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
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
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
may say upon the Confines of his Destiny His Gracing of undeserving Men and Disgracing of Men deserving if they were not the Causes were at least the occasions of his own Disgracing He was now come to be of full Age to do all himself which was indeed to be of full Age to undo himself for the Errors of his younger years might be excused by inexperience but the faults of the Age he was now of admit of no Apology nor defence And to hasten his destiny the sooner the Evil Counsel which was formerly but whispered in his Ear they now had the Confidence to give him aloud For it was told him That he was under Tuition no longer and therefore not to be controlled as formerly he had been That to be crost of his will by his Subjects was to be their Subject That he is no Soveraign if he be not Absolute By the instigation of such Counsellors as these the King in a Parliament then Assembled fell to expostulate with the Lords asking them What years they thought him to be of who answering That he was somewhat more than one and Twenty Well then said he I am out of your Wardship and expect to enjoy my Kingdom as freely as you your selves at the like years enjoy your Patrimonies But saith our Author his flattering Favourites should have remembred that though the King may not be controlled where he can command yet he may be opposed where he can but demand as now indeed he was For when he demanded a Subsidy toward his Wars He was answered That he needed no Subsidy from his Subjects if he would but call in the debts that the Chancellor owed him and if he were so tender that he could not do that work himself they would do it for him And thereupon charged him with such Crimes that all his Goods were Confiscate and himself adjudged to dye if the King pleased Though others write his Sentence was only to pay twenty Thousand Marks as a Fine and a Thousand pound besides yearly This Chancellor was Michael de la Pool a Merchants Son who was lately made Earl of Suffolk and Lord Chancellor of England who with Robert Vere Earl of Oxford and Marquess of Dublin and some others were King Richards bosom Favourites And upon this Provocation given them they presently study Revenge And thereupon contrive that the Duke of Glocester the Kings Uncle as Principal and other Lords who crossed the Kings Courses should be invited to a supper in London and be there Murdered In the Execution of which Plot the late Lord Mayor Sir Nicholas Brember was deeply concerned but the present Lord Mayor Richard Exton though moved thereto by the King himself utterly refused to do it and thereupon this Design miscarried But notwithstanding these heats and many more which passed in this Parliament yet a Subsidy was at last granted to the King of half a Tenth and half a Fifteenth but with this express Condition that it should not be paid out but by order from the Lords and the Earl of Arundel was to receive it But before this time it was absolutely agreed between both Houses of Parliament That unless the Chancellor were removed they would proceed no further The King having notice hereof sent a Message to the House of Commons that they should send to Eltham where he then lay Forty of their House to declare their Minds to him But upon a Conference between both Houses it was agreed That the Duke of Glocester and Thomas Arundel Bishop of Ely should in the name of the Parliament go to him who coming to the King declared That by an old Statute the King once a year might lawfully summon his Court of Parliament for Reformation of all Enormities and Corruptions within the Realm and further declared That by an Old Ordinance it was likewise Enacted That if the King should absent himself Forty days not being sick the Houses might lawfully break up and return home At which it is reported the King should say Well we perceive our People go about to rise against us and therefore we think we cannot do better then to ask aid of our Cousen the King of France and rather submit our selves to him than to our own Subjects To which the Lords answered They wondred at his Majesties Opinion since the French King was the Ancient Enemy of the Kingdom and he might remember what mischiefs were brought upon the Realm in King Johns time by such Courses By these and the like perswasions the King was induced to come to his Parliament wherein John Fordham Bishop of Durham is discharged of his Office of Treasurer and Michael de la Pool of being Chancellor and others by consent of Parliament put in their places Likewise by Order of Parliament thirteen Lords were appointed under the King to have oversight of the whole Government of the Realm that is the Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellor Bishop of Hereford Lord Treasurer the Abbot of Waltham Lord Privy Seal the Archbishops of Canterbury and York the Dukes of York and Glocester with others but this division of the Government was soon found inconvenient This Parliament also granted to Robert de Vere lately created Duke of Ireland thirty Thousand Marks which the Frenchmen were to give to the heirs of Charles de Bloys upon Condition that before Easter following he should go over into Ireland So desirous were the Lords and Commons to have him removed from the Kings presence But though the King gave way to this Torrent of the Parliament at present yet as soon as they were Dissolved he dissolved likewise all they had done against his Favourites and received them into more Favour than before A while after the Duke of Ireland puts away his lawful Wife who was neer a Kin to the Duke of Glocester and married one of the Queens Maids a Vintners Daughter at which the Duke of Glocester was very much offended which the Duke of Ireland understanding studied how by any means he might dispatch the Duke of Glocester and Easter being now past which was the time appointed for the Duke to go into Ireland the King pretending to go with him to the Seaside went with him unto Wales being attended likewise with Michael de la Pool Robert Tresillian a prime Favourite who was Lord Chief Justice and divers others where they consulted how to dispatch the Duke of Glocester the Earls of Arundel Warwick Darby Nottingham with divers others of that Party The King having remained some time in those Parts had quite forgotten the Voyage of the Duke of Ireland and so brought him back with him again to Nottingham Castle About the same time Robert Tresillian Lord Chief Justice came to Coventry and there Indicted two Thousand Persons The King then called all the High Sheriffs of the Counties before him and demanded what strength they could make for him against the Lords if there should be occasion To which they returned answer That the Common People did so favour
