favour that she grew very insolent and intermedled with Courts of Justice and other Offices where she her self would sit to countenance her Causes And this was so vehemently urged by the Speaker of the House of Commons that the King rather than want Supplies gave way to it and so they were all presently put from Court But the Prince dying soon after they were all recalled to Court again and restored to their former plâ—ces and Sir Peter de la More the Speaker was at the sâ—â—t of Alice Perice confined to perpetual Imprisonment though by making great Friends he got his Liborty in two years About this time John Wickliff bringeth in a new Doctrine inveighing against the abuses of Church-men Monks and other Religious Orders whom the Duke of Lancaster favoured Whereupon a great contention arose between him and the Bishop of London the Londoners take the Bishops part and set upon the Duke of Lancasters house at the Savoy upon which the Duke after the Tumult caused the Mayor and Aldermen to be displaced and others put in their rooms and Wickliff is banished to Bohemia where his Doctrine continues in great veneration to this day among that People King Edward died in the 64 year of his age and fiftieth of his Reign and his Grandchild Richard the second succeeded of whose unfortunate Reign and Deposition you have heard before we shall therefore onely add a few particulars more In his thirteenth year a Royal Just or Turnament was proclaimed to be holden in Smithfield London and at the day appointed about three of the clock in the Afternoon there issued out of the Tower threescore fine Horses apparelled for the Justs and upon every one an Esquire of Honour riding a soft pace after them came four and thirty Ladies of Honour mounted on Palfreys and every Lady led a Knight with a chain of gold These Knights being on the Kings side had their armour and apparel garnished with white Harts and Crowns of gold upon their heads and so they came riding through the streets of London to Smithfield This Just lasted twenty four days all which time the King and Queen lay at the Bishops Palace by S. Pauls Church and kept open house to all comers In the year 1â—89 whilest the King was at Sheen near London there swarmed in his Court such a multitude of Flies and Gnats skirmishing one with another that they were swept away with Brooms by heaps and Bushels were filled with them In the one and wentieth year of his Reign King Richard caused the great Hall at Westminster to be repaired both with Walls Windows and Roofs In his twelfth year in March there were terrible Winds and afterward a great Mortality and Dearth A Dolphin was likewise taken at London Bridge being ten foot long and very big Also in Parliament time an Image made by Necromancy in Wax as it is said at an hour appointed uttered these words The Head shall be cut off the Head shall be lifted up aloft the Feet shal be lift up above the head This hapned in that called the Marvellous Parliament not long before that called the Parliament that wrought wonders Henry IV. his Uncle succeeded K. Rich. against whom several Rebellions were raised especially one Henry Piercy called Hotspur and others who were overthrown King Henry himself killing thirty six with his own hands the Earl of Worcester among the rest was taken and beheaded with many others whose Heads were set on London Bridge In his time a Parliament was called at Westminster in which the Commons presented a Petition to the King and the House of Peers desiring that the King might have the Temporal Possessions of the Bishops and Clergy affirming that they would maintain 150 Earls 1500 Knights 6200 Esquires and 100 Hospitals for maimed Souldiers They desired likewise that Clerks Convict should not be delivered into the Bishops Prison
no reports should cause any disaffection toward him But as soon as this young King was Crowned at Westminster he like king Saul seemed to have a new heart given him and became another man than he was before For calling his old Companions and brethren in evil before him he strictly charged them not to come within Ten miles of the Court till they had given proof of their Reformation And to prevent their proceding in ill courses he gave every one of them a sufficient allowance Immediately after a Parliament was called at Westminster where a Subsidy was granted without asking and the Commons began to harp upon the old string of taking away the Lands of the Clergy which the Bishops fearing the Kings inclination endeavoured to divert by shewing him the great Right he had to the Crown of France which they made so plainly appear that he alters his Arms and quarters the Flower de Luces like the King of France But to do it fairly he sends Ambassadors to Charles the sixth King of France Requiring