proâises not being very commonly reputed to bind the ãâã party when the conditions required are not performed by the other Whatever the true occasioâ was London we find the place where this turn ãâã first publickly declared by proclaiming Henry Kiââ throughout the City Oct. 20. so considerable was ââven the reputed favour of the Citizens Lewis aboââ there indeed afterwards a while and the Barous ãâã his side but his strength so diminished in a littââ time that he was glad at last to take Money and ãâã away upon composition even in the 1st year of thâ King or beginning of the 2d This K. Hen. being the Son of such a Father whoâ practices too much betrayed his Principles and ãâã in so troublesom a time as his Fathers contest ãâã the Clergy we may be apt to believe he had a ãâã of his Fathers malady So full of troubles do we ãâã his Reign such complaints of the Government suââ amendments endeavoured and reformations maââ one while by the peaceable Councils of the Parâââment another while by the compulsive power ãâã the Barons Swords all which we may impute ââther to his own natural inbred disposition or else the over-ruling advices of ill Ministers so ãâã working upon the Kings Good-nature as upon sligââ pretences to make his power serve their own Interâââ to carry on their corrupt arbitrary designs So ââny were the ups and downs risings and falls changââ and turns of Fortune in these times such variabââness and mutability of Councils in affairs and the ãâã of London so much concerned in most of the cââsiderable Actions then on foot now in the Kinâ favour as soon again out of it one while enjoyâââ their ancient Priviledges and Customs another ãâã deprived of their Liberties and their Franchises ãâã upon slight occasions and anon again restored all with addition of new grants that I find it cââvenient through much of this Kings Reign to ãâã Annals after my Author In the 3d of this King is mention made of a Parââament kept at London In the 4th were Proclamaââons made in London and through the Land that all âtrangers should depart out of the Land except such ãâã came with Merchandize the intent hereof is said ââ be wholly to rid the Land of such strangers as posââst Castles in it contrary to the Kings Will and Pleaââre This year also was the King Crowned the 2d ââme at Westminster In the 6th was detected a Conââiracy within London which the King is said to have ââken so grievously that he was minded to have ârown down the City Walls till considering that it âas only a design of some of the Rascality and not ãâã the Rulers he assuaged his displeasure taken aââinst the City Robert Serle was then Mayor Rich. âânger Ioseus ãâã Iosne Sheriffs An. Reg. 7. in a Counâââ kept at London Stow tells us the King was reââired by the Peers Spiritual and Temporal to conâââm the Liberties for which the War was made aââinst his Father and he had sworn to observe at the ââparture of Lâwis out of England whereupon the ãâã commanded the Sheriffs to enquire by the ãâã of Twelve lawful men what were the Liâââties in England in his Grand-fathers time and ãâã the Inquisition so made up to London Hence ãâã we observe that England had Liberties and ââghts of their own before the Barons War in ãâã Iohn's days and therefore seem injuriousââ upbraided as if they got them first by Rebelliââ The good Government of England which as a ââdern Author words it was beâore like the Law Nature only written in the hearts of men came âpon obtaining the 2 Charters to be exprest in ââchment and remains a Record in writing though ââse Charters gave us no more than what was our ãâã before The 8th is noted for the grant made to the King by his Barony in Parliament of the Warâ and Marriage of their Heirs A good advantage somâtimes for the King to fix Noble mens Estates in sucâ Families as he best pleased A. R. 9. A Fifteenth was granted to the King to ãâã him in his right beyond the Seas and he by confirming the great Charter granted to the Barons anâ People their rights The 11th year is of note foâ many beneficial Grants made to London by the King The Sheriffwick of London and Middlesex was let ãâã farm to the Sheriffs of London for 300 l. yearly Oâ Feb. 18. was granted that all Wears in Thames shoulâ be pluckt up and destroyed for ever On March 1ââ the King granted by his Charter ensealed that thâ Citizens of London should pass Toll-free through thâ Land and upon any Citizen's being constrained ãâã pay Toll in any place of England the Sheriffs ãâã impowered to attach any man of that place cominâ to London with his goods and to keep and with-hoââ till the Citizens were restored all such Moneys ãâã from them with costs and damages Aug. 18. ãâã granted to the Citizens Warren that is free liberââ of Hunting within a certain circuit about Londââ Yet notwithstanding we read in another Author this years History of the Kings compelling the Lââdoners to lay him down a large sum of Money bâsides the 15th part of their moveables because ãâã sooth they had given Lewis who came to their aidâ K. John's days with an Army 5000 Marks at his ââparture out of England It may be the King ãâã them some of these Priviledges which cost him ââthing to induce them to give down their Money ãâã more willingly and not too much to displease theâ whose power was so well known in those days ãâã afterward experienced to some mens cost Roger ãâã Mayor Stephen Bockerel and Henry Cobham Sheriââ this year and also the next viz. 12. when the Franâhises and Liberties of the City were by the King âonfirmed and to each of the Sheriffs was granted to âave 2 Clerks 2 Officers to the Citizens that âhey should have and use a common Seal This year ãâã read that the King in a Council held at Oxford âroclaimed that being of age he would rule himself ãâã pleasure and forthwith cancelled the Charters of âiberties as granted in his Nonage Whereupon it ââllowed says my Author that whoso would enjoy ãâã Liberties before granted must renew their Charâârs of the Kings new Seal at a price awarded But ãâã Barons shortly after declared to the King that ââcept he would restore the Charter lately cancelled ââey would compel him by the Sword Such brisk âssertors were they it seems resolved to be of ââeir Liberties On the 13th while the Bishop of âondon was at high Mass in St. Pauls happened sudâenly such dark mists of Clouds and such a Tempest ãâã Thunder and Lightening that the People got out ãâã the Church and left the Bishop there in great âar with but a small attendance For all the many ãâã Papists make of their Mass and the wonderââl power and vertue they would fain persuade us to ââlieve there is in it it seems then
upon Summons the Barons had obtain'd their design but how would the change succeeding have been brought to pass so much to the Courts advantage and the other sides prejudice Where 's the politick Casuist that can here slit a haâ between loyal and disloyal deeds Obedience and Disobedience the duty of subjection and open refâsal thereof According to an Agreement there made in the said Octaves a Parliament was held at Westminster where met as Fabian hath left upon Record the King with his Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of the Land to begin that Parliament Here was it enacted the King being present that he nor Edward his Son nor none of them should after that day grieve nor cause to be grieved the Earls of Leicester and Glocester the Barons Banerets or Knights the Citizens of London and Barons of the Five Ports nor any other Person oâ Persons of high or low Degree that was upon thâ Party of the said Earls for any matter of displeasure done against the King and his Son Edward ãâã any time before that day To uphold this the King 's Sworn before his Lords After that was shew'd and Read a Charter of Pardon concerning the said Cause and a confirmation of the Statutes of the Forrest with many other Acts and Statutes before granted by the King Here was an Act of Oblivion strong enough one would have thought to have indemnified the offending Parties but before the end of the Year we find the Tide quite turn'd through variance and difference arising between the Two Thiefs of the Barons Party and then the King's side prevailing Casheers what was done before Oaths held them not and another Parliament ââpeals and disanuls the former Pardon So that the ãâã Pardon'd Offendors soon became the reputed Guilty Prisoners upon the old Scores Cancell'd and forgiv'n as was thought a little before The longest Sword will make and mar Laws at pleasure let people say what they will This Party's Might commonly bears down what the other Party calls his Right Edward the King's Son having likewise Sworn to perform the promises which the King had before made in Parliament was deliver'd at liberty and the other Pledg his Cozen upon assurance made ââ abide in the King's Court and not depart without licence of the King and some of the Barons What care do the Barons seem here to have taken to âârengthen and confirm their Party against any future âââerclaps How sollicitous do they appear to have âeen to prevent an after-Reckoning and all Tendenâies thereunto Nay how conformable to them did the King and his Son shew themselves likewise âherein Witness the many Instruments and Bonds âade by them for the performance of Covenants and Pactions before agreed on And yet all was soon destroy'd and brought to none effect One of the ãâã Chiefs helping Penelope-like to unravel the Web they had been so long a Weaving The Ordering the former Statutes made at Oxford which had hitherto so fast united them was the occasion of dissention between the Two Potent Earls ââ Leicester and Glocester to the ruin of the Baron's Party the difference arose as Stow tells us betweeâ them for that Leicester not only kept the King anâ others as Prisoners but also took to himself the Revenues of the Kingdom which it seems should have been equally devided amongst them So that it waâ the Golden-Apple that seems to have occasion'd thââ so fatal Discord The King indeed and his Lords labour'd for an Union but it fell out well for the King's side and ill for the others that they succeeded not This happen'd between Easter and Whitsââtide In the Wââtsun-Week we hear of Edward thâ King's Son secretly departing from the Court at Hereford without Licence and associating himself wiââ the Earl of Glocester and other Lords at Chester froâ whence he hasts to Glocester breaking the Bridges aâ he went that he might not be follow'd till he had Assembled his Power The Earl of Leicester was toâ wife not to guess at his Intent and therefore in all haâ sends to his Son to Assemble his Forces Simon his Soâ with his Forces Assembled draws towards Winchestââ and was at first kept out by the Citizens because theâ knew not whether he came as the King's Friend anâ for that they had also receiv'd a Letter from Edwaââ to that purport But it was not long e're the Ciââ was yielded and then the Castle Besieged after thââ the City had been spoil'd and many of the Jeââ therein Inhabiting Slain They were so odious generally to the People that they should be sure to havâ their share to the purpose in the publick Calamity if the Commons might have their Will The Papistâ after all their discover'd Plots known Practices anâ destructive Principles are not in a vast degree much more hateful to the generality of the English Nation in these Days than where the griping Jews in those Elderly Times At Kenelworth the Baron's Party receiv'd the first ââow under this Simon where they were shamefully defeated by Edward and his Host and many Eminent Prisoners taken without the shedding of much Blood At Eâyshum in Worcestershire were the Barons discâmfited with such a total overthrow and the destruction of so many Men of Note on that side that âis no wonder that their Interest among the People so visibly decay'd for the future and in time was fully lost Soon after this Victory the King and his Son Edward met by whose Authority the Prisoners then in hold were released and many others accus'd and put in for them Not long after was held a Parliament at Winchester where by Authority of the same the Statutes and Ordinances before made at Oxford were Repealed and all Bonds and Writings before made by the King or any other Cancell'd and Broken and all such as had favor'd the Barons disinherited A Rout indeed A Rout first to the Men that would have had the Laws have been kept and then a Rout to the Laws themselves to Parliament Acts and Statutes So destroy first of all the Protestant Men and Women the Subjects of Religion and then the Protestant Religion falls of course What could it at that time avail the defeated Party to plead a former Obedience to the Power then Regnant since the present Powers were otherwise resolv'd If the Parliament in Being will have Obedience paid to a former Parliament esteem'd Treason who dare gainsay it Little boots it the poor weak Beast to cry the Bunch in his Forehead is no Horn when the more powerful Lion says it is After these Parliament Transactions we hear of the King 's reââming into his hands all grants before made and giveâ to any Person After his Sons Victory the King calls not a Parliament at Westminster least possibly it might have been over aw'd by the City of London but assembling it at a place far enough distant and things having there been carried according to the Courts intent and desire now have at London Accordingly
after the Parliament was ended we read of King Henry's coming to Windsor with a great Power intending as the Fame then went to destroy the City for the great Ire and Displeasure he had unto it We need but guess to know with what a wonderful fear the Mayor and Aldermen were thân stricken at this Report Yet we are told that many of the Commons were in full purpose to have defended the City against the King So it seems there weââ then many and divers opinions among them The City being in those days Inhabited with Men of many Nations who were then according to Fabian admitteâ for Citizens At last the Citizens condescended to make a supplication to the King and send it by some Religious Person Many are said to be sent by sundry Persons but to little avail The King being so grievously incensed by some of his Counsel against them that he would not look upon their Supplications and if any spoke in their behalf he soon would make such countenance that even Men in his Favour fear'd to speak for them Now was the time for their Ill-willers to vent the utmost of their Spleen against this Honourable City formetly their Terror and hops to compleat their full Revenge by working its Destruction We doubt not but Men of Arbitrary desires have always hated such sree constituted Corporate Towns and Cities and have little reason to beleive but that there are Men of the like ill Principles and Practises still alive in the World who would heartily rejoyce in their Minds to meet with the like opportuââty to work out their corrupt designs Have you never heard of such a saying as that the Corporations will prove England's Destruction Out of what Mint d' ee think this comeâ Where was it first forg'd but in some such men's Brains We now look upon one of these Corporations as one of the principal Bulwarks of the Protestant Religion and the English Liberty And that it may long so continue in defence of their just Priviledge and true Religion in spight of all Arbitrary endeavours and Popish designâ is the hearty Prayer and Desire I doubt not of every good Protestant and Loyal English-man While the cautionary Protestant Towns in France stood firm and fix and uninjur'd in their just Liberties and Priviledges how gloriously and with what safety did the Protestant Religion flourish in that Land But when through the Force and Violence of Arbitrary Pretenders and treacherous connivance of some corrapt English States-men Rochel was reduc'd in the last age under absolute power what foundation was thereby laid for the Protestants future Ruin and present greatness of the French Monarchy How well the Papists designs have there succeeded since the utter subversion of the Protestant Towns is not unknown to their Neighbours Such sad Reports have not long since pierc'd our English Ears of the Barbarous usages the Protestants there have lately undergone whereof some sorrowful Spectacles may have possibly presented themselves of late to some of our Eyes What further Progress the Jesuits may haply make in their cursed designs by sending into England bloody Papists in the form of distressed Protestants We have but too just Cause to fear Especially if all be true that hath been Reported of the going of some of these suspected Strangers to a Popish Habitâtion and of others being seen going to Mass How well would it be for the Land were all these Reportâ undoubtedly false and our Fears Jealousies and Suspicions altogether causeless When the Citizens Supplications were thus rejected at Court the History tells us that they were counselled by their Friends to make a Writing and Seal it with their Common-Seal whereby they should offer to put themselves whâlly in the King's Grace and Mercy touching their Lives and Goods This we may easily suppose much more Irksome than a barâ Surrender of their Charter yet this was at length done and Eight Persons of the City who had Friends at Court chosen and sent towards Windsor But up on the way encountring with Sir Roger Lâyborn onâ of the Kings Knights he turn'd them unto the City Riding with them till he came near it and then departing from them Rode upon the back side of the Town unto the Tower But at his departing from them he willed them to warn the Mayor with certain of the City to meet him to morrow at Berkiââ Church standing near unto the Tower Upon theiâ meeting next morning Sir Roger after a long preamble shew'd them the Kings grievous Displeasure which he bare towards the City and the means that had been used by their Friends to obtain Grace for it In fine he expressed that no Grace for them might be had except they would by their Common-Seal biââ themselves fully and wholly to stand at the King'â Grace and to put in his Mercy their Lives and Goods This being in the end granted by the Citizens and the foresaid writing delivered to Sir Roger with entreaty that he would be a good mean for them to the King He departed upon the morrow to the King and return'd again in Six Days and willed the Mayor and Aldermen to meet him again at the foresaid Church There he shew'd them that the King by great Instance of their Friends had received their writing and would fââst for the beginning of the content of his mind That all the Chains which stood in every Street and ââne's ând within the City should be loosed from their Posts and the Posts also drawn out of the Earth all be brought into the Tower So belike upon apprehensiââ of great danger to set up Posts Chains in the ãâ¦ã an ancient Custom He also further order'd That thiâ being done the Mayor with about Forty of the ãâã should the Day following be at Windsor to ãâã the Grant of their Writing And that they âight come and goe in safe and sure wise he delivered them the Kings Letter and Seal for the term of Four Days All this being done the Mayor with other Personâ were ready at Windsor on the morrow being Sunday ãâã One of the Clock arâ tarried there till Four At which season the King coming from his Disport as says my Author enters the Castle without counteâance or casting his Eyes upon the Londoners The king and his People being entred the Londoners would have followed but they were warn'd to abide without Then in short time after the King caus'd a Proclamation to be made that no man of high or low degree should make any sayings of displeasure or âuarrel to the Londoners In the Evening Sir Roger and another Knight came to them and brought them into the Gastle and said The Kings pleasure was not to speak with them that Night And after deliver'd them to the Constable of the Castle who Lodg'd them all that Night in a large Tower to their small Chear and worse Lodging Upon the morrow being Monday toward Night they were taken out of the Tower and delivered to the Bayliff