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
willingly and powerfully repulsing the wrongs offered me by my Brother shall I say Nay by the most deadly Enemy both to me to you and the whole Nation For if I be guarded with the Valour and Affections of Englishmen I shall scorn the threats of him and his Normans and count them vain and not to be regarded With these fair promises which yet he afterward quite neglected he so won the hearts of the Lords and the Londoners that they engaged to die with him or for him against any opposition whatsoever Duke Robert being gone and Henry thus setled in the affection of the People he raised a very great Army and accompanied with divers of the Nobility sailed to Normandy where falling upon Robert before he was half ready to fight he obtained a compleat Victory over him and won Normandy with the slaughter of ten thousand men taking Robert himself prisoner whom he brought over and committed to Cardiff Castle in Wales where he remained a prisoner till he died yet had liberty of walking in the Kings Meadows and Pastures But being weary of this Confinement he endeavoured to make his escape which the King being afraid of ordered his eyes to be put out which to avoid the deformity of breaking the Eye-bals was done by causing his head to be held to a burning Basin till the Glassie Tunicles had lost the Office of retaining the Light This though it increased his misery yet did not shorten his life for he lived long after in all from the time of his Imprisonment twenty eight years And thus this great Duke who in his Birth was the joy of Nature in his Life was the scorn of Fortune And it is worth observing that the English won Normandy thâ— very same day fortieth year the Normans had won England Such Revolutions of Fortune there are in kingdoms and so unstable is the state of all wordly Greatness This Robert died 1134 and lies buried at Glocester One Author writes That King Henry sent him according to his Custom a Robe of Scarlet and putting it first on himself found that the Capouch or Hood as the Fashion was then was somewhat too little whereupon he said Carry this to my Brother his head is less than mine The Messenger delivering the Robe Duke Robert demanded if any had worn it and being told the King had first tried it on and what words he had said The Duke replied I have too long protracted a miserable life since my Brother is so injurious to me that he sends me his old Clothes to wear And from that time he would never taste any food nor receive any comfort This King Henry first instituted the Form of the High Court of Parliament for before his time onely certain of the Nobility and Prelates of the Realm were called to consultation about the most important Affairs of State but he caused the Commons also to be assembled by Knights Citizens and Burgesses of their own electing and made that Court to consist of three Estates the Nobility the Clergy and the Commons represeming the whole Body of the Realm and appointed them to fit in several Chambers the King the Lords and the Bishops in one and the Commons in another and to consult together by themselves He established likewise several other Orders as they are used to this day The first Parliament that was so held met at Salisbury upon the 19 of April in the 16 Year of his Reign 1019. He forbid wearing of long hair which at that time was frequent according to the French Mode He commanded Robers on the High-way to be hanged without Redemption He punished Counterfeiters of Money with pulling out their eyes or cutting off their privy members a punishment both less than Death and greater In this Kings time Guymond one of his Chaplains observing that unlearned and unworthy men were generally prefer'd to the best dignities in the Church as he celebrated Divine Service before him and was to read these words out of S. James It rained not upon the earth III years and VI Months he read it thus It rained not upon the Earth 1.1.1 years and 5.1 Months The King observed his Reading and afterwards blamed him for it but Guymond answered That he did it on purpose since such Readers were sconest advanced by His Majesty The King smiled and afterwards promoted him About this time Thomas Archb. of York falling sick his Physicians told him that nothing would do him good but to company with a woman to whom he answered That the Remedy was worse than the disease And so it is said died a Virgin Upon the Tenth of October the River of Medway that runs by Rochester failed so of water for many miles together that in the midst of the Channel the smallest Vessels could not pass and the same day also in the Thames between the Tower and London Bridge men waded over on foot for the space of two days A great fire happened in London which consumed a long Tract of buildings from Westcheap to Aldgate and several other great Cities in England were likewise burnt down about this time In the thirteenth of this King many Prodigies were seen a Pig was farrowed with a face like a child a Chicken was hatched with four legs and the Sun was so deeply eclipsed that by reason of the darkness many Stars did plainly appear This King left behind him onely one daughter named Maud who could never come to be Queen though born to a Kingdom She was married at six years old to the Emperour Henry the Fourth and after his death she was again married to Fulk Duke of Anjou Yet her Father took much care to establish the Succession in her and her issue and therefore he called his Nobility together and among them David King of Scots and made them take their Oaths of Allegiance to her and her Heirs This he did three years one after another wherein nothing pleased him so much as that Stephen Earl of Blois was the first man that took the Oath because he was known to be or it was known at least that he might be a pretender to the Crown But the King should have considered that no Oath is binding when the getting a Kingdom is the price of breaking it and especially to Stephen who was so deeply interested Yet Providence could do no more and the King was well satisfied with it especially when he saw his daughter Mother of two Sons for this though it gave him no assurance yet it gave him assured hope to have the Crown perpetuated in his Posterity Yet after King Henry was dead Stephen ascends the Throne as being Earl of Bulleign Son to Stephen Earl of Beis by Adela daughter of King William the Conquerour and though there were two before him that is Maud the Empress and Theobald his elder Brother yet taking hold of opportunity while the other lingred about smaller Affairs he solicites all the Orders of the Realm Bishops and Lords and People to receive
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
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.