him in a Peacable manner to surrender the Crown of France The Ambassadors had five hundred Horse to attend them and were at first honourably received and Treated by the Court of France but when their Message was known their Entertainment was soon altered and the Dauphin who managed the Affairs of State during the Kings sickness about this time sent a Tun of Tennis Balls to K. Henry in derision of his Youth as fitter to play with them than to manage Arms. Which King Henry took in such scorn that he promised with an Oath It should not be long before he would toss such iron Balls among them that the best Arms of France should not be able to hold a Racket to return them And accordingly he went with an Army into France and utterly routed the French Army at Agincourt though they were 6 times as many as the English killing about nine thousand of them and taking fifteen hundred prisoners and on the English part not above six hundred were slain in all In the beginning of his Reign the followers of Wickliff greatly encreased of whom Sir John Old-Castle was chief who by marriage came to be Lord Cobham and in great favour with the King But being accused in a Synod of London for maintaining Wickliffs Doctrine the King sent for him and persuaded him to submit to the censure of the Church who told the King he onely owed subjection to his Majesty and for others he would stand for the Truth against them with his life Upon which he was cited to appear in the Bishops Court which he refusing was condemned by a Synod for an Heretick in which Synod the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury caused it to be ordained That the Holy Scriptures ought not to be translated into the English Tongue But mark the Judgment of God that fell upon his own Tongue whose roots and blade shortly after as it is recorded grew so big in his mouth and throat that he could neither speak nor swallow down meat but in horrour lay languishing till at last starved by Famine so died After this Sir John Oldcastle was taken and he Sir Roger Acton and twenty eight more were executed at S. Giles in the Fields and in Smithfield for Heresie and all the Prisons in and about London were filled with his Followers In the third year of this Kings Reign on Candlemas day seven Dolphins came up the River of Thames whereof four were taken This King had such command in France that their own Chronicles testifie in the Court of Chancery in Paris all things were sealed with the Seal of King Henry of England In the second year of his Reign Moregate near Colemanstreet was first made by Thomas Fawkener Mayor of London who caused the Water of this City to be turned into the Thames in Walbrook by making Grates in divers places King Henry the fifth died the thirty fifth year of his age and the ninth of his Reign leaving his Son Henry to enjoy his Crown who was but eight months old when his Father died yet by the Duke of Bedford Regent of France is proclaimed King of England and France at Paris and at nine years old was crowned King there receiving the Oaths and Fealty of all the French Nobility This King was very weak in Judgment and was ruled onely by his Queen which occasioned him very great trouble for they used his Authority for the destruction of the Duke of Glocester and several other persons who were much beloved of the People About which time the Duke of York began to whisper his Right to the Crown as descended from Philippa Daughter and Heir to Lionel Duke of Clarence Elder Brother to John of Gaunt and Great Grandfather to the present King Henry the sixth and it was privately discoursed That King Henry was of a weak capacity and easily abused and the Queen who was near to the French Queen was of a malignant spirit and bloudily ambitious the Privy Council is wise enough yet not honest enough regarding more their own pravate profit than the publick good and that through their neglect all France was lost and that God would not bless the usurped Possession of King Henry With these suggestions the Kentish men seemed to be taken which being observed by an Instrument of the Duke of York one Mortimer he takes opportunity to tell the People That if they will be ruled by him he will shew them the way to make a thorough Reformation and prevent the Taxes that are upon every slight occasion laid upon them These promises of Reformation and Freedom so wrought with the People that they drew to a Head and make Mortimer otherwise called Jack Cade their Leader who stiled himself Captain Mendall with whom they came to Black-heath and lay thereabout a Moneth sending for whom and what he pleased He then presents the complaint of the Commons to the Parliament who sent them to the Privy Council but they explode them as frivolous and charge the Authors to be presumptuous