in this Case be by the advice and discretion of the Justices thereto assigned To mitigate it doubtless not inhance it at pleasure to ruin particular persons and annihilate the City's Liberties by pretending the loss of her Charter How respectful King Lords and Commons in Parliament assembl'd shew'd themselves to this honourable City hath been sufficiently declar'd prov'd and made manifest I presume already in the foregoing Relation Let us now call off our Meditations from this particular point and fix our thoughts upon an other Argument highly demonstrative of the City's power drawn from no less uncouth a Topick than tumults and disorders insurrections and Outrages of unruly people There having pass'd an Act of Parliament in the fourth of this King to impower him to Collect and Gather Poll money throughout the Land and many exactions thereupon and incivilities being committed by the new Collectors and other Officers some of the Courtiers having procur'd the Kings Commissions for a review and a more exact Collection under the notion of the Kings being cheated and defrauded through the unfaithfulness of his former Tax gatherers the Commons thought themselves so abus'd and oppress'd that in many places they took Counsel together to make resistance and in several Counties assembled themselves in great numbers to the no small disturbance of the Land Amongst these the Commons of Kent and Essex are reckon'd the greatest bodies gathered together under such heads as Wat Tyler Jack Straw and the like obscure Fellows These we find quickly coming to London where they soon obtain entrance notwithstanding the Mayors intended opposition and then quickly carry all before them behead whom they thought good do what they would burn great mens Palaces at their Pleasure the Gates of the Tower are set open to them the King rides to 'm in fear unarm'd and ill guarded at their sending for and grants them as large Charters as they desired none of his Courtiers daring to oppose or resist their Insolencies so that they seem to have had all things for a small season under their sole Power Direction and Command as remaining Masters of the Field without a stroak stricken by any opposite Party such a terrour did their numbers and boldness strike into mens minds at the first and so effectual was their success in getting within the Walls of London either through the joynt assistance of many Commons there inhabiting or else rather under the repute of having the whole City at their beck But when the first brunt was over and it was visible that the greatest best and most of the Citizens joyn'd not with the Country Commons to approve or abet them in their furious outrages and violences the tide was soon turn'd and deliverance brought both to the King and Court by the courage of this Loyal City The Mayor himself as their Head made the first open beginning was seconded by his Brethren the Aldermen and quickly followed by the worthy Citizens He being a man of great boldness by the Kings permission first arrested and afterwards grievously wounded one of the chiefest of the Rebells Jack Straw saith Fabian Wat Tyler saith Stow to the great encouragement of those about the King among whom this Arch Rebel receiv'd his death and daunting of the Rebellious Commons to which valiant Deed the City is indebted for Walworths Dagger some say inserted upon this Account in her Coat of Arms. After this Act away rides the Mayor with one Servant only the Annalist tell us into the City and crying out to the Citizens to come speedily to the Kings assistance raises a considerable strength who well arm'd under the leading of Sir Robert Knowles came in good time into the Field where the King was among the tumultuous Commons not so well attended but that the unexpected coming of the Mayor and the armed Citizens is expresly said to have caus'd rejoycing in the minds of the King and those few Knights and Esquires then about him and the Issue acquaints us with the great consequence hereof when we read of the Commons throwing down their weapons immediately falling also themselves upon the ground and beseeching pardon who but a little before gloried that they had the Kings life in their own power and so possibly might have continued boasting had not the Citizens thus rous'd up themselves to the Kings relief and timely dispers't these seditious Rioters in the midst of their insulting Pride That this was a piece of Loyalty as well as valour most timely and seasonably shewn is evident from the great influence what was but barely done at London though without London's consent had upon the Countrey For from the Annalist we are given to understand that there were the like Insurrections in Suffolk and Norfolk and in express words told that these overthrew House and Mannors of great Men and of Lawyers slew the Students of the Law c. according to the manner of them at London having for their Captain an ungracious Priest nam'd John Wraw who had been at London just before had seen what was done there and came thence with Instructions from Wat Tyler So that what 's done in the City is very likely to be imitated in the Countrey A disorderly Rout of people were got together round about and within the City and committed many unsufferable Outrages and several parts of the Country were resolv'd to follow the Fashion and do the like The Citizens courage quel'd these Tumultuous Commons in London and then they were quickly suppress'd we hear in other Places Then had the King reason to reward the Mayor and several Aldermen with the honour of Knighthood and other recompences and time to assemble an Army of his Loyal Friends and Subjects at London to guard him till the Principals of these dispersed Rebels were brought to condign Punishment by Law which was quickly done thanks to the worthy Londoners who had thus vigorously asserted the Kings Right defended his Royalty rescued his Person and regained him the exercise of his Kingly Power well near lost before through the Rebellion of his meaner Commons and cowardly Faintheartedness of his Courtiers Men it seems that could speak big at the Council-board and talk high upon the Bench under the shelter of the Kings Authority but when they were to come into the Field of War to fight for their Prince they prov'd meer Courtiers all words and no deeds The Citizens were the Men of valour They lay still the King was like to be undone and the Court ruin'd They appear'd to oppose the vaunting Enemies they fled before them and the King regain'd his own This one famous City the terror of her Enemies the joy of her Friends cooperates in the grand turns and changes of affairs in the Brittish world or else such attempts for the most part at least if not always prove vain fruitless and insignificant And where 's the wonder of this The whole City as a compact Body with Strength and Beauty fitly united may well be
Law to the Destruction of the Duke of Glâucester and the Earls of Arundel and Warwick at Shrewscury For that the King against his Promise procured the Duke of Ireland sundry Rebells about Cheshire where diverse Murders by him were committed For that the King against his own Promise and Pardon at the Solemn Procession apprehended the Duke of Gloucester and sent him to Callice there to be choked and murdered beheading the Earle of Arundel and banishing the Earl of Warwick and the Lord Cobham For that the Kings Retinue and rout gathered out of Cheshire about the apprehension of those Nobles committed diverse Murders Rapes and other Fellonies besides refusing to pay for their Victuals For that the King condemned the Nobles aforesaid for divers rodes made within the Realm contrary to his open Proclamation For that the King doubly Fined Men for their Pardons For that the King to oppress his whole subjects procured in his last Parliament that the Power thereof was committed to certain Persons For that the King being sworn to Minister right did notwithstanding enact in the last Parliament that no mediation should be made for the Duke of Lancaster contrary to his said Oath For that the Crown of England being freed from the Pope and all other forraign Power the King notwithstanding procured the Popes Excommunication on such as brake the last Parliament in derogation of the Crown Statutes and Laws of the Realm For that the King banished the Duke of Lancaster for 10 years without any Cause as the same King openly affirmed For that the King unlawfully revoked the Letters Patents made to the said Duke of Lancaster in An. 21. For that the King contrary to the Laws and will of the Justices suffered Sheriffs to continue longer than one year and placed such therein as were unfit For that the King repayed not to his Subjects debts of them borrowed For that the King in the time of Truce and Peace exacted great Subsidies and wasted the same about frivilous matters For that the King refused to execute the Laws Saying that the Laws were in his Mouth and Breast For that the King by procuring by Statutes that he might be free as any of his Progenitors did under colour thereof subvert Laws according to his Will For that the King procured Knights of the Shires to be made to serve his own will For that the King enforced Sheriffs to be Sworn to execute all Commandemens under the Great Seal Privy Seal or Signet contrary to their accustomed Oaths For that the King to wrack mony from his Subjects procured 17 several Shires to submit themselves to his Grace whereby great sums of mony were Levied For that the King being Sworn to observe the Liberties of the Church notwithstanding at his Voyage into Ireland enforced diverse Religious Persons to give Horse Armour and Carts For that the Justices for their good Councel given to the King were with evil Countenance and threats rewarded For that the King of his own Will in passing into Ireland carried with him the Treasures Reliques and other Jewels of the Realm which were used safely to be kept in the Kings own Coffers from all hazard and for that the same King cancelled and razed sundry Records For that the King by writing to Forreign Princes and to his own Subjects is reputed universally a most variable and dissembling man For that the King would commonly say among the Nobles that all Subjects Lives Lands and Goods were in his hands without any forfeiture For that the King suffered his Subjects to be condemned by Marshal-Law contrary to his Oath and the Laws of the Realm For that the Subjects being only bound by their Allegiance were yet driven to take certain New Oaths for serving the folly of the King For that the King by his private Letters would charge the Ecclesiastical Ministers in any new Canonical matter to stay contrary to his Oath For that the King by force in his Parliament banished the Arch Bishop of Canterbury without any good Ground For that the King by his last Will passed under the Great Seal and Privy Signet gave unto his Successors certain Money and Treasure upon Condition to perform all the Acts and Orders in the last Parliament which being ungodly and unlawful he meant as ungodlily to dy in For that the King in the 11th of his Reign in his Chappel in the Manour of Langley in the presence of the Duke of Lancaster and Yorke and others received the Sacrament of the Lords Body that he would never impeach the Duke of Gloucester his Uncle for any thing before done and yet to the Contrary procured him to be murdered For that the King most fraudulently and untruely against his own Oath Banished the Arch Bishop of Canterbury and wasted his Goods in which Article in private Conference between the said Arch Bishop the King in a manner prophesied and doubted that the like would happen of himself and thereupon shewed a special Token to the Arch Bishop That if he sent the same at any time that the Arch Bishop should look that the King would come to him These were the Imputations laid to his charge and that they were then thought true or at least not contradicted is self-Evident all seeming highly desirous of a Change and few dispos'd to espouse the depos'd Kings Cause and Interest so furious and violent was the Current of the Times as to bear away well nigh all before it That Parliament being so full of the new Kings Favourers and so empty of the old Kings true and cordial Friends that I remember to have read of but one viz. the Loyal Bishop of Carlisle who after a little Demur of a few dayes time upon a Motion made in Parliament about the disposal of King Richard stood up boldly and undauntedly for his old Lord and Master in the midst of his professed and declared Enemies and known Deserters His Speech as a rare Example of Fidelity giving us the very Quintessence of Loyalty I shall venture to set down out of Sir Richard Bakers Chronicle with the Consequents as follows My Lords The Matter now propounded is of marvellous Weight and Consequence wherein there are two Points chiefly to be considered The First whether King Richard be sufficiently put out of his Throne The Second whether the Duke of Lancaster be lawfully taken in For the First How can that be sufficiently done when there is no Power sufficient to do it The Parliament cannot for of the Parliament the King is the Head and can the Body put down the Head You will say but the Head may bow it self down and may the King resign It is true but what force is in that which is done by force And who knows not that King Richard's Resignation was no other But suppose he be sufficiently out yet how comes the Duke of Lancaster to be lawfully in If you say by Conquest you speak Treason For what Conquest without Arms And can a Subject take Arms
against his lawful Soveraign and not be Treason If you say by Election of the State you speak not reason for what Power hath the State to Elect while any is Living that hath Right to Succeed But such a Successor is not the Duke of Lancaster as descended from Edmund Crouchback the Elder Son of King Edward the Third though put by the Crown for deformity of his Body for who knows not the falseness of this Allegation Seeing it is a thing Notorious that this Edmund was neither the Elder Brother nor yet Crook-Back't though called so from some other reason but a goodly Personage and without any deformity And your selves cannot forget a thing so lately done who it was that in the Fourth Year of King Richard was declared by Parliament to be Heir to the Crown in case King Richard should dye without Issue But why then is not that Claim made Because silent Leges inter Arma What dispuââng of Titles against the stream of Power But however it iâ extream Injustice that King Richard should be condemn'd without being heard or once allowed to make his Defence And now My Lords I have spoken thus at this time that you may consider of it before it be too late for as yet it is in your Power to undo that justly which you have unjustly done Much to this Purpose was the Bishop's Speech but to as little purpose as if he had gone about to call back Yesterday The Matter was too far gone and scarce a Person there present that had not a Hope of either a private or publick Benefit by that which was done Yet against this Speech of the Bishop there was neither protesting nor excepting It passed in the House as but one Man's Opinion And as for the King it was neither fit he should use much Severity against any Member of that Parliament which had so lately shewed so much Indulgence towards him nor indeed safe to be too hot in his Punishment when he was yet scarce warm in his Government Yet for a warning to use their Liberty of Speech with more Moderation hereafter the Bishop was Arrested by the Marshal and Committed to Prison in the Abby of St. Albans but afterwards without further Censure set at Liberty till upon a Conspiracy of Lords wherein he was a Party he was Condemned to Dye though through Extremity of Grief he prevented Execution Thus far the Chronicle King Henry is now got into the Throne Richard being thrust into a Prison and afterwards into his Grave and yet I don't find him so secure and well settled but that he had many ãâã Enemies ever and anon to Contest with and ãâã a few secret disguis'd Ones to fear and suspect with so many prickly Thorns was his new-gotten Crown lin'd Therefore we have little reason to believe he would ever wilfully disoblidge that City whose Power and Strength he so well knew The Mummery design'd by some discontented Lords to be acted upon him at Twelfthtide at Windsor in the First of his Reign The Battle fought between him and Sir Henry Hotspur at Shrewsbury in the Third The Rising about York in the Sixth And the Battle of Bramâam Moore in the Eighth besides several other secret Attempts and Conspiracies were as so many Admonitions to him to Fortify himself what be could with the Citizens love and affection as his surest earthly Bulwark and Defence next to his prosperous Success in the aforesaid Contests which prevented the discontented from coming near enough to London to attempt the raising there of new Broils and Commotions to disturb his Repose and the Cities Peace if he had any Evil-willers therein capable of receiving ill Impressions As perhaps he had but few there such Care he took to oblidge them and scarce any occasion given to breed Murmurs and Complaints among them For He who meerly at the Commons request in the Fifth of his Reign remov'd Four of his Menial Servants out of his House when he openly declar'd in Parliament he then knew no cause thereof but only for that they were hated of the People and so often gratified his House of Commons in their Petitions about his prime and principal Officers and privy Councellors must needs be thought more ready to encrease the Number of his Friends than to make himself more Enemies especially in a City of such ãâã Riches Power and Strength as London was ãâã known to be beyond denial dispute or contradiction The City flourished under this King in the Renovation of old the Guildhall of London and the Erecting of new publick Structures the Conduit upon Cornhil and the Stocks-Market-House was famous abroad for the abundance of her Traffique and number of her Traders and increas'd at home in Repute and Renown by the prevailing of her Mayor and Commonalty in their Contest with the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and other Lords and Knights about pulling up the Wares in Thames over which by their Charter they claim'd a large Power as Conservators of that their beloved River besides the many grounds and reasons the King had to Glory in his confidence of the Love and Loyalty of her Citizens and rejoyce in the continuance of their Affection to him and his Family As is evident from the timely Advertisement the Mayor brought him in the First of his Reign of the Conspiracy of the discontented Lords who under the colour of Christmas Pastimes as Mumming c. design'd Treacherously to have Slain him to the forcing him very seasonably as incredulous as he was before into a belief of the reality of the Plot and accompanied him the same Night from Windsor to London whereby he purchas'd to himself Security disappointed the Conspirators and got time and opportunity to punish the Plotters And may also be inferr'd from the successful care the Mayor Sheriffs and other Citizens took in stilling the midnight difference happening in Eastcheap on Midsomer-Eve in the Twelfth of his Reign when two of his younâââ Sons Sup't there late at Night and might ãâã have been greatly indanger'd had the ãâã lasted any time These are Instances I ãâã expresly mention'd in History and who knows âow many more there might be that were never so âuch taken Notice of by the Writers of that Age âs to be carefully transmitted to Posterity by their ãâã Peradventure there were many more Evidenââs But I will not so much insist upon an Argument âhat is but barely possible and probable nor with ââlly and impertinence enough stay to beg the âoint of the Reader upon an uncertain surmise and âânjecture Though it would be as absurd in him ãâã affirm That all things ever done in the World ãâã the Invention of Letters have been commitââd to Paper as it would be monstrously Ridiculous ãâã to pretend to have seen and read all things remarkable that ever were Wrote of this Honourable City and her praise-worthy Actions 'T is enough for my weakness and inability if I can tolerably make out what I have here design'd concerning