news came he was got into Holland where being no welcome Guest he wandred up and down two or three years like a Fugitive and at Lorain in Brabant ended his life By this time the Lords had got matter enough against the King at least to justifie their Arms and thereupon with an Army of Forty thousand men they came to London where after some debate they were received and some of them went to the Tower to the King to whom after humble Salutations they shewed the Letter which he had written to the Duke of Ireland to levy an Army for their destruction likewise the Letters which the French King had written to him containing a safe Conduct for him to come into France there to do Acts to his own dishonour and the Kingdoms After which upon the Kings Promise that he would come the next day to Westminster to treat further of these matters the Lords departed only at the Kings desire the Earls of Nottingham and Derby stayed all Night but before the King went to bed his Mind was quite altered as to keeping promise with the Lords which they understanding sent peremptorily to him That if be came not according to his Word they would chuse another King who should hearken to the faithful Counsel of his Lords This touched the King to the quick so that the next morning he went met them they declared to him how much it concerned the good of the Kingdom that those Traitors so often spoken of should be removed from the Court To which the King though much against his Will at last condescended and thereupon the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Chichester fled no man knew whether the Bishop of Durham Lord Treasurer Lord Zouch Lord Burrel Lord Beumont and others were expelled the Court and constrained to put in Bail to appear the next Parliament Also cerâ—ain Ladies were expelled the Court as the Lady Poynings the Lady Mouling and others Several other Knights with three of the Kings Chaplains and the Dean of his Chappel were likewise committed to Prison Shortly after the Parliament began called afterward the Parliament that wrought wonders On the first day whereof all the Judges but one were arrested as they sate upon the Bench and sent to the Tower and several Lords and Bishops were impeached But the Lord Chief Justice Tresillian having made his escape was afterward taken and hanged at Tyburn Sir Nicholas Brember was Beheaded with an Axe which he had prepared for the beheading of others after this divers Lords and Knights and among the rest the Steward of the Kings Household were Beheaded on Tower-hill Also all the Judges were condemned to dye but by the Queens Intercession they were only banished the Realm and all their Lands and Estates Confiscated only a small Sallery was allowed them for their support Finally in this Parliament an Oath was required and obtained of the King that he would perform such things as the Lords should Order and this Oath was likewise required of all the People of the Kingdom After this the Duke of Glocester and some other Lords upon discontent conspire to seize upon the King the Dukes of Lancaster 〈◊〉 York and commit them to Prison and all the other Lords of the Kings Council they determined should be drawn and hanged but the King having notice thereof by a Wile he seizeth upon the Duke of Glocester and sends him presently to Callice where he soon after lost his life being smothered with Pillows as some write and divers other Lords are committed to the Tower and soon after the Earl of Arundel is beheaded on Tower-hill and a Parliament being called the King brought it so about that he obtained the whole Power of the Parliament to be conferred upon certain Persons or to any seven or eight of them and these by virtue of this Grant proceeded to conclude upon many things which concerned the whole Parliament to the great prejudice of the State and a dangerous Example in time to come A General Pardon was also granted for all the Kings Subjects but only to Fifty whose names he would not Express but reserved them to himself that when any of the Nobility offended him he might at his Pleasure name him to be one of the number excepted and so keep them still within his danger Also in this Parliament the Judges gave their Opinious That when Articles are propounded by the King to be handled in Parliament if other Articles be handled before those be first determined that it is Treason in them that do it And for the more strengthning the Acts of this Parliament the King purchased the Popes Bulls containing grievous Censures and Curses to those that should break them And now the Heads of the Opposite Faction having lost their Heads and all things as well setled as could be desired the King was secure as thinking himself safe and he had been indeed safe if Time and Fortune were not Actors in Revenge as well as men or rather if a Superiour Power did not interpose whose ways are as secret as himself is invincible About this time it happened that Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolk and Henry Duke of Hereford accused each other for speaking words sounding highly to the Kings dishonour whereupon a Combate is agreed upon between them which being ready to be begun the King interposeth and banisheth the Duke of Norfolk for ever and the D of Hereford for six years But soon after several discontented Lords sollicite the D. of Hereford to return into England take the Government upon him they would be ready to assist him who thereupon without much deliberation prepares to come over and landing at Ravenspur in Yorkshire where many Lords Gentlemen and Common people repaired to him to whom he solemnly protests That though some