Rebels and thereupon the King raiseth an Army and brings them to Greenwich but the Lords could get no Followers to fight against them who fought onely for Reformation of Abuses and for punishment of such Traitors as they said the Lord Say was The Lord Say is hereupon committed to the Tower and the King and Queen retire to London whom Cade follows and comes to Southwark where he Quarters his men and next morning marcheth to London Bridge where he caused his Followers to cut the Rope of the Draw-bridge no resistance being made against him and so in good order marched up to London-Stone upon which he strook his Sword saying Now is Mortimer Lord of London He then sent for the Lord Say out of the Tower and cut off his head at the Standard in Cheapside and also the head of Sir James Cromer High-Sheriff of Kent but upon the Kings General Pardon his Followers leave him and he is soon after
London Mercer who first practised the same in the Abby of Westminstor 1471. This King Henry lost his Kingdom when he had reigned thirty eight years six months and odd days The day after he was murdered he was brought to St. Pauls Church in an open Coffin bare-faced where he bled and from thence carried to Black Fryars where he also bled and lastly was buried at Windsor In the first year of King Edward the fourth Walter Walker Grocer living in Cheapside was beheaded for speaking some words against King Edward In his fourth year there was a great Pestilence and the Thames was frozen over In his 14 year John Grose was burnt on Tower-hill for Religion The same year King Edward in his Progress hunting in Sir Thomas Burdels Park slew many Deer and among the rest a white Buck which Sir Thomas hearing of wished the Bucks head horns and all in his belly who moved the King to kill him Upon which words he was condemned to die and being drawn from the Tower of London to Tyburn was there beheaded Next year George D. of Clarence K. Ed. Brother was drowned in the Tower in a But of Malmsey In his twenty second year some Thieves for Robbery in St. Martins le Grand were drawn to Tower-hill and there hanged and burnt and others were pressed to death In this Kings time Richard Rawson one of the Sheriffs of London caused a House to be built at St. Mary Spittle for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to hear Sermons in the Easter Holy-days King Edward the fourth being dead his eldest Son Edward not above eleven years old was proclaimed King but never crowned for the Duke of Glocester hearing of his Brothers death comes to London and having gotten the King and his Brother the Duke of York into his hands sends them to the Tower and murders the Lord Hatings who was true to Edward and then endeavours to prove the two children of Edward Illegitimate whereby he at last attained the Crown by the name of Richard the third and afterwards persuades Sir James Tyril to murder the two young Princes in the Tower who getting two other Villains as bad as himself they come to the childrens chamber in the night and suddenly wrapping them up in their cloths and keeping down by force the Feather-bed and Pillows hard upon their mouths so stifled them that their breath being gone they surrendred up their innocent souls and when the Murtherers perceived first by their strugling with the pains of death and then by their long lying still that they were throughly dead they laid their bodies out and then called Sir James Tyril to see them who presently caused their bodies to be buried under the Stairs But these Murderers came all to miserable ends and King Richard himself after this abominable Fact never had a quiet mind but was troubled with fearful dreams and would sometimes start out of his bed and run about the chamber in a great fright as if all the Furies in Hell were about him as he did the night before the Battle at Bosworth Field where he was slain by King Henry the seventh who succeeded to the Crown King Richard took away from Jane Shore one of King Edwards Concubines all her Goods to the value of above 3000 Marks and afterward caused her to do Pennance before the Cross for her Incontinency with a Taper in her hand when though undressed yet she appeared so fair and lovely and likewise so modest that many who hated her course of life yet pitied her course usage since she used all the favour she had with King Edward to the good of many but never to the hurt of any And truly she had cause to complain against Richard for being so severe for her offending against the seventh Commandment onely when he did no pennance for offending heavily against all Ten. But perhaps he got some Good Fellow to be his Confessor After Richard called Crook-back was slain Henry the seventh was proclaimed King In whose time were made several general Laws as