held up their heads above ground is evident from the many supplies they had from London of Men Mony and Arms the frequent applications they made to her on all extremities and the constant endeavours they us'd to cultivate her friendship and preserve her affections But over these Transactions I shall choose rather to cast a vail of silence than industriously endeavour to lay open the bleeding wounds of the Nation in those days as being fully assur'd of the impossibility of guiding my pen so dextrously in delivering the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth as not to subject my self to censure nor incur the anger displeasure and indignation of any one Suffice it then to say that in the long Vacation of Parliaments under King Charles the first such seeds of discontent were sown in City as well as Country that upon the first opportunity they sprung up into bitter herbs and sour fruit and who tasted most thereof I think all the European world knows sufficiently by this time of day But if any in this age is so ignorant as to wonder how it was possible for the two Houses in forty one to bear up against the King without being dismis'd from Westminster by vertue of the Kings Prerogative the usual method of ancient times and the known practice of later days he is to know and understand that his late Majesty had formally pass'd away his grand Power of Prorogations Adjournments and Dissolutions by an Act of Parliament and so put the staff out of his own hands that he could never recover as long as he lived by force nor intreaty An act of Grace this was that is hardly to be parallel'd and yet perhaps it may be likâned to the Statute made in the second of Richard the second of which I have made mention before against abrupt and untimely dismissions only that this is plainer worded and seems enlarged to a further extent Otherwise considering the use that might have been possibly made of the former it might have look't like the same book with additions new Printed in Octavo which before was bound up in decimo sexto Neither of these are to be found in our New Printed Statute books they pretending not to set down all the Antiquated Repeal'd or expir'd Statutes that ever were in being Therefore if any one desires to humour his curiosity he must apply himself to Cottons Abridgment of the Tower Records for the one and search after the other in some of those books that treat of the affairs of the late times Now the Observator in such a case tells us of Scobel and Husbands Collections Upon which so Authentick an Authority as some esteem it if we have recourse to Scobels Collections of the best Edition 't is ten thousand to one but we shall there find the Statute in this manner following Whereas great summs of mony must of necessity he speâdily advanced and provided for the relief of His Majesties Armâ and People in the Northern parts of this Realm and for preventing the imminent danger tââs Kingdom is in and for supply of other His Majesties present and urgent occasions which cannot be so timely effected as is requisite without Credit for raising the said monies which credit cannot be obtained until such obstacles be first removed as are occasioned by fears jealoâsies and apprehensions of divers his Majesties Loyal Subjects that this present Parliament may be Adjourned Prorogued or Dissolved before Justice shall be duly executed upon Delinquents publick grievances redressed a firm Peace between the two Nations of England and Scotland concluded and before sufficient provision be made for the repayment of the said monies so to be raised All which the Commons in this present Parliament assembled having duly considered do therefore humbly beseech your most excellent Mâjâsty that it may be declared and Enacted And be it declared and enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That this present Parliament now Assembled shall not be dissolved unless it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose nor shall be at any time or times during the continuance thereof Prârâgued or Adjourned unless it be by Act of Parliament to be likewise passed for that purpose And that the House of Peers shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be Adjourned unless it be by themselves or by their own Order And in like manner that the House of Commons shall not any time or times during this present Parliament be Adjourned unless it be by themselves or by their own order And that all and every thing and things whatsoever done or to be done for the Adjournment Proroguing oâ Dissolving of this present Parliament contââry to this Act shall be utterly void and of none effect This Act in Gâneral prov'd the destruction of that branch of the Royal Prârogative which related to calling or dissolving Parliaments and that particular clause in the end that all and every thing and things whatsoever done or to be done for the Adjournment Proroguing or dissolving of this present Parliament contrary to this Act shall be utterly void and of none effect was we may believe from subsequent passages a Plea the wits of the age durst have ventur'd to have stood by against any attempts to discontinue disappoint or frustrate the meeting of the two Houses of Parliament if they had Spiâit and Courage enough to have own'd any thing of the Law So that upon a ground work so firm and a foundation so sure the Parliamentarians valued not all the subtile Arts and devices of their Enemies nor stood in âear of those Mercuâial Engines Pen Ink and Papâr so they could bât defend themselves against those Martial Arguments the bright-shining Sword and the thundring Cannon By vertue of this Clause we may conclude that after the House of Commons was violently depriv'd of many Members thereof the House of Lords wholly put down and that small remainder of a Parliament forc'd out of Doors by Oâiver and the Soldiers after two Protectors and several Assemblies that took on them the venerable Name of Parliaments and some of them too chosen by the People part of the Commons House nevertheless again got into power and being once more thrust out by the Army afterwards Recover'd possession and the whole House was in a fair likelyhood to have been fill'd up by the Re-admission of the secluded Members till they to make way for a greater turn did all that lay in the power of a single House to dissolve the Parliament which with us consists of the King and his two Houses Treating now of the late times and having drawn a vail over the Transactions in the last Wars wherein the City was more particularly concern'd though 't is well known that her power and Influence was very considerable in the many turns and changes through which the State
then Prelatical In the late times 't was once the Presbyterian then the Independent Church and other Sectaries were puting in a pace for a share and then had they succeeded it might have been without much impropriety entitled to the Epithite of Fanatical King Charles brought back the Bishops and so now 't is again Episcopal Should Popery come in it would be Popish Were there any likelihood of so great an Impossibility as the prevalency of Judaism then it would be the Jewish Church If Mahomets Religion which hath been publickly profess'd in the Pulpit preferable to Presbiteriansm why might it not be allow'd the Title of Mahometan And if we should revert to the Ancient Barbarity where would the impropriety be should we term it the Heathenish Church For the Heathens heretofore had the thing though not the Name Temples instead of Churches and bloody Sacrifices to make up the greatest part of their Devotion What a fine Company then of different Epithites of different signifâcations would these be for an impertinent Caviller to prefix before that so much applaud'd expression the Church of England in reply to his impertinence that would perswade simple ignorant people that they know not what they say when they call themselves Protestants British Romish Monkish Popiâh Reformed Episcopal Prelatical Presbyterian Independent Fanatical Jewish Mahometan Heathenish and what not To such a fine pass would people once be brought when they fall to wrangling about words and terms at the same time that they know one anothers meaning well enough yet will pretend not to understand each other We may have haply reason enough to approve of and glory in the Name of Church of England men though not perhaps in such a restrained sense as some do yet our grounds without all peradventure are as good to apply to our selves the glorious Title of Protestants and we can as properly distinguish our selves thereby from Papists as if we term'd our selves only Sons of the Church of England under this consideration that Protestants at first were such Baker tells us as made a Protestation in defence of their Doctrine and now we are such as protest against Popery and Slavery But to return how contributory this Honourable City was to his Majesties Restauration and how Loyally affectionate her Citizens shew'd themselves to him before and after hath been already instanced Let us then in the next place take a short transient view of her actions and the accidents hapning to her under King Charles the second and see whither she hath not continued still the same as of old a City of high Renown Fame and Power and of great sway and influence all over the Kingdom First then let us consider her misfortunes that we may the better contemplate her glories In sixty two her Parishes lost many of their beloved Pastors in that great ejection of publick Ministers among whom were some that had declar'd in Print against the pretended high Court of Justice in the time of his Late Majesties Tryal In sixty five the great Plague swept away her Citizens by thousands tens of thousands and scores of thousands In sixty six the fire burn'd almost all the Remainder out of House and home and laid in a manner the whole City in Ashes So that if ever she feem'd then near to a very dismal Catastrophe And yet we see now Providence hath delivered her out of these her Calamities and she is become more glorious than ever in the Eyes of the Nation The number of her Citizens is so encreas'd and her streets fill'd with such multitudes of people passing to and fro that those who dyed in the sickness are neither miss'd nor wanted The fire hath made such a Reformation within her Walls and the new buildings publick and private have been rais'd up to the admiration of all in so small a space of time and in so pompous and stately a form that she may be thought like the old Phaenix burning in her nest of odoriferous Spices only to have shaken off her old decay'd feathers by the fire and out of her own Ashes Phaenix like to have risen up with more Splendor and Gallantry than ever Come we now to the late Discovery of the Grand Popish Plot and the times succeeding and therein also we meet with instances of Londons influence and Authority with the rest of the Nation She guarded her self with her own Arms and how soon was she follow'd in other places After the dissolution of some of the National Assemblies which we English men call Parliaments and firmly beleive the greatest liberty of the subject to consist therein upon a new choice when her Citizens made a publick promise to their chosen Representatives that they would stand by them with their lives and fortunes Such a Copy was set the Nation that most places strove to imitate it and the Example was as influential as when before upon the Cities Petitioning for the sitting of one of those before mention'd Parliaments Petitions of the same nature came thronging in amain from several parts of the Land in imitation Look we now upon the City and see how intent the eyes of the Nation are fixt upon her actions and the great contest about the Sheriffs How all the Land seems concern'd on one side or the other and think their own well-fare wrapt up in her security Such sollicitousness of a whole Nation for one particular City must certainly denote some what extraordinary therein And what is it can more interest the Nation in her concerns than the great Influence 't is known she has upon all their grand affairs be they more or less publick Even the very business of the Quo Warranto now depending will administer an instance of her Power and Greatness How do all now stand ready waiting the Event depending upon her success or ready to follow her fate When the Writ was brought against her Charter how great was the Expectation of the people and their longings to know what would be the Issue Some Resign'd but when London appear'd to Stand up in her own Vindication what a stop was there put to Resignations and how rare have been surrenders since Most seem now ready to defend themselves by Law Nay Oxford hath pitch'd upon the same way and method with London Whereas had this Honourable City but surrender'd calmly and quietly 't is a question whither any would have stood out or whether rather all Towns and Corporations would not have strove to have out run each other to the Throne of Majesty there to have made an intire Resignation of all their Charters Liberties Priviledges and Franchises notwithstanding the hazard they might have run by dissolving their Ancient Corporations to have lost back all the Estates given to them as Corporate bodies to the Donors Heirs sutable to the Reply said to be made to the Burgesses of a Certain Corporation when they ask'd advice in the Case Such having been the influences of the City of London all along
his Name to the Place Those Monkish Writers scarce thinking their Hero's Valour sufficiently Celebrated unless they make them meet with and encounter some such Gygantick Adventures where the little Knight shall be sure to over-come the great Gyant Brute having bestowed Cornwal upon Corineus after he had throughly searched the Land for the Pleasure he took in Thames he laid There as we are told the Foundation of a City about the Second Year after his Landing in this Isle and in remembrance of Old Troy named it Troynovant which Name it held till the Time of King Lud near upon One Thousand and Sixty Eight Years from whom 't was named Lud's Town afterwards London as shall be declared in Process of Story What Repute and Esteem this City was of in those Days as being Builded by the First Founder of the British Empire I shall leave to the Reader 's Consideration who may find it honoured with the Sepulture of many of their Kings as of Brute himself and his Eldest Son Locrine to whom in the Division made by his Father fell Middle England for his Share wherein Troynovant was situated To whom may be added Cunedagius and Gorbodug the Father of Ferrex and Porrex the Last of Brute's Line But now the Coast begins to clear up a little more after the Storms of Civil Wars by the Success of Mulmutius Dunwallo Son of Cloton Duke of Cornwal This Dunwallo having vanquished the other Competitors and settled the Land caused a Temple to be builded in Troynovant and named it the Temple of Peace the same according to some Men's Opinions that now is called Blackwell-Hall a Place well known to the Clothiers His Fame is much increas'd by the many good Ordinances he made which were called Mulmutius's Laws and used long after his Decease That this City of Troynovant was of Repute and Renown in this so Famous a Man's Days is hardly to be doubted of by him that considers so eminent a Circumstance as the Building of a Temple of Peace within the Circuit of this City as an Effect of that Peace he had so happily settled in the Land and it may be in Gratitude to the Citizens who probably favour'd his Cause and so might much influence his Actions and Enterprizes In the same Temple of Peace was he laid after his Death which he had been the Occasion of Building in his Life In the Time of Belinus and Brennus his Sons after their Reconcilement Accord we read of their going to Troynovant with their Lords and Friends where after many things ordered for the Common Benefit of the Land they joyntly agreed to lead both their Hosts over the Sea to subdue other Countrys the Smart of which Voyage the Romans felt sufficiently under Brennus and his Gauls By Belinus we sind that an Haven was built in the same Troynovant with a Gate over it call'd even at this Day Belings-gate on whose Pinnacle was set a Brazen Vessel which contain'd the Ashes of his Body burnt after his Death In this City we likewise find that Gurguintus was Buried and also Guintellius his Son from whose Wife Marcia came the Marcian-Law fam'd long after âmong the Britains and Saxons These being of some Eminency in their ãâ¦ã Buried in this City after their Deaths It ãâ¦ã safely be concluded That they ãâ¦ã therein as their Principal City and ãâ¦ã of the Realm Yet we read of other ãâ¦ã Note in those Times and after as of ãâ¦ã one where Archigallo before depos'd by his Loââs for his ill Government was through the Intercession of Elidurus his Brother then Reigning at a Councel of the Britains by him call'd restor'd to his former Dignity When the same Elidurus had gain'd the Assent of his Barons and the good Will of the Commons However Troynovant seems in those Days to have been esteem'd a Place of Security and mention of a Tower therein we find on Occasion of the same foremention'd Elidurus's being sent thither by his unkind younger Brothers to be safely kept as a Prisoner therein The succeeding Times are so barbarous that but little considerable is left upon Record concerning any Actions then done untill we come to the Reign of Lud Eldest Son of Heli which began about Sixty Six Years before our Blessed Saviours Incarnatâon according to Stow. This Man is much prais'd by the Historian for his Worthy Actions and Honourable Deeds for his Valour Liberality and Hospitable House-keeping and his repairing Old Cities and Towns Especially in Troynovant he is Recorded to have caused many Buildings to be made encompassing it also round with a strong Wall of Lime and Stone In the West-Part whereof stands a Gate by him Builded and known even at this Day by the Name of Ludgate For his Love to this City he used most to abide therein Whereupon it was called Caer-Lud or Lud's Town Whence by Corruption and shortning of Words comes the present Name London whereby it shall be called for the future and the former Name Troynovant laid aside in this following Relation Lud dying after an Honourable Reign he was Buried in the aforementioned Gate of his named Port-Lud or Lud-gate where are yet standing the Statues of Him and his Sons as a lasting Monument of his Memory In Cassibellan's Reign the next Successour but whether Son or Brother to Lud is not agreed upon by all Authors we find considerable mention made of London in the Story through Occasion of Cassibellan's Victory over the Romans newly Landed under the Leading of Julius Caesar and twice repelled by the Britain's Valour London was the Place appointed by the King to Celebrate this Victory return Thanks to his Gods and Rewards to his Valourous Knights Here therefore we read of a great Assembly held of his Lords and Knights and of the King 's keeping a Noble and Solemn Feast for all Comers and the Exercise of all kind of Games in those Days used But Difference arising at the Wrestling between a couple of Young Noble Knights allied One of them to the King and the Other to Androgeus Earl or Duke of London as he is somewhere called and from Words these Hotspurs coming to Blows occasion'd such sideing and variance amongst the Company that many were wounded and the Kings Nephew slain to the great disturbance of the Court. For Disgust hence growing between the King and Androgeus to whom the King had given the City of London with the Dukedome or Earldome of Kent besides an Honourable Education suitable to his Birth he being Lud's Eldest Son and so Heir to the Kingdom according to some Writers the other being but his Brother and this Disgust producing War wherein the King was likely to be much the stronger Androgeus recalls Caesar with his Romans to his Aid and assists them in their Landing and joyning his whole Power soon turn'd the Scales bringing Victory to the Romans and an Overthrow and Loss of their ancient Freedome to Cassibellan and his Britains So considerable was the Assistance that Androgeus with