of them had invited him to come to take the Government yet he came only to take possession of the Inheritance descended to him from his Father which King Richard unjustly and contrary to his promise had seized into his hands Hereupon many more Lords join with him and all the Kings Castles are surrendred to him and the Lord Scroop Treasurer of England Sir Henry Bushy and Sir Henry Green being seized were condemned and beheaded for Misgoverning the King and the Realm King Richard was at that time in Ireland busie in suppressing the Rebels and had no notice of the Dukes Arrival in England till six weeks after but hearing of it he sends the Earl of Salisbury before to raise an Army and promiseth to come himself within six days the Earl provides an Army of Forty Thousand men but when the King came not at his time they all disbanded and went away The King coming over and finding how it was fell into despair and secretly the next night gets into Conway Castle The Duke of Hereford now Duke of Lancaster by his Fathers Death sends the Earl of Northumberland to the King that if his Grace would undertake there should be a
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
removed to the Bridge-house and it 's recorded that all the Revenues belonging to to London-Bridge in King Henry VII time amounted to 8 15 l. 17 s. 2d a year by which we may partly guess at the Incomes of this Bridge and what vast increase is made of it by this time But this noble Bridge like other earthly things hath suffered many disasters since for some years after the finishing thereof that is 1212. on the 10th of July at Night the Burrough of Southwark and St. Mary Overies Church being on fire and a multitude of People passing the Bridge either to quench or gaze upon it on a sudden the North part of it by the blowing of the South wind was set on fire and when the People would have returned they were stopped by the Fire and as they stayed in a consternation the South end of the Bridge sell on fire so that the People thronging between two raging Fires expected present death whereupon there came many Boats and Vessels to save them into which the multitude rushed so unadvisedly that the boats being thereby sunk they were all drowned above Three thousand Persons being destroyed by the Fire and Water part of whose Bodies were found half burned besides those burnt to Ashes which could not be found In 1282. after a great Frost and deep Snow five Arches of London-Bridge were carried away In 1289. the Bridge was so much decayed that People were afraid to go over it but by a subsidy granted it was repaired In 1595. on St. George's Day there was a great Justing on London-Bridge between David Earl of Crawford of Scotland and the Lord Wells of England which shews that the Bridge was then only coaped in but not built with Houses as it is now The next year Novem. 30. the young Queen Isabel Wife to Richard II. commonly called the little Queen for she was but 8 years old was brought from Kenington over the Bridge to the Tower of London such a muâ—â—itude of People went upon the Bridge to see her that nine Persons were crouded to death among the rest the Pâ—â—or of Tiptree in Essex and an ancient Matron in Cornhill In 1633 there happened a great Fire on London Bridge but was again repaired In the dreadful Fire 1666 a great part of the North Buildings of the Bridge were burnt down but are wholly rebuilt with much Advantage To conclude this Bridge for admirable Workmanship vastness of Foundation and Dimensions and for stately Houses and rich Shops built thereon surpasseth all others in Europe it hath nineteen Arches founded in a deep River made of square Stone sixty Foot in height and Thirty in breadth distant 20 foot one from another joined together with Vaults and Cellars and built as some say upon Ozy soft ground being Eight hundred Foot in length and 30 foot broad and a Draw-bridge almost in the middle Besides this noble Bridge there are others belong to the City as three stately Bridges of Stone built since 1666 over Fleet Ditch and also Holborn Bridge the Ditch being enlarged cleansed and fenced of each side with Stone and Rails and Store-Houses for Coals on each side it is likewise freed from Houses for twenty Foot on each side and made exceeding handsome to the great charge of this City there were likewise some small Bridges over the Town Ditch but now it is arched over with Brick and doth no where appear being paved even with the Street CHAP. V. The Government of the City of London THE Civil Government of this City is not as it is in Rome Paris Madrid Vienna and other Cities by a chief Magistrate or some noble Man set over it as it was here in the time of the Romans when the chief Magistrate was called the Prefect of London or in the time of the Saxons when he was called the Portrieve Custos or Guardian and sometimes Provost of London but after the coming in of the Normans the cheif Magistrate was called Bailive from the French or Commissarie one that hath a Commission to govern and there were sometimes two Bailiffs of London till Rich. I. 1189. changed the name of Bailiff into Mayor which hath held ever since The Mayor is a Citizen chosen every year by the Citizens evcept when their Priviledges and Franchises have been taken from them as in the time of Henry III. Edward I. and King Charles II. The Mayor tho' always a Citizen or Tradesman hath been of such high repute that in writing and speaking to him the Title of Lord is prefixt as to Noble Men Bishops or Judges and of late to the Mayor of York or some of the highest Officers of the Realm he is likewise usually Knighted his Table