that for admitting poor people to sue in Forma Pauperis without paying Fees to Attorney Counsellor or Clerk Another that no person that shall assist by Arms or otherwise the King in being shall ever after be impeached thereof or attainted by course of Law or act of Parliament and that if any such Act of Attainder did happen to 〈◊〉 made it should be void and of none effect In his fifth year it was ordained by Parliament that the Mayor of London should have the conservation oâ— the River of Thames from Stanes-bridge to the Waters of Yeudale and Medway In his seventeenth year John Shaw Lord Mayor of London caused his Brethren the Aldermen to ride from Guildhall to the Water-side when he went to Westminster to be presented to the Exchequer He also causeâ— Kitchins and other Conveniences to be built it Guild-hall This King was the first that ordaine a Company of tall proper men to be Yeomen 〈◊〉 the Guard and to attend the person of the King to whom he appointed a Livery and a Captaâ—â— over them In his eighteenth year King Heâ—â—â— himself being Free of the Tailors Company 〈◊〉 divers Kings before had been namely Richard tâ— second Henry the fourth fifth and sixth Edwarâ— the fourth and Richard the third as also eleveâ— Dukes twenty eight Earls and forty eight Lord He therefore now gave them the name of Mâ—â—chant-Taylors as an honourable Title to end 〈◊〉 for ever The 22 of August 1485. the very day King Henâ— got the Victory over King Richard a great Fiâ— happened in Bredstreet London in which was burnt the Parson of St. Mildreds and one person more In his tenth year in digging a new Foundation in the Church of St. Mary-hill in London the body of Alice Hackny who had been buried 175 years before was found whole of skin and the joints of her arms pliable the Corps was kept above ground four days without annoyance and then buried again In his twelfth year on St. Bartholomews day there fell Hail-stones measured twelve Inches about The great Tempest which drove King Philip of Spain into England blew down the Golden Eagle from the Spire of St. Pauls and in the fall it fell upon the sign of the Black Eagle in St. Pauls Church-yard where the School-house now is and broke it down This King was frugal from his Youth the City of London was his Paradice for what good fortune soever befel him he thought he enjoyed it nor till he acquainted them with it His Parliament was his Oracle for in all matters of Importance he would ask their advice yea he put his Prerogative many times into their hands After he had lived fifty two years and reigned twenty three years he died April 22. 1508. Henry the eighth his only Son succeeded him In the ninth year of his reign on May Eve there was an Insurrection of the Young men and Apprentices of London against Foreigners for which Riot several
people went over the Thames and played thereon from London Bridge to Westminster On the third of January it begun to thaw and on the fifth no Ice was to be seen In the twentieth year of her Reign a Blazing Star was seen with a long stream About this time one Simon Pembroke of Southwark being suspected to be a Conjurer was ordered to appear in St. Mary Overies Church which he did and leaning his head against a Pew the Proctor lifted up his head and found him dead and ratling in the throat and being searched several Devilish Books of Conjuration were found about him In her thirty fifth year there was so great a drougth that not only the Fields but the Springs themselves were dried up and many Cattle died every where for want of water The River of Thames likewise failed so that a Horse-man might ride over at London Bridge In her thirty sixth year was a great Plague in London and the Suburbs whereof died 17890. besides the Lord Mayor and three Aldermen About this time Edmund Coppinger and Henry Arthington Gentlemen came into Cheapside and there in a Cart proclaimed as they said News from Heaven that one William Hacket represented Christ by partaking of his glorified Body and that they were the two Prophets one of Mercy the other of Judgment sent of God to help him in this great work These men were apprehended and Hacket was arraigned and found guilty of speaking divers false and traiterous words against the Queen and to have raced and defaced her Pictures thrusting an iron Instrument into the place of the heart and brest for which he was brought from Newgate to Cheapside and being moved to ask God and their Queen forgiveness he fell to cursing and railing against the Queen and made a blasphemous Prayer against the divine Majesty of God and was therefore hanged and quartered Coppinger starved himself wilfully in Bridewel and Arthington made a Recantation In the forty third year of her Reign Robert Devereux Earl of Essex assisted by divers