his Londoners and other Knights brought to the Enemy So difficult was it even to Caesar himself to Conquer Britain having been more than once foil'd by the Britains Caesar tells us of the Trynobants being the strongest of all those Cities by which understand London which submitted to him over whom he placed at their request one Mandubratius whose Father their chief Lord or Ruler Cassibellan had before Slain Be these two Histories the same or different yet either I believe will serve to make good my Assertion of Londons Power Fame and Esteem in those ancient Times Though Britain was hereby made Tributary yet I do not find that London lost it's Esteem For Tenancuis is said to be Buried here and also Cunobelinâs or Kymbeline his Son both King 's after Cassibellan In this Kymbeline's Days near about the Nineteenth Year of his Reign or Fourteenth according to Stow Our Blessed Saviour Christ Jesus was Born as is the Opinion of most Writers Henceforth therefore leaving off the Old way of accounting from the World's Creation I shall follow the Christian manner of Computation reckoning from the Birth of our Lord Christ which was in the Forty Second Year of Augustus's Empire as a surer and more certain way Except the Crowning of Arviragus in London I find but little mention of this Honourable City till the Reign of King Lucius who being esteemed by many the first Christian King in the World turn'd the Arch-flamins-See at London into an Arch-Bishoprick the Names of some of which Arch-Bishops we meet with âver and anon in Story as such who had a considerable Power in the Land About 226 London was of such Strength that Alectus with his Romans as Fabian relates being over-press'd by the Britains under the Leading of Asclepiodotus chose this City for his Refuge as being then it seems of greatest Security and he being afterwards slain Livius Gallus another Roman Leader manfully desended himself and his Romans in the same City then closely besieged by the Britains till in their entring he was slain near a River running thereby and thrown thereinto which occasioned it afterwards to be call'd Gallus or Wallus-Brook Some Memorial whereof we find remaining at this Day in the Street now standing where that River sometimes ran and known by the Name of Wall-brook After the Departure of the Romans out of this Land many Outrages being committed ãâã by the Picts and Scots in the Time of ãâ¦ã Honorius we read of ãâ¦ã by the Arch-Bishop ãâ¦ã the Britains to consâlt of ãâ¦ã many Miserie 's then haâging âver ãâ¦ã by reason of their Enemies Strength and ãâ¦ã Inability to defend themselves as being ãâ¦ã no certain Head The Result of which Meetâââ was to desire Aid of the King of Little Britain which they by Embassy obtain'd under the Conduct of his Brother Constantinus and after Victory by him gain'd over their Enemies Crown'd him King of the Land according to their Promise before made Here was a turn of Affairs effected by the Consult at London Another Change we find not long after through the Treachery of Vortiger and the Pict who slew Constantinus's Son Constantius then King and presented his Head to the aforenam'd Vortiger then at London Which City doubtless in those Days was of much Esteem and Regard and thereupon Vortiger who bare the Chief Rule in the Kingdom at that time though the other had the Name of King probably was much resident therein expecting it may be and waiting for the Performance of this Treasonable Act that he being on the Place might have the better Opportunity to caress the Chief of that Eminent City 'T is certain we find him afterwards endeavouring to cajole the People by the great Sorrow and Heaviness he made shew of for the Kings Death and by putting the accursed Traytors to Death for their Wicked Fact according to the Law of the Land Thus many Love the Treason well enough when successful who nevertheless hate the Traytors after their own Turns be serv'd This is that Vortiger so Infamous in the British Story for his own Vices as Incest with his own Daughter Adultery c. and the Vices of the Times under him For we read that Vice was then accounted of small or no Offence Leachery reigned amongst the Spiritualty and Temporalty Every one turned the Point of his Spear against the true and innocent Man and the Commons gave them all to Idleness and Drunkenness whence ensued Fighting Strife and much Envy After the King 's Exâmple the World runs a gadding is a Saying commonly too true As this Vortiger gain'd his Power by Treachery so he Reigned in a manner Precariously For he was so perplexed on the one side for fear of the Return of Constantinus's surviving Sons to claim the Kingdome and the Land on the other side so harrass'd by the In-rodes of the Picts and Scots that he was after a sort compell'd to send for the Heathen Saxons who came under their Leaders Hengist and Horsus to support him about Four Hundred and Fifty Years after Our Saviours Birth The coming in of these Strangers prov'd but as it were the beginning of Miseries For being once let in they soon began to Play their Reakes in the Land and never left till by introduceing more Colonies they had settled themselves and dispossessed the Britains of the best of the Country Neither was it any great wonder that the poor Commons endur'd such Miseries from these New-come Guests when as their Spiritual and Temporal Guides were so given up to all manner of Debauchery One of Hengist's Pranks we find to be his Treacherous slaying of the British Lords at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plains under pretence of a Treaty for Peace But the better to work out his own Ends he is said to have sav'd the King alive whom he knew to have become his Enemy in shew more out of Constraint for fear of his British Lords than for any Hatred towards him he having him sufficiently intangled in the Snares of his Daughter Rowens Beauty So common a thing is it for crafty subtle Men to serve their own Ends by working upon anothers Lusts through the Mediation of an handsome Face and Prostitute Body We read of the Saxon's having got London under their Rule but whether by their own Power or the King's Gift I find not clearly mention'd That he gave Kent and other Counties to Hengist is declar'd by the Historian It may be that he gave them also London to curb it for fear least the Citizens should joyn with Constantinus's Sons whose Return he much dreaded and assist them to regain their Fathers Kingdom Henceforward for some time we are not to expect to find London so Considerable in Power under the Saxon Heptarchy as it was before and after But when all the Seven were reduc'd into one Kingdome and the Affairs of the Land settled in a little more Peace and Quietness London began again more and more to Flourish and soon rose up to such an height
that it became the fixt Metropolis of the Nation Yet in the Time of the Saxon's Heptarchy we find mention made of this Noble City several times and on several Occasions As upon account of Mordred's choosing this City to be Crown'd in when he rebell'd against King Arthur The holding of it by Mordred's Son against Constantine Son of Cador till he was slain The Flying away of the Bishops of London and York and other Ministers with their Goods and Reliques for fear of the Saxon's Cruelty under Ethelfride Whereby the Commonalty were left without Spiritual Guides the City without Her chief Pastors The setting up an Arch-Bishoprick there by Austine the Monk and the making of Melitus Bishop of the same in Ethelbert's Days The Building of St. Pauls either by the same Ethelbert or else by Sigebert King of the East-Angles as some affirm In this Ethelbert's Time we read in Fabian of the Building the First Church of Westminster in Honour of St. Peter by a Citizen of London in the West-End of London in a Place called Thorny now Westminster which before was over-grown with Bushes and Briars But Stow affirms Sebert King of the East Saxons to have Built it In the Time of Ethelwolph Son of Egbert King of the West-Saxons London is said to be spoild by the Danes and so not likely then to be of any great Strength though we find the Danes drawing themselves thitherward in Alured or Alfred's Days after an Agreement concluded between them But now again begins this City to be often mentioned in Story and grows more Famous every Day after that King Alured having Victoriously repeal'd the Danes return'd thereunto repair'd those Places that before had been injur'd by the Danes and committed it to the Guiding of Ethelred Earl or Duke of Mercia who was his Son-in-Law by Marrying his Daughter Elfleda Hence may we date another Beginning as it were of it's Glory and Lustre from this new Resurrection out of the Ashes of its former Ruines Some of the next News we hear of this Honourable City is of the Londoner's beating away the Danes who Landing in Sussex and comeing to the Town of Lewes and thence towards London had Builded a Castle near the River of Lewes the more to annoy the Country but the Citizens Valour with the Countrys Help soon demolished it In the Reign of Edward the Eldest Son to the forenamed Alured we find London thought so considerable that the King took it under his own Rule not entrusting even his own Sister therewith thinking it probably too important a Charge to be committed to any Subject never so nearly related to him because of the Power that would accrue to the Possessor thereof and the Danger might thereby happen to him the King in those troublesome Times upon any the least Difference arising between them When Egelred or Etheldred Son of Edgar rul'd the Land we read of the Danes coming to London they being ready enough to haunt any Place that could afford them Spoil and Pillage but we find that then they were repel'd by the Citizens The City it seems was strong enough to defend their own But soon after that another sad Accident befell the City against which it was not so well able to defend it self viz. A great Fire whereby a large Part of it was destroyed So rare is it for any thing great in this World to arrive at it's Greatness from small Beginnings without being Subject to many Mischances and meeting with many Turns and Changes of Fortune before it can arrive at the height of its Grandeur Fabian tells us in his Chronicle that the City had then the most Building from Ludgate towards Westminster and little or none where the Chief or Heart of it now is except that in diverse Places there were Houses but they stood without Order This he professes to have known by an Old Book in the Guild-Hall named Domesday But where-ever the Building stood in those Days or how great Harm soever the Fire did it nevertheless it continued of such Strength and Riches that the Danes were willing to have got it into their own Power and in Order thereunto besieged it but that they took it at that season I read not Yet some Years after I find the Londoners sending Gifts and Pledges to the Danes to divert them then coming towards London 'T was in Egelred's Days that the Danes thus harrassed the Land and did almost whatever they pleased selling the English Men Peace for their Money and then breaking it again at their Pleasure to get a greater Sum. This gave the first Occasion to the Imposition of that Tax upon the Land called Danegelt And the Pride and Lordly Imperiousness of the insulting Danes gave Original to the opprobrious Name of Lurdane as now it is esteem'd though then it was Lord Dane a Term the English were for fear compell'd to give those proud lazy Danes that Rul'd and Domineer'd in many of their Houses at the right Owner's cost Neither is it much to be wondred at that this Land was brought into so great Misery by these Hectoring Strangers when as we fiâd Dissention amongst the Lords and such treacherous Dealing that whatsoever was devis'â by Some for the Hurt of their common Enemies it was quickly by Others of the same Councel betraâ'd and made known to them The King giving himself to a vicious and incontinent Life and to get Money any manner of way sticked not to ãâã Men of their Possessions for small or seigned Causes according to the History and after cause them to redeem their own for great Sums of Money In London 't was that I find this unfortunate Egelred more than once residing for his own Security it seems more than for any Aid he attempted to get of the Londoners to defend his Land Here he fell sick died and was also Buried and with him some of the English Men's Shame and Dishonour For Edmund Ironside his Son favoured by the Londoners and some other Lords was Crown'd in that City and thence departing with his Strength so hotly pursued Canutus the Danish King that he was several Times put to the worst and in fair likelihood to have been utterly over-thrown had not the false Edric who having got an Habit of Treachery in Egelreds Days could not so easily forâake his Old base Conditions oft disappointed King Edmund by his Treacherous Dealing By âhis Edric's Treachery I have read That Edmund lost his Life afterwards for which Fact the âalse Traytor expecting a great Reward at the âands of Canutus had his Head exalted according âo the others Promise above all the Lords of Engâand it being stricken off pitch'd upon a Spear ând after set upon the highest Gate of London But about the King's Death and Edric's Authors are found much to vary Neither is it any marvel that Writers differ so often and so much in their Relations of Things done so many Ages since Whenas in things but as it were of yesterday we
commonly called the Conquerour in History which acquaints us That he came in with an Army and conquered Harold who is esteemed little less than an Vsurper But that from thence we should conclude him a Conquerour of the whole Land and look on it as a Nation totally subjected by Force of Arms it seems to me to lack a little better Proof than I have yet met with That King William after he was well fixt in the Government might reckon this Conquest amongst his other Titles and Claims whether by Harold's Oath the Pope's Gift the King's Testament and a little of Kindred I shall not deny For I have read that King Henry the Seventh had a mind to put in for this Title also but 't was after he had well and surely gained the main point Possession But upon perusal of the Histories about those Times it appears a little unlikely that this Duke William should get the Land into his own Power so wholly by Conquest as some would insinuate for secret intents possibly and purposes of their own Though Harold was Conquered by that one Battail yet I do not think the Land was For besides Londons Strength where William was forced to yield Conditions before he could pass through as afore the Earls of Mercia and Northumberland then of considerable Power are said to have withdrawn themselves and their People to that City without so much as being present at the Battel How also the Kentishmen enclosed Duke William and his Victorious Army and compelled him to grant them the continuance of their Old Laws and Customs is sufficiently manifested if only by the single Evidence of their Antient Law of Gavelkind yet continued amongst them If this be Conquest to be forced to yield Conditions What is it to be Conquered Wherefore we may better I believe from these premised Considerations conclude That the Chief of the Nation knowing him to be a Man of Strength and Ability and of great Fame chose rather to submit to him upon fitting reasonable Conditions than hazard the running into the Miseries of War by committing themselves to the Guidance of so young and weak an Head as Edgar Atheling That King William made a League with such as submitted and swore Fealty to him stands recorded in Stow's Annals True indeed after he was well fixt in the Throne he might not much mind his former promises but contrary to them might do many irregular Acts to strengthen himself as he thought and settle the Crown the surer upon his own Head Whereof we find mentioned in Story his endeavour to raise his Normans by introducing them into the chief Places in Church and State and impoverish the English by setting grievous Impositions and Taxes on them One we read of very considerable in the Nineteenth Year of his Reign when he made to be gathered Six Shillings of every Hide of Land which would rise high according to my Authors reckoning who says an Hide contains Five Yards a Yard Four Acres an Acre Forty Perch in length Four in bredth Eight of these Hides make a Knights-Fee or Ploughtill Forty Eight shillings upon Eightscore Acres was a great matter in those Days though it sounds but a small Sum with Us who have lived to hear of the Wealth of a New World brought into the Old One. To this may be added his Craft in inrolling his Baroâs Land their Knights-Fees Towns Number of Men and Cattle within the Realm in Dooms-day Book the better doubtless to know the Strength of the Land and be the more able to raise what Tâxes he pleased without being very easily deceived by concealments More instances of Arbitrary Power might possibly be observed which nevertheless are not deservedly esteemed Tokens and Markes of Conquest That great Persons in the height of their Grandeur often forget former Covenants and Promises is no such wonder it is so common so usual for some Men to promise more in half an hour when they conceive it for their present Advantage than others find performed in Seven Years If Arbitrary Acts of Rule are able to prove King William a Conquerour of this whole Land I do not know but many others may also be esteemed Conquerours who passed for good Ruling Kings in the days of their Power Though King William held the Englishmen so low that in his days there was almost no Englishman that bare an Office of Honour or Rule if Fabian may be credited for some others deny it as to some particulars This being certainly the too too common Effect of letting in a Forreign Power into a Land where those that were the Introducers of the Forreigners as Friends have hardly escaped Polyphemus's Courtesy of being devoured last Witness in this Land the introducing the Saxons by the Britains and the Normans upon them Yet the same Historian intimates that he somewhat favoured the City of London and granted to the Citizens the First Charter that ever they had written in the Saxon Tongue and sealed with Green Wax being expressed in Eight or Nine Lives This may be construed to be done either in gratitude to the City for giving place so easily to his Fortune or because he found the Citizens so pliable to his Will or rather in policy to have so considerable a Place the more at his Devotion and six it the stronger to his Interest So subtle a King as he was being in no wise ignorant I presume of the great Impression the Actions of the chief City in a Conntry usually makes upon the whole Nation So that though London changed Masters it changed not Fortune but notwithstanding it received damage by Fire which burnt a great part thereof and also of St. Pauls rather gained more Honour and esteem under the Normans Rule by becoming the Metropolis of the whole Nation and the Theatre wherein hath been acted some of the most considerable Passages that have since happened in this Land whether in Peace or War Most of our Parliaments many of the Bishop's Synods and Convocations the Kings usual Residence his Court his Council and Places of Judicature having been generally kept either in the Liberties of this City or not far distant from it at Westminster which being of a much later Date as is hinted before is nevertheless known to be a distinct City of different Rites and Customs and under another Government though the Buildings joyning both Cities in a manner together may occasion Forreigners to give the Common Appellation London to the Whole and we Natives also many times use the same General Term in private Discourse In St. Pauls in London was kept that Synod of the Clergy in William the First 's days which order'd many Bishop's Sees to be translated from small Villages and such obscure petty Places to the greater Cities For by this time the Policy of the Popes of Rome in diverse parts of Europe had introduc'd a distinct Government in the Church different from that of the State And so founded as it were one Empire within another