and also the two Sheriffs is open to all that are of any Quality but so well furnished that it is always fit to receive the greatest Subject in England nay it is recorded that a Lord Mayor of London feasted four Kings at once at his Table His Officers are eight of them Esquires by their places that is the Sword-bearer the Common Hunt who keeps a Kennel of Hounds for the Lord Mayor's Recreation the Common Cryer and four Water-Bailiffs there is also the Coroner three Sergeants Carvers three Serjeants of the Chamber a Serjeant of the Channel four Yeomen of the Water-side one Under Bailiff two Yeomen of the Chamber three Meal Weighers two Yeomen of the Wood Wharfs most of which have their Servants allowed them and Liveries for themselves The State of the Lord Mayor appears when he goes abroad which is usually on Horseback with rich Caparisons himself always in long Robes either of Scarlet richly surred People or Puke with a Chain of Gold about his Neck many Officers walking before and on all sides of him but espâ—cially on the 29th of October when he goes 〈◊〉 Westminster in his Barge with the Aldermen attended by all his Officers and the Liverymen of the several Companies in their stately Barges with their Arms Colours and Streamers and having in the Exchequer Chamber before the Judges taken his Oath to be true to the King and Government he returns in like manner to Guild-hall that is the Great Hall of Guilds oâ— Incorporated Confraternities where is prepared a sumptuous Dinner the Kings Queens Noblemen and Persons of Honour have of late years been pleased to dine there with him with the Forreign Ambassadors and all the Judges This great Magistrate upon the Death of the King is said to be the Prime Person in England and therefore when King James was invited to come and take the Crown of England Robert Loe then Lord Mayor of London subscribed in the first place before the great Officers of the Crown and the Nobility he is usually chosen on Michaelmas day out of 26 Aldermen all Wealthy Men. His Authority reaches over all this great City part of the Suburbs and likewise to the River of Thames with power to punish all that annoy the Stream Banks or Fish only the safety
down to the Ground and that as he lay on the ground there came out of his Mouth a flame of fire with abundance of smoke this last being told the King he made a jest of it saying Well a Monk he is and he can dream only as Monks do that is for gain Go give him an hundred shillings lest he think he hath dreamed unprofitably But though he had these warnings yet the day after Lammas he would needs go a hunting in the New Forrest yet something resenting the many Presages he stayd within all the forenoon About dinner time an Artificer came and brought him six Crossbow Arrows very strong and sharp four whereof he kept himself and the other Two he delivered to S. Walter Tyrell a Knight of Normandy his Bow-bearer saying Here Tyrell take you two for you know how to shoot them to purpose And so having at dinner drank more berally than his custom as it were in contempt of Prodigies and Presages he rides out in the New Forest where S. Walter Tyrell shooting at a Deer the arrow glanced against a Tree or as some say grazed upon the back of the Deer and flying forward struck the King in the breast who hastily breaking off so much as stuck in his body with one onely groan fell down and dyed of which sudden mischance his followers having notice most of them went away and those that remained with much ado got his body put into a Colliers Cart which being drawn with one lean Horse through a very foul dirty way the Cart broke and there lay the Spectacle of worldly Glory all besmeared with his own bloud and filthyly bedaubed with mire till he was conveyed to Winchester where he was buried under a plain Marble stone in the Cathedral King Henry the 1. his brother and the youngest son of William the Conquerour succeeded him though his elder brother Robert Duke of Normandy was living which caused great Wars and disturbance In his time Anseâ—m Archbishop of Canterbury being returned called a Council of the Bishops at London wherein he offended both the King and Clergy for he excommunicated all married Priests half the Clergy of England at that time being either married or the Sons of Married Priests and depending upon the Popes assistance he deprived many great Prelats of their Promotions because they were invested in them by the King but they refused to resign them since they had them by the donation of their Soveraign upon which Anselm thinking himself much wronged appealed to the Pope and went to Rome in Person soon after The King likewise sent Herbere Bishop of Norwich and Robert Bishop of Litchfield Privy Counsellors and William Warwast his Procurator as Ambassadors to Rome and the last being a Clergyman of a bold and daring Spirit He in debating his Soveraigns cause before the Pope and Cardinals with threatning Language and Countenance avouched That the King his Master would not lose his Right in the Investitures of the Church though he lost his Kingdom Whereto Pope Paschal being upon his own dunghill as stoutly answered If thou sayest the King will not lose his donation of Churches for the loss of his Kingdom Know thou for certain that before God I will not suffer him to to enjoy them without punishment and will venture my head thereupon But notwithstanding these great words against the King yet the degraded Abbots were restored again through the Clemency of the Papal See which is never wanting to any as long as The White and Red make intercession for them as the Monks own words were at that time A