Noblemen and Gentlemen entered the City of London in Warlike manner at Temple Bar crying For the Queen till they came to the Sheriffs House in Fanchurch-street who finding himself not Master of his own house escaped out at a Back-door and went to the Lord Mayor And Essex finding the Citizens in Arms against him endeavoured to fortifie his own House but hearing that some great Guns were sent for to beat it down he surrendred himself and was sent to the Tower where he was afterward beheaded but might have kept his head longer on had he not been betrayed by the Lady Walsingham to whom after his condemnation he sent a Ring which the Queen had given him in token that she would stand by him in any danger the Lady delivered not this Ring but being a little after upon her Death-bed she desired to speak with the Queen to whom having disburthened her conscience the Queen flung away in extream rage and fury and never enjoyed her self well after that time but would often break out into a passion and wring her hands crying O Essex Essex and died not long after After her death King James succeeded in the third year of whose Reign was contrived the Powder Treason Plot for which Sir Edward Digby Robert Winter Graunt and Bates were drawn hanged and quartered at the West end of St. Pauls and Winter Keys Rookwood and Fawks at the Parliament Yard at Westminster A while after the King attended with divers Lords dined with the Lord Mayor Sir John Watts who after dinner presented his Majesty with a Purse of Gold desiring he would please to be made Free of the Company of Clothworkers to which the King consented and calling to the Master of the Company he said Stone Give me thy hand I am now a Clothworker and in token of my special favour to this Fraternity I do here give to this Company a Brace of Bueks yearly for ever at the Election of Master and Wardens And a Moneth after the King and the Prince dined at Merchant Taylors Hall where the Prince was made Free of that Company and had likewise a Purse of Gold presented him by the Master In 1609. the New Exchange being newly finished was first opened and named by King James Brittains Burse In 1612. Edward Wightman was burnt for an Heretick and one Legat burnt in Smithfield for an Arian In 1615. Sir Thomas Overbury was poisoned in the Tower for which the the Earl of Somerset and his Lady were arraigned and condemned and Sir Gervase Elvis Lieutenant of the Tower Mistris Turner and divers others executed In 1618. the famous Sir Walter Rawleigh was beheaded in the New Pallace Yard Westminster Next year Queen Anne died at Hampton Court In 1623. a Popish Priest being at Mass in Black Fryars in an Upper Room it fell down and many were killed and hurt In 1625. King James died having reigned 22. years King Charles his Son succeeded him and was married to Henrietta Maria of France In his first year was a great Plague whereof there died in London 35417. In 1628. Doctor Lamb was murdered in the streets of London for which the City was fined six thousand pound the same year John Felton was hanged at Tyburn for murdering the Duke of Buckingham In 1633. the King and Queen were magnificently entertained at Guild-hall In 1640 the Long Parliament began and in 1642. Posts and Chains were ordered to be set up in the City But having already given a particular account of all Passages in this Kings Reign and till the Restoration of his present Majesty King Charles the second in a little Book called The Wars of England Scotland and Ireland I shall omit repeating any thing here but shall onely add That in the year 1659. General Monk marching from Scotland came to London and after having pulled down the Gates and Portcullises of the City by Order of the Remnant of the Long Parliament he afterwards grew dissatisfied at their proceedings and going into the City was received with Bonfires and soon after that Parliament was dissolved and his Majesty happily restored May 29. 1660. In October following several of the Regicides of the late King were executed at Charing Cross that is Harrison Carew Cook Scot Hugh Peters Clement Scroop Jones and Hacket and Axtel at Tyburn In January one Venner a Wine Cooper and some others of Enthusiastick Principles made an Insurrection in London their Leader persuading them that one should chase a thousand They first marched to St. Thomas Apostles and from thence to Bishopsgate Whitecross-street and from thence they went to Highgate and Canewood And three days after they came again into the City being not above thirty or forty in number but armed with Blunderbusses and Headpieces and the Trained-bands and some of the Kings Guards fell upon them and routed them about five or six of them were killed others fled and the rest were taken Prisoners Their Word it is said was THE