to have the whole the better at their Devotion So that if Kings or Rulers of States were not as submissive to their Imperious Commands as they desir'd they had the Church in the Land to overaw those who bore the Temporall Sword and lest the chief Church-men being often preferr'd by the Magistrates means through the Popes great Condescention as they would have it thought should prove a little Refractory they had the Monasteries Abbies Priories Nunneries and such like in a manner under the Popes peculiar Jurisdiction to curb them by the Power they could raise out of their Tennants Friends and Kindred Romes high and lofty Prelates thus striving to have their Spoons in every Ones Dish which Desire of theirs we do not find at all diminished though now their Wings be much clipt Nay we find them the more eager now in their pursuit after their antient Greatness under the pretence of a former Right which was first obtain'd by none of the best and honestest ways And so they might regain it Experience tells us they would not stick at the perpetration of the most Execrable Villanies the Art of Man can invent or the Hand can act Whence else come all those Wars Massacres Persecutions Plots Conspiracies Designes Intreagues Frauds Deceits raising of Publick Jealousies fomenting of Private Feares exasperating of Mens minds heightning their Animosities debauching their Moralls and Corrupting Religion it self with the rest of those Cursed Arts and Seed-Plots of Sedition where with our Ears have been so long filled that the sound is not yet gone out of them nor know we when ever it will as long as they can meet with so many foolish Bigots and prophane Debauchees among the Sons of Men The One to be gull'd with the Hopes of Heaven for the Performance of such Meritorious Acts as they will put them upon the Other to be purchased with a Bag of Money or a Plump Whore to favour their Designes falicitate their Purposes carry on their Projects and protect their Crimes if detected from Publick Justice As London was favoured by the first William so I find no great reason otherwise to believe but that it continued in favour and fame under the Second William's Reign Yet I meet with but few Passages of it excepting what may seem to tend to its disadvantage as the Harm it sustained from a Violent wind that is said to have overthrown at one time above 600 houses and much injured the roof of St. Mary Bow in Cheapside as also the hurt was done another time about it by the Inundation of Thames unless we should think it received some addition of honour from the great charges William Rufus was at about the Tower which was to adorn it I suppose for that it was builded long before hath been related above that it was of good strength in the preceding Kings dayes is enough evident in that we read it was made Marcharus the Earl of Northumberland's Prison This Tower having been before times and very often in later days the place of confinement for great Men when esteemed Offendors This is the King that built Westminster-Hall and being after displeased at it for being not big enough to his mind intended as 't is said to have built one much larger and make the other to have served for a Chamber The wicked Lives of the insulting Normans the Miseries and Vices of the depressed Englishmen with the depraved Manners of the corrupted Clergy were so notorious in this Kings dayes that Writers could not well pass them over without mention In Henry the 2d's Time we read of the founding of St. Bartholomew's Church Priory and Hospital in Smithfield which was begun 't is said by Rayer one of this Kings Minstrells but ended by some good and well disposed Citizens of London This Smithfield was then a Place for the casting out of filth where also Felons and other Transgressours were executed and not put it seems to the use that now it is Length of time commonly changes the use of Places and some times for the better There are upon Record no less than Three Councills Synods or Convocations of the Clergy which were kept in this City in this Kings Reign to reform the Church and Church-men was the usuall Pretence but it was commonly done in such away that it tended mostly to the exalting of their own Power We read in Stow of a Parliament of Prelates Nobles and Commons Assembled by this King in the Sixteenth Year of his Reign Anno Christi 1116. This King was the better beloved of the Englishmen for Marrying a Wife of the Old Saxon Line Edgar Atheling's Sisters Daughter for using Edward the Confessors Laws with Amendment at his coming to the Crown and making some good ones of his own for freeing the Church Impriâoning Ranulph the covetous Bishop of Durham his Brother William's Procurator and Gatherer of his Taxes in the Tower of London and also releasing âo Englishmen the Old Tax of Danegelt lately reâived by his Father and Brother and restoring âo them the Use of Lights by Night which with âire had been by his Father forbidden to be used âfter the Ringing of the Cuâfââ-Bâll at Eight of âhe Clock In the time of King Stephen we meet with an eâinent Instance of London's Strength Mâud the âmpress the Late Kings onây Sârviâing Heir haâing upon the Fortune of a Battail took and Imârisoned King Stephen and being theâ by much âxalted in her mind deeming her self sure of the âossession of the whole Realm would not make âây Grant to the Citizen's Requests They thereâpon becoming discontented designed to have ââized on her Person Whereof she having âarning fled in haste for her own Safe guard to âxford and her People were divided and scatterââ whereas not long before she was in a fair âossibility of enjoying all that she claimed King ââephen's Queen promising upon his Delivery that ãâã should surrender the Land into her Possession ãâã become a Religious Man or a Pilgrim to his ââves end Either of which at that time was a ãâã of Spiritual Death as to what concerned âorldly Affairs But her unfortunate diâobâiging is City soon turned the Scales The Queen's âârength encreases Maud's diminishes The King a little after is delivered upon Exchange and thâ Empress at last departs with a small Company and returns into Normandy without obtaining he Desire So considerable then was the City of Loâdon as to be able to wrest the Power out of thiâ Conqueresses Hands and return it back at length to the same Person whom she had once overcome and held many Months Prisoner at her own ãâã and Pleasure That for which the Citizens of London made ãâã great Labour was that they might use the Law of Edward the Confessor as they were granted bâ William commonly called the Conquerour and ãâã the Laws of her Father which were of ãâã straitness Here in my Opinion seems to be iâtimated that this King Wâlliam came not into ãâã quiet Possession
of the Realm so much by Conqueââ as on Conditions accordingly here 's mentiââ made of one Grant The Occasion of Stephen's coming to the Crowâ contrary to his own former Oath swore to Kiââ Henry and in prejudice to Maud's Claim is Râcorded by one Author to have been the Oath one Hugh Bâgot sometime King Henry's Stewarâ who swore that the Late King in his presence little before his Death chose this Stephen for ãâã Heir by reason that he had received some discoâtent at his Daughters hands Whereunto the ãâã giving easy Credence admitted him King ãâã Favour of the Londoners did doubtless at thâ time conduââ not a little to his advantage in pââferring him an able Man before a weak Womaâ For Stow's Annals inform us That he was receivââ by the Londoners when he had been repulsed at âther Places certainly it redounded to his ãâã Benefit afterwards as hath been related before Another Addition of Strength might be his not imposing heavy Taxes upon the People which it may be increased their Love to him and made so many side with him As indeed we find upon his first Admission that he sware among other things before the Lords at Oxford to forgive his People the Tax of Danegelt Neither do I read of any Taxes that he raised upon the Commons It is affirmed positively in the Câllâction of Wonders and Remarkable Passages that he raised none with which Stow likewise agrees So that a King 's needless laying of many heavy and grievous Taxes upon his People occasions him to lose much of their Love and his forbearing it when he hath Power in his hands unites his Subjects Hearts the faster to him But instead of Taxes we read of this Kings permission given to his Lords to build Castles or Fortresses upon their own Grounds Many whereof we find pulled down in the next King's time they having been the occasion of many Miseries in the Land and the ready means to foment Civil Wars therein which generally brings greater Damages to the Commonâlty than a few Impositions and Taxes can be presumed to do This King Stephen was twice Crowned but for what cause or for what intent is not so easily known whether it was that he thought his Imprisonment had diminished somewhat of his Royalty or else thinking by a second Coronation to âlude the Force of the Oath made at the first I find not delivered Certain it is soon after my Author tells of his taking away a Castle from the Earl of Chester who before had appeared against him on Maud's side with a very considerable Strength but had been afterwards reconciled to the King But what is much more considerable we read not long after of the King 's new danger and ill Success and of his Party being weaken'd particularly by the loss of London For Duke Henry after King coming into England with a great Army after some small Success gets up to London and wins the Tower as much by Policy and fair Promiâes saith my Author as by Strength Then he had Opportunity enough to caress the Câtizens being so near them and it may be he got not the Tower without their Consert if not by their Affistance Hereby we find that he retrieved what his Mother's Haughtiness before had lost and so having got the City's Affection and Power he was in a fair way to obtain his Desires as he did not long after For we quickly read of Mediators and Treaties of Peace between these two Competitors which took Effect at last though the Interest and Policy of some hindered it for a time In Conclusion the King was fain to consent to the adopting the Duke his Heir so that he might Reign during his Life Which justly to perform the King being sworn with his Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the next place we hear of their riding up to London as if to bind the bargain it was requisite to ask the consent of that Honourable City whose Favour seems to have been of so great weight in those unsettled Times as to turn the Scales twice once in the King's behalf and erewhile on the Dukâ's Such was their Influence such their Power as to pull down and set up in a manner whom the Citizens pleased Happy was this Agreement to the Land by settling peace therein as beneficial likewise was it to the Duke it being a fair Step to the Throne whereon we find him mounted within a little time For not long after this Accord we hear of the King's Death Whether the Troubles of his Mind or Diseases of his Body brought him to his End vexation for the disappointment of his Designs in being after a sort compelled to adopt his Competitor his Enemy for his Son and Heir or Grief for the loss of London's Favour which helped to effect so great a Turn in his Affairs I shall not determine It might be one it might be the other or neither or all conjoyned that became the occasional Causes so to phrase it of his Death I like not to be very positive where I am not very certain Stephen's Death making thus way for Henry to ascend the English Throne he became one of the âreatest Kings that ever ruled this Land for the Largeness and Extent of his Territories if we reckon the Inheritance he enjoyed from his Father the Land he held by the Title of his Mother the Dowry he had with his Wife and what he obâained by the Success of his Arms Yet notwithâtanding all this he lived not free from Troubles ând intestine Broils which sprung much out of his âwn Bowels So that the Glory of his Youth beâan somewhat to be eclipsed by the Misfortunes of âis elder Years He Crowned his eldest Son liâing King sometime before the middle of his âeign to the end as one Author affirms that he âight have full Power and Authority to rule this âand and People while his Father was busied in âther Countrys where some of his Lands lay This âight be one Reason but the King having learnt ãâã experience to his Mother's Loss and his own âost how easy it was for Stephen to attempt and âain the Crown being present on the Spot while ââe right Heir was far distant in the vacancy of the âhrone may be supposed in his intent to have designed the hinderance of such an Intrusion for the future by Crowning the next Heir King while he himself lived I read that Stephen had some such design to have Crowned his Son King in his own days as he declared at a Parliament called at London An. Reg. 17 to have fixt the Crown the surer to his Posterity But the Bâshops refused the Deed Which I do not find they did so much out of Conscience or in Favour to Mââd's Title as by the Command forsooth of the Pope who in those days was very apt to be clapping his Fingers into almost everâ ones Pye where he thought any good pickinâ might be had This King Henry got but little by Crowning
hiâ Son in his Life-time besides Troubles Crosses and Vexation of Spirit For upon one Occasion oâ other we find his Sons oft thwarting him anâ some times warring upon him Famous were those days for the Contest betweeâ the King and Thomas Beckââ which brought Beckââ to his end and the King to a severe Penance at thâ last though he disowned the Fact and is noâ plainly proved to have given any other consent tâ it unless what may be deduced from a few angââ Words uttered in his Passion The ground ãâã occasion of this Dissention between the King anâ the Arch-Bishop is declared by the Chronicle ãâã have sprung from diverse Acts and Ordinancââ which the King had procured at his Parliament ãâã Northampton to pass against the Liberties of ãâã Church which thereupon this lofty Prelate witâ stood The Popâsh Clergy being then grown to thâ height that crowned Heads were in a manner coâpeâled for their own Security to veil Bonnet them and scarce durst so far presume as but endeavour to cross their Ambitious Designs They could be content by their Canons and Councels to encroach upon the Laity as they termed them but they poor Men by the Clergy's good Will must not be allowed to vindicate their Own Native Liberty from the Others unjust Usurpations This King Henry is said to have been Peerless in Chivalry in War and in Leachery This last is sufficiently notorious in his Love to the Fair Rosamond and further manifested in his deflowring as we read his Son Richard's intended Wife the French King's Daughter whom we are also told he would have Married could he have obtained a Divorce from his Queen And this he intended 't is said to have the more favour of the Frenchmen by their Aid the better to disinherit his Sons who among other things done to his Displeasure had warred upon him in Vindication of their abused and slighted Mother Three several Warnings I read of that he had to amend his Life but to little or no purpose Some of his Patience or else fear of the Imperious Clergy we find in his forbearance shewed to Heraclius Patriarch of Jerusalem who upon the King's Refusal to go into the Holy Land being discontented sharply rebuked him reflecting on him for the Death or Martyrdom as those Times were pleased to term it of Thomas Becket and upon Henry's further excusing the Voyage for fear of his Son's Rebellion in his Absence departed in great ire with these words in his Mouth saying That it was no wonder for of the Devil they come and to the Devil they shall Part of his Devotion we meet with in that Shift he found out to fulfil the Condion of building three Abbies in England enjoyned him by the Pope in the Dispensation granted him for the Voyage he hâd before solemnly vowed to take intâ tâe Hâly Land in Person Such was mucâ of the Religion tâen of those Times eââner tâ bâild ãâ¦ã and the like so manâ ãâã Castles or Fortrâssâs as it were ready manâed and victâalled at the Pâpâ's Service oâ else to take upon them the Cross and away to thâ ãâ¦ã to fight for Christ'â ãâã as wert the cry Angliâe to subduâ more Laâd to the Pâpe's Obedience A cunning crafty trick of the Pâpe's to send away packing such Princes whose Power they feared would grow too greât at home that they might in the meaâ time domineer over their Subjects Purses and Consciences and the better advance their own Worldly Pomp and Grandeur in their Absence For read not of any of the Popâs who went themselveâ iâ Persons They forsooth could not be spared fâom their Charge alâas their Preferment noâ be absent from home out of care to the Feeding of then Flââk i. e. looking to their own Gain So that the serding Mân while in their Bodies to the Hâly Land was almost as beneficial a Project as long as it lasted as the âreterce of Fetching their Souls out of âââgatory after their Death for a round Sum of ãâã and a set of Massâs The Triâk King Henry almost as Cunning though not as Fârtunate as these subrle Priests fouâd out to fulfil the Condition enjoyned and which he put in Execution was First Putting Secular Cannons out of Waltham-House and setting Cannons Regular in their stead Secondly His thââstiâg the Mârkâ out of Amesbury-House and placing there another sort of Religious Persons which he had brought from beyond the Sea And for the Third His coursly renewing the Charter-House of Witham beside Salisbury The King having had so large Tryall and so much Knowledge of the City of London's Power did not very much I suppose at any time disoblige the Citizens Especially having such powerfull Enemies to deal with as the King of France abroad and at home the insulting incroaching Clergy and his own unnaturall refractory Sons though one saith that he nourished Strife amongât his Children with all Diligence hoping thereby to live himself in the more rest But it seems that device avail'd him but little As we have but little reason to think that the City of London lost ground in Henry's days so under his Son and Successour King Richard we find that Foundation laid where upon was after erected that Famous and Free Way of Electing it's own yearly Governours wherein she now glories Like as William the First gave the Citizens their First Charter so this Noble Richard Cuer de Lyon was the King that ordain'd London to be ruld by Two Bailiffs whose Names were Henry of Cornhil and Richard Fitz Ryver as Fabian tells us in that worthy Chronicle which he compiled of the English and French Nation This Fabian being Sheriff of this City in Henry the Seventh's Days by that advantage may be presumed to have best known the Affairs of the City and seeming to write with a great deal of Integrity in this Relation I chiefly follow him and so intend as far as he reaches especially when I shall have occasion to Name any of the Bayliffs Mayors or Sheriffs through whose yearly Government in his Second Volume he deduces the History in form of Annals down to the beginning of King Henry the Eight's Reign In the Prolâgue to this Second Part he tells us That the City was antiently under the Rule oâ Portgrieves which word Portgrieve signifies in Sax on the Guardian Ruler or Keeper of a Town Thââ Book called Doomsday wherein were registred iâ Saxon the Laws and Customs then used being lost ââ he acquaints us also that the Remembrance oâ those Rulers before this Richard's Days was losâ and forgotten In the same Prologue likewise he hath left us a Copy of Verses written in praise oâ the City wherein we are told That this City was never cast down as other Famous Ones have been that herein Divine Service was always continued in Religious Houses in such an Order that when one had done another began and that it was famed also for the Mayor and Sheriffs Noble House-keeping with much more which any