while after Cardinal Cremensis came into England from the Pope and calling a Council in London upon the Birth day of the Blessed Virgin he made a solemn Oration in praise of Virginity and Chastity and a terrible Invective against the Married Priests affirming it to be no less than professed Adultery And to amplifie their sin the more he shewed what great Impiety it was to rise from the Bed of unlawful Lust for so he termed chast Marriage and with polluted hands to touch the Sacrament of the Body of Christ yet but the very night following this holy Cardinal was found in Bed with a common Whore having himself consecrated the Host that very day so that he returned to Rome with much shame and but little success in the intended matter Yea Anselm himself the most earnest in favour of single life did not it seems die a Virgin for else he would never in his writings make such lamentations for the loss thereof Yet Anselm afterward called another Council at Westminster where it was ordained That Priests should no longer be suffered to have Wives and that there should be no more selling and buying men in England they being then sold like Horses or Oxen. Yet King Henry afterward suffered Priests to have Wives for Fines or rather took Fines of them whether they had Wives or no because they might have them if they would Duke Robert his Brother having sound that force would not prevail to settle him in his Right to the Kingdom he himself comes over to King Henry referring both his Dukedom and himself and all differences and debates to his will and pleasure but King Henry scarce vouchsafed to speak to him or at least to make him an answer but in a sullen humour turned away and so left him Which scornful usage put the Duke into such Indignation that he resolved upon Revenge and returning into Normandy raiseth a great Army But Henry knowing Robert to be a Souldier and considering his own Estate called his Lords together to London and there tickled their cars with this pleasing Speech My Friends faithful Counsellors and Native Country men You know all undoubtedly that my Brother Robert was elected and called by God himself to be the fortunate King of Jerusalem and how unfortunately or rather insolently he refused that sacred Estate whereby he is now most justly reprobated of God You also know by many other experiments his Pride and Arrogancy for being a man of a war like bumour he is not onely impatient of Peace but also earnestly desireth to trample upon you as men of object and contemptible dispositions and upbraid you for idle Drones Belly-gods and what not But I your King am naturally inclined to be both humble and peaceable and take delight in nothing more than in doing you good and to maintain your Tranquillity and ancient Liberty as I have often sworn unto you and meekly and willingly to yield my self to your advices whereby I may circumspectly govern you as a clement Prince And to that end even now will I confirm if your Wisdoms think fit your over-worn and undermined Charters and will corroborate them most firmly with a new Oath and Ratification In the mean time all the Laws which the holy King Edward by Gods inspiring did establish I do here command to be inviolably observed hereby to move you to adhere stedfastly unto me in chearfully
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
his hands as far as the Borders of Scotland and then he divides his Army committing one part to his Brother William Earl of Salisbury who was ordered to fall upon London and with the other he himself goes into Yorkshire where most of the Lords had Estates which he miserably destroys with Fire and Sword The Lords being distressed on every side resolved upon a course neither honourable nor safe yet such as Necessity made appear to be both For they send to Philip K. of France requiring him 〈◊〉 send over his Son Lewis to their aid and promisâ— they would submit themselves to be governed 〈◊〉 him and to take him for their Sovereign 〈◊〉 this mention of the Lords King Philip was as forward as themselves which King John understanding sends again to the Pope requiring him to use 〈◊〉 Authority to stay the King of France from coming Who accordingly sent Cardinal Wallo his Legate who threatned the Great Curse in the Council on all who should join with those Excommunicate persons against King John or should enter upon St. Peters Patrimony But King Philip replied That England was no part of St. Peters Patrimony no King having power of himself to alienate his Kingdom and John especially who being never lawful King had no power to dispose thereof and that it was an Errour and a pernicious Example in the Pope and an itching lust and desire after a new and lawless Dominion His Peers likewise swore by Christs death That they would lose their lives rather than suffer a King of himself or with the consent of a few base Flatterers to give away his Crown and enslave his Nobles especially to the Pope who ought to follow St. Peters steps to win souls and not to meddle with Wars and murthering of mens bodies Now the reason of the Popes claiming England as St. Peters Patrimony was upon the account of the Resignation of King John And though the Pope seemed now so zealous for the Interest of King John yet not above five years before he was as much his Enemy For the King being incensed against the Clergy and endeavouring to rectifie some miscarriages about electing Bishops c. the Pope fearing he would intrench upon his Priviledges used his utmost power against him forbidding Mass to be said for some years Excomâ—â—unicating and Cursing him and giving his King 〈…〉 to the French King and