one that please may peruse at his leasure in the forecited Place We likewise find there declared the severaâ Wards of the City as they stood in Fabian's Time together with the Parish-Churches and other Religious Houses within and without summed up to the Number of One Hundred Sixty Eight This King Richard in the Beginning of whose Reign we first hear of the Name of Bailiffs giveâ to the Rulers of London having taken a Voyagâ into the Holy-Land according to the Religion oâ those Times and done his Devoir for the Recovery of it according to his Strength the Clergy-men had reason to esteem well of him to humour whose designs he had undertaken so chargeable ãâã Enterprize So accordingly we find that the Ecclesiastucks stuck as close to him as any of his Subjects in his Adversity For in his Return from the Holy War as 't was term'd Richard being Shipwrack't took and imprison'd by the Duke of Austria and long detain'd by the Emperour he was compell'd to redeem himself after a Year and three Month's Imprisonment at a large Ransom An hundred thousand Pounds were either presently paid or good Pledges left behind him to ascertain the full and true Payment A vast Sum in those days when Wheat was esteem'd at a high Price being sold at fifteen Shillings the Quarter as we find it in the fifth Year of King John's Reign about half a dozen Years after So that for this Ransom were sold the Ornaments of the Church Prelate's Rings and Crosses with the Vessels and Chalices of the Churches throughout the Land Wool of White Monks and Cannons and also twenty seven Shrines scrap't and spoil'd of the Gold and Silver laid on them in former Times No Priviledge of Church then regarded no Person spar'd A costly Voyage indeed it prov'd to the Land undertaken to satisfie the Clergy-men's Ambition and therefore they might well be content to bear much of the Charges and use their utmost Endeavours in the Imprison'd King's Vindication And so the Pope did as far as Curses would go to which was imputed those Mischiefs that befel the Duke of Austria and his Country a little after as the Effects of the Pope's Indignation The Power and Esteem of this City's Favour in those Times of the King's Captivity we need but remark out of Neubrigensis who acquaints us That when the Chancellour being then Bishop of Ely and Governour of the Land dreaded the Force of the opposite Lords who strove to suppress him for his Insolency and ill Government he retir'd to London and humbly intreated the Citizens not to be wanting to him in that point of time But they being not unmindful of his former Behaviour rather favour'd the other Party whereupon the proud haughty Prelate was compell'd to resign his Office which he had so ill manag'd and depart to the no small Benefit to the Land in those troublesome Times At London likewise was it that the Lords consulted together for the ordering the Land in the King's Absence which after the late ill Governour had been discarded and after an Oath of Fideliây to the absent Prince was put into another's Hands When King Richard was delivered as soon as he landed at Sandwich we find him coming straightway to London as the fittest Place it seems to receive him and assist him So accordingly we read of his Reception there with all Joy and Honour in so splendid a Pomp that the German Nobles present beholding it affirm'd That if the Emperour had known of such Riches in England he would not have dimiss'd the Ransom'd King under an Intolâerabâe Price A little afteâ we hear of his riding thence with a convenient âârângth to recover the Places that stood out ãâã him After this by a Councel of Lords call'd at Winchester having deprived his Brother John of his Honours and Lands for his Rebellion he took care to have himself crown'd King of England anew As if the Force of his former Coronation was impaired by his Imprisonment or else he thought by this politick Shift to take off all Obligations that might haply lie on him for any thing done before As indeed we quickly after read of a Resumption of all Patents Annuities Fees and other Grants mâde before his Voyage But then it 's affirmed to be done by the Authority of a Parliament call'd after his Coronation After these Passages two State-Informers are âoted to have riâen up promising the King great Matters the Scenes of whose chief Acts were either laid or to have been laid at London One of them the Abbot of Cadonence warning the King of the Fraud of his Officers by vertue of a Warrant from him called divers Officers before him at London to yield to him their Accounts This Place was made choice of by him as the fittest it seems wherein to ingratiate himself with the common People by âo plausible an Act as bringing offending Officers to conâigne Punishment But Death soon cut him off and so put an end to all his Designs The other Informer call'ed William with the Long Beard reported to be born in London of a sharp Wit having shew'd the King of the Outrage of the Rich who as he said in publick Payments spar'd their own and piâled the Poor and being upheld by him became the Patron and Defender of poor Men's Causes and stirred up the common People to a desire and love of Freedom and Liberty by blaming Rich Men's Excess and Insolence Hereupon he was followed with such numbers of People that being called before the King's Councel upon suspicion of a Conspiracy the Lords were fain with good words to dismiss him for the present for fear of the Multitude attending him and commanded certain to seize on him in the Absence of his numerous Abettors But those thus commanded mistaking the time and so failing in their intended Design he escaped and took Sanctuary in St. Mary Bow Church where his Strength quickly grew so great by the Access of the Multitude that he was not easily taken hold of nor without shedding of Blood However being at last taken after that the Heads and Rulers of the City had diminish'â the People he with other his Adherents waâ arraign'd before the Judges cast condemn'd anâ hang'd very shortly after even the following daâ saith the Chronicle so desirous were the rich anâ great Men to have him out of the way as sooâ as they could But as his Plea of Freedom was ââ acceptable to the Commons in his Life-time thââ he became a Terror to the Great so after ãâã Death he ceased not for a while to be a Dread ãâã many by reason of a Rumour raised and banded about among the Commons of his Innocencâ and favourably received of the People even to ãâã approving of him as an holy Man and Martyr anâ making Pilgrimages to the Place of his Execution to the no small trouble of those that had a hanâ in his Death At last the Flame of this Devâtion was somewhat cool'd by the
Publishing somâ Acts of his with other detestable Crimes laid tâ his Charge whether true or false let them looâ to it who industriously spread them abroad Yââ it was not quite put out till the Arch-Bishop ââ Canterbury upon whom among others a greââ Crime was rais'd for procuring his Death haâ accursed the Priest this William's Kinsman ãâã had openly divulged the Vertue the Chain wheââwith William was bound in the time of his Imprâsonment had upon a Man sick of the Feaver This Instance sufficiently proves that the namâ of Liberty sounds sweet and that such as prâmise to procure it shall have Admirers and Foâlowers enough But that also the Favour of thâ Multitude is deceitful and for a Man to put ãâã his ââat to the People many times is the occasioâ of losing his Head is evidently manifested by thâ very same Example How small an Occasion is iâ that sometimes raises a Man's Fame Yet you here find as petty small Matters soon likewise depress it That is no lasting Name that depends meerly upon Vulgar Breath To Defend the Poor and Needy and protect the Oppressed is a plausible Plea Yet it shall go hard but the Rich Oppressor will find one way or other to ruine that Man in his Goods and good Name if not as to his Life who undertakes so noble a Defence As this King Richard under whose Reign these two Informers rose up was Couragious and Valiant in his Life so a little before his Death an Act of his Magnanimity and Christian Forbearance was shewed by him in his freely forgiving and remitting the Person then in his Power that occasioned his Death after that he heard from the other's Confession that in that Deed he intended to avenge the Death of his Father and Brethren before slain by the King But yet the Man scaped not with his Life though forgiven by King Richard if that be true which is said of the Duke of Brabant that he after caused him to be taken flead quick and hanged After Richard's Decease his Brother John being then in Normandy seizes upon his Treasure and not long after procures himself to be crown'd King at Westminster though in prejudice to the Title of an Elder Brother's Son Whereto his Mother Eleanor is thought to have contributed not a little being possibly desirous rather to set the Crown upon her Son's Head under whom she might hope to have a greater Share in the Government than she could reasonably expect under her Grand-child then within Age where her Daughter-in-law the other 's Mother was likely to bear the greatest sway So that the ambitious Desire of Rule is not incident only to Men but invadâ even the Hearts of the Female Sex Here thâ Mother's Ambition raises up her Younger Son even to the Prejudice of her Eldest Son's Heir Though Women be born subject to Men yet it ââ in a manner connatural to them to desire the Power of commanding them at their own will and pleasure Shew me the Land where the Scepter hatâ not often bowed to the Dâstaff and the Princâ Power together with his heart been subject to â câpricious Womans Humour When they creep in to Mens Hearts and lye in their Bosoms it is ãâã wonder that they dive into their Secrets and swaâ their Councels So that the Affairs of the State often turn upon the Hinges of an Imperious Woman'â Will. Under even the most Absolute Despotical Government of the Turks the Ottoman Power manâ times lies in a Womans Breast and the Sultanaââ do not seldome over-rule the Consults of the Divan Of which let the Ambitious Roxolana sometime Empress to Solyman the Magnificent sufficâ for an Inâtance But what need we go so far when as neareâ home our own Ears if not our Eyes may serve for Witnesses of this Truth Yet to the Glory oâ England be it spoken this Land flourished in sucâ Peace and Prosperity even to a Miracle undeâ Queen Elizabeth and the Tranquility of her Reigâ hath so Honourably Consecrated her Memory iâ Fame's Temple that few of our English Monarchs ever equal'd her none that I know of all those who went off the Throne surpassed her The Happiness indeed of her Reign may possibly be imputed much to the Wisdom of her Conduct in suffering the Affairs of the Nation to be guided by thâ Councels of Men Whereas under some of ouâ Kings our Governours have had such a deal of Chamber-practice that the State hath been much ât the Guidance of Women or else of such Effeâinate Persons as were quite degenerated from âhe Spirits and Courage of their Ancestors as âho by their Immoralities Luxury and Debauâheries had little left in them of Heroick and Masculine and were scarce fit for any thing else âut to be dub'd Knights of the Carpet But what ever was the Title and Means we ând John got into the Throne and by the aid âe obtained of his Lords and Commons before ââe End of the Year to recover what was lost â Normandy we may conclude it was not withâut their Consents From Stow's Relation 't is ââain enough that he was Elected at London âfter that Hubert Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had âade a Speech to that purport in the Presence âf the Bishops Earls Barons and Others They ãâã may be preferring him a Man of Courage ând Spirit and so fitter to rule and govern the âealm before the Title of young Arthur then ãâã his Non-age though of the Elder House For seldom 't is that unusual Changes happen âithout some previous Preparatives to make way ââr them And if a Nation hath once fixt upon a âule to guide the Succession they do not presentââ vary from it but upon urgent Occasion So find âe in Kingdoms meerly and properly Elective ââey commonly chuse the next Heir of the Blood ãâã less upon the Interposition of some notable Imââdiment In Sweden that War-like Nation amidst the ââeatest Success of their Arms submitted themâââves to Gustavus Adolphus's Heir though a Child ââd of the Female Sex and when she grew up to Womans Estate they would willingly have coâtinued her their Queen would she but have Marââed according to their Desires When that great Change happened in Denmâââ of late Years which turned it from an Elective ãâã an Hâredâtary Kingdom we may have heard it wââ effected by the Policy of the present King whâ made use of the Distractions of the Nation thââ almost conquered by the Sweeds and that Scaââing of Fame he had got by defending his Capitââ City against their furious Assaults to encline thâ pââty Remainder of his Subjects to give way ââ such an universal Change in the Constitution ãâã their Government So that whatever Towns or Câties were afterwards reduced they must be coâtent to yield to the new-made Law as the establisâed Decree of the Nation A hard thing it migââ possibly appear to such who had no hand in thâ making of that Ordinance and it may be woulâ not very readily have given their
had the Sheeâ done to be used thus Sure the Pope shewed himself hereby a Lord of Lords though he pretends tâ call himself a Servant of Servants From such proudââ haughty Servants Liberanos His Popeship woulâ fain be esteemed a Father of Christians but here ãâã dealt very hardly with many of the Sons of the Church A sad Case indeed were we poor Christians of the Common Herd in should our Religion allow us at every turn to be sent to the Devil because the ambitious Pretences of our Governour would not suffer them to agree well together among themselves But we know already or have heard of to much of these Priest's Pride to think them thâ most humble the most mortisied Men in thâ World The professed and avowed Principles oâ some of them tell us too too plainly that wâ are not to take all they say to be either Law oâ Gospell Neither do every one of their Action obligââââ always to think that they believâ themselves in all they affirm They may indeed sometimes tell a fair smooth Tale when they are got a little higher than their Neighbours ânto a place where they know they must not be presently contradicted but when they be come down upon plain even Ground we find them ãâã for the most part much like other men Nay some of them it may be an Ace or two worse More Proud more Ambitious more Worldly more Covetous in a word more debauch'd in Principles and Practises I could quickly name ãâã if I list among us Protestants of the Reformed Religion of the Church of England as some delight to stile themselves the Persons the Time and the Place the Diocess the Shire the Hundred the Parish where lives a double Benefic'd-man ãâã so strong an English Church man in Word and Deed as not justly to be taxed with the imputation of a Phanatick by such as know the manner of his Converse who was not many years since depriv'd both of Office and Benefice for none of the greatest Faults that ever was Surely the Parish where the Offence was not comitted deserved not so ill at the Reverend Bishop's Hands as to be deprived of the Use and Benefit of their Pastor Neither know I wherein the harmeless Parishoners of the other Place had so highly offended as to merit the loss of their Head Shepherd's over-sight unless we must fancy them accessary to his Young Curate's indiscretion in not bowing âow enough at the Church door to a stately Dame of the Parish So if my Memory deceive me not have I some where read it observ'd and it seems also verified in the History that though the Name of King 's was thrown quite out of Rome yet the Power some industriously strove still to retain The Conditions where on King John was ãâã concil'd to the Pope were to this purport Thââ he should admit the Arch-Bishop to his See peâceably to enjoy the Pâofits and Fruits thereof permit the Prior his Monks and Others beforâ exil'd for the Arch-Bishop's Cause to re-enter thâ Land without trouble or future Molestation together with Restitution to them to be madâ of all Goods taken from them by his Officers ãâã the time of this variance And that he should likâ wise yield up into the Pope's Hands all his Righâ and Title to the Crown of England with all Râvenues Honours and Profits belonging to the samâ as well Temporal as Spiritual to hold it ever aâter both He and his Heirs from the Pope and hâ Successors as the Pope's Feodarics These Articles thus granted and the Lord sworn to maintain them the King upon his bended Knees taking the Crown from his Head delâvered it to the Pope's Legate resigning it into thâ Pope's hands both in Word and Deed and afteâ five days resumed it of the same Hands by Virtuâ of a Bond or Instrument made unto the Pope whicâ I have here transcribed out of Mathew of Paris History that such as care not what Religion geâ uppermost in the Land may know what they are ãâã expect if Popery should once get sucâ a head as tâ come in again JOhannes Dei Gratia Rex Angliae c. Omnibus Christi fidelibus hanc Chartam inspecturis salutem in Domino Vniversitati Vestrae per hanc Chartam sigillo nostro Munitam Volumus esse notum quod cum Deum Matrem Nostram Sanctam Ecclesiam Offenderimus in multis proinde Divina Misericordia plurimum indigeamus nec quid digne offerre possimus pro satisfactione Deo Ecclesiae debita facienda nisi nosmet ipsos bumiliemus et regna nostra Volentes nos ipsos humiliare pro illo qui se pro nobis humiliavit usque ad Mortem Gratia Sancti Spiritus inspirante non vi interdicti âectimore coacti sed nostra bona spontaneaque Voluntate ac communi Conciâio Baronum Nostrorum Conserimus libere concedimus Deâ Sanctiâ Apostolis ejus Petro Paulo Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Matronae Nostrae ac Domino Papae Innocentio ejusque Catholicis successoribus totum Regnum Angliae totum Regnum Hiberniae cum omnâ Jure pertinentijs suis pro Remissione Omnium Peccatorum Nostrorum totius Generis Humaki taâ pro vivis quam pro defunctis ãâã modo illa ab eo Ecclesia Romana tanquam secundarius recipienteâ tenentes in praesentia Prudentiâ Viri Pandulphi Domini Papae Subdiaconi et Familiaris Exinde praedictâ Domino Papae Innocentio ejusque Catholicis successoribus Ecclesiae Romanae secundum subscriptam formaâ fecimus juravimus homagiâm ligium in praesentia Pandulphi si coram Domino Papa esse poterimus eidem faciemus Successores nostros et Haeredes de Vxore nostra in perpetuum obligantes ut simili modo summo Pontifici qui pro tempore fuerit Ecclesiae Romanae sine contradictione debeant fidelitatem praestare homagium recognoscere Ad indicium autem hujus nostrae perpetuae Obligationis concessionis Volumus et Stabilimus ut de proprijs et specialibus redditibus nostris praedictorum regnorum pro omni servitio ât consuetudine quae pro ipsis facere debemus salvis per omnia Denarijs Beati Petri Ecclesia Romana milâe marcas Esterlingorum percipiat anâuatim in festo scilicet Sancti Michaelis quingentas Marcas et in Pascha quingentas Septingentas scilicet pro Regno Angliae et trecentas pro Regno Hiberniae Salvis nobis et Haeredibus nostris justitijs Libertatibus et Regalibus nostris Quae omnia sicut supra scripta sunt rata esse volentes atque firma obligamus nos et successores nostros contra non venire et si nos vel aliquis successorum Nostrorum contra haec attentare praesumpserit quicunque ille fuerit nisi rite commonitus resipuerit cadaâ a jure Regni Et haec charta Obligationis et concessionis nostrae semper firma permaneat Teste meipso apud domum Militum Templi
of Eââlish men Do you think they will alter their mâners by shifting their Habitations That ãâã Blackamore will ever change his Skin by comâ into a colder Climate Let us look a little upon the first Discoveries ãâã their late grand Plot so often inculcated upon ãâã Nation by His Majesties many Royal Proclamatiââ and Speeches that no Loyal Spirits can any ãâã doubt of the Truth of it who give any deference deferencâ the Word of a King and we shall find there ãâã âain Design after our King's Murder to have rooted âut the Gentry of the Nation whose Lives should it ââems have been offered up as so many Sacrifices to âppease the injur'd Ghost of their Murder'd Prince âome of your Women perhaps they might have conâescended to have sav'd for their Lusts your little âhildren for Slaves the Poor and bâser sort for their âervants but the Men of Substance must in likelihood âave gone all to pot as Obstacles to their cruel inâânded Design And yet still 't is but a perhaps we ãâã not sure they would have spared any Nay raââer we are morally certain that all of any tolerable ãâã must have Died if the Deposition of Mr. Bedlow ãâã often credited remains yet of any value amongst ãâã from whose Attestation publickly sworn upon âath in Ireland's Tryal we find the extent of the âesign besides the subversion of the Government to ââve been the extirpating of the Protestant Religion ãâã that Degree which was alwaies concluded on in ãâã the Consults wherein he was that they would not ââve any Member of any Heretick in England that âould survive to tell in the Kingdom hereafter that âere was ever any such Religion in England as the ââotestant Religion If discovered and so frustrated âântrivances may not sufficiently warn you to beââre of the Jesuits Intentions to youward Consider âatters of Fact and see what hath already been ãâã in other places and so come from thinking what ãâã been done to what may be done and what ãâã should be done if some might have their ãâã minds and desires Cast a look or two upon âââemia that once flourishing Land under Wickliff's ââctrine Famous for the Martyrdom of John Huss ãâã Jerom of Prague the Courage of blind Zisca ãâã his valiant Souldiers and noted also for their âââerty of Chusing their Princes See now how much of the Bohemians Antient Liberty or Religiââ is yet remaining amongst them Enough of the pââctices and devices the Jesuits used to new ãâã the Nation after they had once reduc'd it by ãâã of Arms you may find in the History of the ãâã Persecution London Printed by B. A. John Walker But to return to King John whence I have ãâã gressed after his Resignation and Reassumption of ãâã Crown at the yearly Rent of 900 or 1000 ãâã Silver the Return of the Archbishop and the ãâã Exiles into the Land we read of the releasing ãâã annulling of the Interdiction which had lasted years odd months and days but it was not beâ that the King according to one of the Articles made restitution to the sufferers which the ãâã saith amounted in the whole to 18000â Marks would have thought after so much trouble the ãâã would have been weary of endeavouring after Aâââtrary Power But the Event may make us apt to ãâã that among other inducements to yield to the ãâã hard terms of Accommodation one mighâ some hope to domineer the better over the ãâã he was reconciled to the Clergy and so take a ãâã revenge upon such as would not ere while assist against the Pope For not long after the late ãâã we find mention made of so great ãâã between the King and his Lords that much ãâã were raised on either part One occasion alledgââ that the King would not hold Edward's Laws yet he had taken an Oath at the Return of Exil'd Clergy-men into England to call in all ãâã Laws and put in place of them the Law King Edward if Stow's Annals record the ãâã Another that the King would have Exil'd wiâââaw the Earl of Chester for some Advice he given him relating to his Vices which the other did not well digest The King's Party being then the stronger the Lords took the City of London for their Refuge and remained therein Though we read of much harm done this year in London by Fire and of the burning a great part of the Burrough of Southwark yet it seems the City was strong enough to become the Barons Bulwark against the inrag'd King's Ire And siding with them so inhanced the Barons fame that as Stow tells us all except a few went to the Barons side so that King John durst not peep out of Windsor Castle At length by the Prelates Mediation a Peace was made for a while and to establish it the firmer the King and the Lords soon after met with great strength on either side on Berham Down where a Charter was devis'd made and sealed by the King to the Barons content A.C. 1214. according to Falian's account Henry Fitz. Alwyn continued then Mayor of London Ralph Egland and Constantine le Josne being Sheriffs in this 14th year of K. John's Reign Yet in Stow we read of a Meeting appointed in a Meadow between Stains c Windsor where the King granted the Liberties without any difficulty the Charter whereof is dated June 16. An. Reg. 17. As for the loud and clamorous Declamations of such who tell us that the grand Charter of our Lives Liberties and Estates our Properties and Priviledges was gain'd at first by Rebellion and would thus slily as it were insinuate that it was and is retained by like unlawful waies and means We would desire them to give us better proofs for what they say than their own bare Asseverations which will not yet go for currant Coin in all Markets That Edward the Confessor's Laws were very acceptable to the generality of the Nation we have great reason to believe from their continued desire to retain them That William the first granted the use of them to the Nation is sufficiently instanced above That Henry the first used them ãâã likewise mentioned before for so affirms the Chronicle That King John himself accorded to them at hiâ coming to the Crown we may I doubt not reasosonably believe considering his Title and the Conteââ he was like to have about it If a Negative may be admitted an Argument in the case I do not remember that I have read of any difference between hiâ and his Lay-Barons about them till after that he was reconciled to the Pope by the resignation of hiâ Crown and performance of the other conditions enjoyned him But after the King 's giving away hiâ Crown and resuming it again upon a Foundatioâ wholly and altogether new I know not but he mighâ think all former obligations void and so would endeavour to have his Will of the Laity when he hop'd he had fixt the Clergy fast enough on his side by thâ new condescension
he had lately made to the Pope'â Ambitious desires and pretensions It was after this Reconciliation that we read in Stow of the Barons coming to St. Edmundsbury and producing the Charter oâ King Henry the first which they had received oâ the Archbishop Stephen However let the occasional Causes of making anâ confirming this grand Charter of our English Libeâties be what they will whatever were the grounds oâ the Barons desiring or the motives of the King 's granting it Upon what Foundation soever so it be sound at the bottom stand these Pacts and Compacts between the King and his Subjects For my part I know no reason why Princes and Great men should not think it their Duty to keep their words firm and inviolable as well as persons of meaner rank and quality 'T was a Romish Cardinal an Italian a Papist living long in the French Government from whom I have heard come the Doctrine of not being a slave to ones word As the Duty so I believe it the Interest of Governours to be just and firm to their Promises otherwise it is a Question how long the people under them will continue firm to theirs when they think they have a convenient opportunity to break them Fear may do much but Conscience I fancy will do but little in this Case to keep the one Party fixt and firm to his Bargain when the other values not to perform the Conditions of their mutual Compact Such as love to talk of nothing but Conquerours and Conquests captivating and inslaving men to Arbitrary Powers as if at feud and defiance with all mankind but themselves and their own Party if my Advice may be taken they would do wisely to stifle such harsh unpleasing Doctrines in their own breasts and not openly produce them in publick view to all without distinction lest one bold confident brazen-fac'd felâow or other should start up out of the Vulgar Herd and ask them why the people would not have as good a Title to their Power when they had got the upper hand as those Princes who claim only by Conquest A Question that at first view would seem very plausible to many if well stated without the previous consideration of Oaths Promises and Compacts As for the consequences that some may fancy hid in the belly of it âike the Armed Grecians in the Trojan Horse look they to them who find themselves concern'd on either side It 's well enough known what a large tract of ground the French King hath seis'd in the Spanish Netherlands within these few years and brought the People of those Provinces under his own Subjection by force That his title to those lands at first was none of the best is plain enough to such as know his Pretensions As for that shadow of claim which might be fancied to accrue to him by his Queen the late Spanish Kings Daughter that it is clear done ãâã as far as words and writings could go is manifeââ by the Printed Articles of the Pyrenaean Treââ The best Title I find he had to those Countries ãâã the Spanish Kings weakness to defend those Subjeââ himself together it may be with some unwillingness let them look to the payment of as great an Army ãâã was thought needful for their defence out of thâ own Mony by their own Officers He was made pââhaps to fear lest the Soldiers should have been ãâã at the Devotion of such as paid them than at his ãâã rais'd them though he appointed such a ãâã such Officers and such Soldiers as he thought fit ãâã had had the sole ordering of them at his own ãâã and pleasure in all other things but naming the pââmasâeâs Or rather was it not his prime Councellââ the Spaniards loathness to lose the many pickiââ they glean'd out of their Offices in those Countââ by defrauding the Soldiers of their appointed ãâã and so cheating both King and Country ãâã good is much bandied up and down among ãâã words but in truth and reality private interest that which most oversways As for the rest of ãâã French Kings pretences that he makes use of thâ for meer colours is evident by the novel inventioâ Dependencies If need be we doubt not but ãâã Hamball passing over the rugged Alps with his ãâã my he can either find a way or make one be it ãâã such a one as his Manifestâ at the beginning of late Wars with the Dutch tells us of viz. his ãâã Glory One of the truest pretensions I believe of Now put the Case and suppose that the Inhâââtants of these late subdued Countries brought ãâã the French Kings Subjection by the force of Arms and all former right and title to them ãâã relinquish'd by their ancient Prince the King Spain in his late Treaties should one time or other ây some unexpected unseen unthought of accident âet such power into their hands as to break off these ârench Chains of Slavery beat the French Kings Ofââcers and Soldiers out of their Country and keep ãâã at a Bay by the strength of their Arms the âuestion would be among our Politick Casuists wheââer they would not have as good right and Title to ââace the Government of their Country in what âânds they pleased as the French King now hath in ââtual possession My meaning is of such who shall ãâã have pass'd away themselves by Oaths Coveâânts and Compacts That they sit down quietly ââder the French Government and do not publickly ââpose is but a silent argument a negative proof at ãâã They do not openly declare their dissent ãâã they assent and consent is such a conclusion that ãâã not well and cleverly follow from the premises âhat such as are for the present French interest may âfirm let them likewise well prove but methinks ãâã English men should not be over-ready to disclaim ãâã Netherlands right when they call to mind that in ââeen Elizabeths days our Governours thought good defend the poor distressed Provinces against the âyrannical Arbitrary pretences of the Spanish King ãâã contrary to their ancient priviledges would have ââduc'd them all by force to Popery and Slavery to ââpose which their Neighbours especially England powerfully assisted them that the Spaniard was ãâã at last to declare he would treat with them as ââth free States before he could get a treaty of peace ãâã them Such as break ancient Covenants and ãâã the first stone had need stand upon safe and sure âound least they find too many stones flying about ãâã Ears before the end of the fray We moreoâââ have found the Spaniards within these few years coming into the assistance of these same new ãâã once his old Subjects against the French Kings Poâer ready in a manner to over-run them We ãâã have heard likewise of publick Addresses in behalf ãâã the same side made of late to our present King ãâã esteem'd the general Consent of the Nation After King John had granted the grand ãâã to his Lords and every one was departed peaceabââ
all had not faith ââough to trust too much in it when fear and thick âârkness had seized on them though 't was the comâon voice in those days that a few Masses could ãâã mens Souls out of Purgatory But you may be ãâã they were well to be paid for first Noted in ãâã 14th was the Ordinance made by the Mayor ãâã Duke and the Rulers of London that no Sheriff âould continue in Office longer than one year the âuse related was the opportunity some of them âade use of to take extortions and bribes with oââer defaults by reason of the continuance of their Office The 17th is not lightly to be pass'd over that the K. therein kept his Christmas at Worcest according to Stow where he removed all his Officeâ and Councillors Bishops Earls and Barons and ãâã for strangers viz. Pictavians retain'd them in ãâã Service and committed to them the keeping of ãâã Castles and Treasures What could hence be expectâ but murmurings and repinings amongst the Nativeâ Accordingly we hear some time after of Messengeâ sent by the Barons to the King requesting the diâplacing of those strangers and also threatning thâ otherwise they would depose him and create a ãâã King A bold message from as bold Subjects For ãâã may read of the King's Lands being invaded the ãâã year and destroy'd by fire and sword by the Earl ãâã Pembroke and the Prince of North-Wales Whereupââ we find in a little time the Pictavians expell'd ãâã made with these two great discontented men ãâã the King 's natural Subjects recalld and their Coââsel yielded to by the King The 19th is remarkable for the King's Marriage with the Royal Solemnity Justs and Tourneamenâ kept 8 days near Westminster at the Queen's Coroââtion Yet Stow places the time a year after as ãâã doth also many other particular occurrences happeing in this King's Reign From the same Author ãâã are given to understand that to this Coronation ââsorted so great a number of all Estates that the Ciââ of London was scarce able to receive them Great ãâã the splendour wherein the City appeared on this oâcasion it being adorn'd with Silks and in the nigââ with Lamps Cressets and other lights without nuâber besides many Pageants strange devices whiââ were then snewn The Citizens rode to meet ãâã King and Queen being clothed in long garments ãâã broidered with Gold and Silk of divers colours theââ horses finely trapped in array to the number of 360. Every man bearing Gold or Silver Cups in their hands the King's Trumpeters before them sounding The 21th was ominous to the University of Oxford for the Scholars abusing Octoâoon the Pope's Legate who afterwards accursed the misdoers and so punished them that the Regents Masters were at last compelled to go barefoot through Cheapside to Pauls in London there to ask forgiveness of him which was granted it seems with difficulty enough His Master the Pope when cross'd and incens'd is wont to be sufficiently stately and backward in pardoning such as displease him not without much ântercession sometimes why then should not the Servant Ape it after so great an Example In the 23d year for that the Mayor and Heads of the City refus'd to obey the King's Commandment ân Chusing Simon Fitz Marre Sheriff as the King had order'd them which they lookt upon as a derogation to their Liberties The King sent for them and after words of displeasure discharg'd the old Mayor Will. Ioynour newly Elected for the following year and charg'd the Citizens to proceed to a new Election which to content the King they did and Chusing Gerard Bat by his means and policy obtained the King's favour and frustrated the other purpose who had procur'd the aforesaid Commandment and complain'd to the King of the Citizens for their disobeying it In the 25th the Citizens having Chosen Gerard Bat anew for the year following presented him to the King according to Custom He who the âast year had so gain'd the King's favour in behalf of the City was now so far out of it by means of some mens Informations that he with his company was first dismist and put off till another time and at last for some offences alledged and displeasure conceived against him clearly put by the King swearing a greââ Oath that he should not that year be Mayor nor ãâã any time hereafter Whereupon the Commons ceâtified of the King's pleasure Chose Remond Bengley ãâã his stead The Citizens having the year before ãâã prevail'd upon to alter their Election that was Prâsident enough it seems to occasion the like again The City having obtain'd great Priviledges of thiâ King in his younger days we find already some eâdeavouring to frustrate and disappoint the effect ãâã benefit of them The City had appear'd with a greââ deal of success in opposition to the last King's prâceedings and therefore it 's likely such as intendeâ to attempt again for Arbitrary Power thought thâ City too headstrong easily to permit them to suâceed in their desires unless they could first bring thâ Citizens a little under by cunningly under miniââ their Liberties Whereupon we find this year a spâcious pretence taken to oblige the Commonalty bâ offering to free and keep them from being oppresseâ by the Heads and Rulers of the City How well ãâã plausible Plea took for a while will be manifested ãâã the sequel of the Story That there were great heaââ and animosities in those times between the City ãâã the Court may easily be observ'd out of Stow whâ tells us in the 25th years Annals how the Citizeâ were threatned that the Walls and Bulwarks of thâ Tower were builded in despight of them to the ãâã that if any of them would presume to contend ãâã the Liberties of the City they might there be imprison'd And to the intent that many might be laââ in divers Prisons many Lodgings were there madâ that no one should speak with another An occasiââ was also taken sometime after to Fine the Ciââ 1500 Marks for the receiving into the City a peâson banish'd from thence 20 years Notwithstandiââ the Citizens had prov'd that before that time the said âerson had been reconcil'd and restor'd to the King's âavour Another device to exact Money from the Londoners was the proclaiming a Mart at Westminââer to last 15 days with a Command that all Trades âhould cease in the City for that space of time which the Citizens were fain to redeem with 2000l âet they still increast in Riches while the King was âompell'd for want to sell his Plate and Jewels much âo his loss which being sold and boughâ aâ London ãâã the 33d year of his Reign occasioned this his exâression upon knowledge thereof as my Author reâates it I know that if Octavian 's Treasure were to be ââld the City of London would sup it up and by it âhose rustical Londoners quoth the King abound in âealth and call themselves Barons Noted is the 25th âear likewise for the first