stirring up his â—wn Nobility against him freeing them and all the People from their Allegiance to him So that King John being encompassed with Troubles on every side was compelled to submit to whatever the Pope would command him Nay he was forâ—ed to take off his Crown and kneeling on his knees in the midst of his Barons he surrendred it into the hands of Pandulphus the Legate for the Popes use saying Here I resign up the Crown of the Realm of England to the hands of Pope Innocent the Third and lay myself wholly at his mercy and appointment At whose feet he also laid his Scepter Robes Sword Ring and all the Ensigns of Royalty Pandulphus took the Crown from King John and kept it five days and the King giving then all his Kingdoms to the Pope to be held in Farm from him and his Heirs for evermore the Crown was restored King John engaging to pay 700 Marks a year for England and 300 for Ireland half of it at Easter and half at Whitsuntide as Rent for the said kingdoms But this being done out of force and necessity King Philip it seems no more than his own People did not think it of any value Yea Prince Lewis himself beseeched his Father not to hinder him from that which was none of his gift and for which he was now resolved to spend his bloud and would chuse rather to be excommunicated by the Pope than falsifie his promise to the English Barons For upon their sending their Letters of Allegiance confirmed with the Hands and Seals of all the Lords to implore King Philips favour and to send his Son and desiring his Son to accept of the Crown they received a present supply of French Souldiers upon their delivering up fifty English Gentlemen as Hostages for the true performance of the Contract King Philip therefore having received his Holiâ—â— Message with such scorn and contempt so aâ—â—righted the Legate with his stern countenance that he made all possible haste to be gone as fearing some mischief should be done him And Lewâ— as speedily set forth for England with his Fleeâ— of six hundred Ships and fourscore Boats whereâ— with arriving first in the Isle of Thanet and afterward going to Sandwich the Barons came thither to him and joined with him King Johns great Navy wherewith he intended to oppose him was driven Southward by a sudden Tempest and his Souldiers were generally Mercenaries and more inclined as it appeared afterward to Lewis a Foreign Prince than to him whereupon King John thought fit for the present to forbear Battle and went toward Winchester In the mean time Lewis had liberty to take all places thereabout except Dover Castle which John had committed to the valiant Hubert de Burg. Yet Lewis marcheth forward to London where entering with a solemn Procession and with the incredible applause of all he went into St. Pauls Church and there the Citizens of London took their Oaths of Allegiance to him From whence he passed to Westminister and there the Lords and Barons likewise swore to be true to him he himself likewise swearing to restore to all men their Rights and to recover to the Crown whatsoever had been lost by King John Then he chose Simon Langton who had been lately disgraced by the Pope for his Lord Chancello by whose preaching the Citizens of London and the Lords though they were excommunicated and under the Popes curse did yet celebrate Divine Service and drew on Prince Lewis to do the like Whereupon Wallo the Popes Legate who was now with King John denounced heavy and solemn Curses throughout the kingdome against the Londoners and especially against Lewis and his Chancellour by name But Lewis went from London and passeth over 〈◊〉 the Country without resistance but not withâ—ut infinite outrages committed by his Souldiers which was not in his power to hinder In the â—ean time King John finding his Enemies imployed in the Siege of Dover Castle and likewise â—t Odiam Castle wherein 13 English men onely braved Lewis and his whole Army for 15 days together nay sallied out upon them and taking every man a Prisoner to the great admiration of the French they returned safely back again and afterward delivered up the place upon honourable conditions King John thereupon gathers a Rabble of Rascally people about him with which he over-runs all the Country to the ruining of the Barons Castles and Estates in all places And then marching from Lyn in Norfolk on which place he bestowed his own Sword a gilt Bole and divers large Priviledges in testification of their Loyalty to him
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
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
Henry the third died Nov. 16. 1272. when he had reigned 56 years and 28 days and was buried at Westminster having built a great part of that Church As soon as he was dead the great Lords of the Realm caused his eldest Son Prince Edward the first of that name to be proclaimed King and assembling at the New Temple in London they there took order for the quiet Governing of the Realm till he came for he was at this time in the Holy Land and had been there above a year when his Father died and performed many great Actions after which out of Envy to his valour a desperate Saracen who had been often imployed to him from their General being one time upon pretence of some secret Message admitted alone into his Chamber gave him three wounds with a poisoned knife two in the Arm and one near the Armpit which were thought to be mortal and perhaps had been so if out of unspeakable love the Lady Eleanor his wife had not suckt out the poison of his wounds with her mouth thereby effecting a Cure which else had been incurable and it is no wonder that Love should do Wonders since it is it self a Wonder When Edward heard of his Fathers death he took it far more heavily than he did that of his young Son Henry of whose death he had heard a little before at which when Chartes King of Sicily where he then was wondered he answered He might have more Sons but he could never have another Father After his return to London he was crowned at Westminster August 15. 1274. and soon after called a Parliament wherein he would admit no Church-men to sit And a while after he makes War against Baliol King of Scots whom he takes prisoner with the loss of twenty five thousand Scots and commits him prisoner to the Tower of London He likewise brings from Scotland the fatal Chair wherein the Kings of Scotland used to be Crowned which now seems to recover that secret operation according to the ancient Prophesie That whithersoever that Chair should be removed the Kingdom should be removed with it and this Chair King Edward caused to be brought out of Scotland and to be placed at Westminster among the Monuments where it still continues This King restored to the Citizens of London their Liberties which for some misdemeanours they had forfeited In the sixteenth year of his Reign the Sun was so exceeding hot that many men died with the extremity thereof and yet Wheat was sold for three shillings four pence a Quarter at London This King by Proclamation forbid the use of Sea-coal in London and the Suburbs for avoiding the noisom Smoak In his time the Bakers of London were first drawn upon Hurdles by Henry Wallis Mayor and Corn was then first sold by weight In a Synod held in his time it was Ordained according to the Constitution of the General Council That no Ecclesiastical person shall have more than one Benefice with the Cure of Souls About this time the new work of the Church at Westminster was finished and the Foundation of the Black-Fryars near Ludgate was laid by Kilwarby Archbishop of Canterbury And Queen Margaret began to build the Quire of the Gray Friars in London now called Christchurch In his time was begun to be made the great Conduit formerly at the lower end of Cheapside And Henry Wall is Mayor made the Tun in Cornhil a Prison for Nightwalkers and likewise built a House at the Stocks Market for Fish and Flesh which since the fatal Fire in 1666. is demolished and laid into the Street In the ninth year of his Reign there was such a great Frost that five Arches of London Bridge and all Rochester Bridge was carried down and born away On St. Nicholas day in the Even were great Earthquakes Lightning and Thunder with a great Dragon and a Blazing Star which extremely terrified the People In his two and twentieth year three men had their right hands cut off for rescuing a Prisoner from an Officer of the City of London and about that time the River of Thames overflowing the Banks made a breach at Redriff near London and the lower Grounds thereabout were all laid under Water In his twenty seventh year a Fire being kindled in the lesser Hall of the Pallace of Westminster the flame thereof being driven by the wind fired the Monastery next adjoyning which with the Pallace were both consumed The same year by an Act of Common Council in London with the Kings consent it was Ordained that a fat Cock should be sold for three half pence two Pallets for three half pence a fat Capon for two pence half penny a Goose for four pence a Mallard three half pence a Partridge three half pence a Pheasant four pence a Heron six pence a Plover one penny a Swan three shillings a Crane twelve pence two Woodcocks three half pence a fat Lamb from Christmas to Shrovetide sixteen pence and all the year after for four pence and Wheat was this year so plentiful that a Quarter was sold for ten Groats In his thirty second year William Wallace who had often caused great trouble in Scotland was taken and hanged beheaded and quartered in London After King Edward had reigned thirty four years and seven moneths he died and was buried at Westminster leaving his Son Edward the second called Carnarvan to succeed him Of whom the People had at first great expectation but he soon brake all his Fathers admonitions especially that he should banish for ever Pierce Gaveston who had been his Companion in many Irregularities in his Youth He married Isabel the daughter of Philip the Fair of France and makes Gaveston his chiefest Favourite which so incensed the Lords that they threaten unless he would banish him his Court and Kingdom they would hinder his Coronation Which he promises to do but doth not perform but on the contrary bestows so much of his Treasury upon him that he scarce left means to sustain himself or to maintain his Queen This put the Lords into a new discontent who thereupon went again to the King and told him plainly That unless he would put Gaveston out of the Court and Kingdom they would rise up in Arms against him as a perjured King Whereupon out of fear the King sends him to France where finding no entertainment more than in other places he soon returns again and is received into as much favour as before Whereupon the whole Nobility join together except Gilbert Earl of Glocester and raising Forces send to the King either to deliver Gaveston into their hands or else to banish him immediately out of the kingdom But the King led by evil Counsel still refused Whereupon the Lords hearing where he was seized him and cut off his head The King being much concerned at his death to vex the Nobility takes into his nearest familiarity and Council the two Spencers Sir Hugh the Father and Sir Hugh the Son men as debaucht
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