matter meant cried without discretion Yeâ Yea Yea nothing regarding the Liberty of the City After the grant thus had of the Commons the said Joââ Mansell discharged the Mayor Sheriffs and Chambeâlain of their Offices and delivered the Custody thereunto the Constable of the Tower and put in the rooâ of the Sheriffs Michael Tony and John Audrian Aâ over that all Rolls of Tolls and Tallages before madâ were delivered unto the said John Mansel which ãâã there sealed and redelivered to the Chamberlain Whââ the Commons had beheld all this business they returnââ unto their Houses all confused Do we wonder at the Commons readiness in this afair that they who usually have been such brisk assertâ of their Liberties should now be the occasional cause of bringing them into danger We may suppose that this was no proper Common-Hall but rather called by an order from Court and filled with the populace for in those days I do not find there was any express Act made by King Lords and Commons in being to forbid the Council Table from intermeddling in Civil Causes and determining of the Subjects Liberties or so to regulate its Jurisdiction Power and Authority as to leave such matters to be tried and determined in the ordinary Courts of Justice and by the ordinary course of Law Or else we conclude the Restriction of the Common-Hall to the Livery-Men was not then in use so that the Rabble being intermixt it might be no hard matter to get a âry raised by some of them in favour of the proceedings âhen on foot The Mobile being as liable to be wrought âpon by fear or fair promises as the great and rich to be corrupted by the hopes of Honours and Preferments ând the favour of more potent Grandees while as the âiddle sort of People like the golden mean between âwo Extreams are not generally so capable of being ârawn aside after the lure being too many to be brib'd ând not few enough to be frighted not so high and wealthy as to aspire after greater Grandeur nor so low âean and despicable as to be imposed upon by the empty âames of Greatness and Honour without Virtue sprung âp at first from Vice and nourished by and amidst reâeated Debaucheries This matter thus ordered John Mansell with divers âf the Kings Council kept their Courts daily the Sunâays except till the 1st Sunday of Lent which that yeaââas Jan. 25. calling before him 12 Wards of the Ciây out of every of which Wards were taken 3 men âo that 36 men were impannelled and sworn to enquire âf the aforesaid Articles and what Persons of the City âad offended in them This Court being thus kept and holden at Guild-Hall no man was called to answer nor no question put to any Person by the said Inquest or any other Upon the foresaid 1st Sunday of Lent the Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffs with the forementioned Inquest and 4 men of every Ward were charged to appear at Westminster before the King at which appearance they were countermanded till the next morning At which season coming into the Kings Exchequer they found sitting there the Earls of Glocester and Warwick Joh. Mansell Hen. Baa Justices the Constable of the Tower the Custos of the City and divers others of the Kings Council Then was called by name Ralph Richard Hardell that year Mayor Nicholas Batts Nicholas Fiz Josne Mathew Bockerel John Tolesham and John ãâã Minoure Aldermen Then John Mansell said that the King by his Laws and Inquisition of the Citizens had found them culpable that they had wronged and hurt the Commonalty of his City by divers means as by the saiâ Inquisition appeared and forthwith caused it to be read before them When the more part thereof was read he said unto them Thus may you see that the Commonalty of the City hath been by you grievously oppressed and by your means and Counsel the Commonwealth ãâã the same destroyed as by altering of the Tolls and otheâ good ancient Customs turning them to your singular advantage and lucre All which matters the said Ralpâ Richard and his Company denied and that the Commons were not grieved or hurt by them or any of them by any such means and offered to be justified and judged by the Law and Customs of the City Then Heâââ Baa Justice asked of them whether they would abiââ the adventure of the Inquiry that they had heard reââ before ãâã stand upon the saying of the other Ward that yet had not beân sworn but they kept to their ãâã Answer There John Mansell asked of the Mayor whââ was their Law and Custom The Mayor answered ãâã said that for trespass of a Citizen done against the King he should defend himself by 12 Citizens for Murder or slaying of a man by 30 Citizens and for trespass against a stranger by the Oath of six and himself Then after many reasons made by the said John Mansell and also by the Mayor and Aldermen day was given them to appear the morrow before the King and his Councel Upon the day following the King with many of his Lords sitting in the Exchequer the aforesaid Inquisition was read That done the Mayor and Aldermen were called in by name and two Aldermen more which before were not called viz. Arnâld Thedmare and Henry Waldmode When Ralph Richard Hardâll had heard âhe King speak in the matter he took such fear that he ând Nicholas Batt without further Answer put themâelves in the King's grace saved to them their Liâerties and Franchises of the City But the other six âesought the King of his wisdom that they might be ââdged after the Laws and Customs of the City Then was laid to their charge that over many wrongs by âhem done to the King and the Commonalty of the Ciây they had alter'd the King's Beam and order'd it to âe advantage of themselves and other rich men of the City Whereupon the Parties answered and said That âe alteration of the Beam was not done by them only but ãâã the advice and consent of 500 of the best of the City âor where before-time the Weigher used to lean his âraught toward the Merchandise so that the buyer had ây that means 10 or 12 pounds in a draught to his adâantage and the seller so much disadvantage now for ââdifferency and equality of both persons it was orâain'd that the Beam should stand upright the cleft âereof inclining to neither party as in weighing of âold and Silver and the buyer to have allowed of the ãâã for all things four pounds only in every draught âfter these Reasons and others by them made the King commanded that upon the morning following a Folk-moot should be called at Paul's Cross and so that Court was dissolved and the Mayor and the others returned to London Upon the morrow the Folk-moot being at Paul's Cross Assembled these six Aldermen hearing the murmuring of the common people and knowing that the Aldermen or Worshipful of the City should have
at 24 â â Quarter Scarcity of Corn in those days made this a considerable summ Dâarer we are told it would have been had not some been brought out of another Counâry which made People flock to the City because 't was âheaper there than in many Shires of England This is the year wherein the K. kept his high Court âf Parliament at Oxford which of some Writers is named the mad Parliament because of many Acts there madâ for Reformation of the State the prosecution of which prov'd in event the death and destruction of many Nobââ Men by means of that famed strife then begun anâ called at this day the Barons War True the accidental Consequences proved fatal to many But if unfortunate broils give to any Laws the denomination of evil I know not but in time some may grow so presumptuously bold as upon the like account prophanely to branâ even the Christian Religion which we have been assured at first from the divine Oracles should prove thâ occasion of much strife in the world and the Experience of these latter times confirm it plain enough to our Understandings Whether the forementioned Parliamenâ justly and really deserves the opprobrious Title thââ some have given it I shall very willingly submit to the Judgment of any experienc'd Reader who hath throughly perused weighed and considered the Equity Justice and reasonableness of the English Liberties and Priviledges contained in the grand Charter sealed and given to the Nation by K. John Father to this Hen. 3 d which was confirmed in this very same Oxford Parliament according to Matthew Paris as the chief thing then desired and insisted on by the Nobles and whereon were likewise grounded the other Acts and Ordinances then and there made by the King and his Lords For that the King his Brethren the Noblemen and Bârons took their Oaths to see the same observed I appeal to Stow's Annals for proof That these Acts might be kept firm and stable we read of 12 Peers then chosen to whom Authority was given to correct all such as offended in breaking of these Ordinances and others by the said Peers to be devised and ordered touching and concerning the same matter and purpose It was not long after the end of this Parliament before strife and variance began to kindle between the King and the Earls of Leicester and Glocester by reason of such Officers as the Earls had removed and put others in their room Amongst which John Mansell of whom enough is mentioned above was discharged of his Office and Sir Hugh Bygot admitted for him Upon occasion of this difference beginning to arise between the King and his Barons we meet with an eminent Instance of the City's Power and esteem for when the Peers heard of the murmur at Court fearing that the King would be advised to alter his Promise to make their party the stronger they are said to have come about Maudlintide to the Guild-Hall at London where the Mayor Aldermen and Commonalty of the City were assembled to whom they shewed an Instrument or Writing at which hung many Labels with Seals as the King's Seal Edward his Son's Seal with many others of the Nobles of the Land wherein were contained the Articles ordained and made at Oxford willing as saith the Book the Mayor and Aldermen considering the said Acts were made to the Honour of God Fidelity to the King and profit of the Realm that they would also in upholding of the same set their common Seal of the City thereto After this Request the Mayor and Citizens at first indeed desired to be excused till they knew the Kings Pleasure but no excuse at that time being to be granted at last by the labour of the Lords and such solicitors as they had within the City the common Seal was put to the forementioned Writing and the Mayor with divers of the City sworn to maintain the same their Allegiance saved to the King with preservation of their Liberties and Franchises After this obtain'd we find the 12 Peers assembling day by day as if now they feared no colours the City being on their side and valued no ones Threats keeping their Councils and Courts for the Reformation of old grievances removing from the King divers of his Menial Servants and setting others in their places and moreover a Proclamation comes forth that none of the Kings Takers should take any thing within the City without the owners will except a small customary matter therein excepted upon which what the Kings Officers took was straight paid for within the City and Liberty of the same and so continued to be for a while Can any one then desire a better proof of the City's repute in those days Yet within few years following we shall meet with more Instances of her power in the History In the 42d year Sir Hugh Bygot with Rogââ Turkelay and others kept his Court at St. Saviours and held there the Itinerary Pleas to the sore punishment ââ many convicted offending Officers Though this Hugh Bygot was put in by the Peers to reform as may be supposed old grievances yet power seems to have made him also go astray or else corruption or to colloguâ with another party Whereof the City in General waâ like to have tasted deeply could he have had his Will some of the particular Citizens scaped him not for hâ summoned the Citizens to the aforesaid Court for Toll taken on the further side of the Water And though it was answered that they were taken lawfully and they were ready to prove it in places and Court convenienâ within the Precinct of their Liberty Yet notwithstanding he charged upon Inquest 12 Knights of Surry to enquire thereof who acquitted the Citizens and sheweâ that the said Toll belonged to them of Right Afterwards coming to Guild-Hall he kept his Court anâ Pleas there according to my Author without all order of Law and contrary to the Liberties of the City inflâcting new punishments on the Bakers and ordered many things at his Will This year the Citizens had opportunity of shewing their Respect to the Kings Brother Ricbard Earl ââ Cornwall coming over from beyond Sea where he had been dealing in the affairs of the Empire unto London where he was joyfully received the City being richly hang'd with Silk and Arras In the 43d year John Gysours being Mayor and John Adrian and Robert Cornhill Sheriffs Fryday after Simon and Jude's day we hear of the reading in the Parliament kept at Westminster in presence of all the Lords and Commonalty at sundry times of all the Acts and Ordinances made at Oxford with other Articles added by the Peers After which reading we find all those very solemnly accursed that attempted in word or deed to break the said Acts or any of them The Form of the Curse which was most solemnly denounced against the Violaters and Infringers of Magna Charta is to be seen in Matthew of Paris and this here intimated was in probability
much like that which I find in a modern Author thus Englished BY the Authority of God Omnipotent of the Son and of the Holy Ghâst and of the glorious Mother of God the Virgin Mary and of the blâssed Apostles Peter and Paul and of all other Apostles and of the holy Martyr and Archbishop Thomas and of all the Martyrs and of the blessed Edward King of England and of all Confessors and Virgins and of all the Saints of God We excommunicate and Anathematize and sequester from our âoly Mother the Church all those which henceforth knowingly and maliciously shall deprive or spoil the Church of her right and all those that shall by any Art or Wit rashly violate diminish or change secretly or openly in deed word or Counsel by crossiâg in part or in whole those Ecclesiastical Liberties or ancient approved Customs of the Kingdom especially the Liberties and free Customs which are contained in the Charters of the Common Liberties of England and the Forrests granted by our Lord the King to the Archbishops Bishops Prelates Earls Barons Knights and Freeholders And all those who have published or being published have observed any Statutes Ordinances thing against them or any thing therein contained which have brought in any Customs to the contrary or ãâã served them being brought in and all Writers of such Oâdinances or Councils or Executioners and all such as shâ presume to judge according to such Ordinances All ãâã every such Persons as are or at any time shall be knowingly guilty of any such matters shall ipso facto incur thâ Sentence such as are ignorantly guilty shall incur the saââ if being admonished they within 15 days after amend ãâã For everlasting memory whereof we hereunto put our Seaâ Thus far the words of the Curse Nor was the maâner of pronouncing less solemn in open Parliament ãâã King with all the chief Nobility of the Realm in the Robes and the Bishops in their Vestments with buââing Tapers in their Hands standing to hear this ãâã read and immediately as soon as the Charters and ãâã were read and signed all throwing down their Tapeââ extinguished and smoaking cry out So let all ãâã who incur this Sentence and go against this Curse ãâã extinct and have no better savour than these Snuffs ãâã then the King having stood all this while with ãâã hand upon his Breast said with a loud voice So ãâã me help I will observe all these things sincerely and faitâfully as I am a man as I am a Christian as I am Knight and as I am a King crowned and anointed But what could any one think these so solemn ãâã would avail without a suitable Power and strength Arms to make them good per force When as ãâ¦ã known that there lived in those days a Clergy-man Rome who pretended to dispense even with the Almigâty's Laws whose Power was at that time openly prâfessed to be believed sufficient by the âânerality of Eârope to absolve all manner of Oaths and Covenantâ and from whom Dispensations more than a good maâ might be had for Money The confirmation of the foâmentioned Acts we may believe well paid for by the Parliament For we read of a Tax called Scutage that âs 40 s. of every Knights Fee through England then granted to the King which extended to a large summ of Money viz. Six score Thousand Pounds or more For upon occasion of this large Tax I find the number of the Knights Fees in England at those days in possesâion of Spiritualty and Temporalty summ'd up by my Author to 60000 l. and above Upon supposition that âhe Clergy paid nothing it is said that the Tax would âot have amounted over the summ of 64000 l. whereây we may guess what a deal of the Land even almost âne half was then belonging to the Clergy Devotion as the times went then brought forth Riches and the Daughter since devoured the Mother Nov. the 6th we are told the King came to St. Pauls and commandâng a Folk-moot to be assembled according to the forâer Ordinances made asked license of the Commonalây of the City to pass the Sea and promised there in âresence of a great multitude of People that he would âe a good and gracious Lord unto the City by the âouth of Sir Hugh Bygot Chief-Justice and to mainâain their Liberties unhurt whereupon the People for ây made an exceeding shout Observe here the turn of âhings the Courtiers seem to have sought not long time âânce to oppress the Head Rulers of the City by a Folk-âoot of the Commons Now the King to prevent the âffect of ill mens advice hath bound himself to ask their âave before he goes out of the Land for a season E're while the Folk-moot or Common-Hall was abused to âârve for a property to destroy their own Cities Liberââes Now the conservation of the whole Nations welââre is put into their hands What greater Evidence can âe demanded to prove this Honourable Cities Power ând Influence than to find the Citizens entrusted by âing Lords and Commons with so high a charge We may presume the Reason of entrusting the Commons of the City with so large a Grant as the Kinâ could not pass the Sea without License first obtain'â of them was to prevent the Evil and Mischief thââ might happen to the Land by advice of ill Counselloâ who might be persuading the King at every turn to gâ out of the Realm he having also Lands beyond the ãâã that they might have the better opportunity to ãâã out their own ends though to the Peoples oppressioâ in his absence What trouble affliction and oppressioâ the land suffered under this Kings Uncle Richard thâ first 's Imprisonment at the Hands of the Kings Officeââ who rak'd and pill'd what they could of Clergy ãâã Laity on pretence of raising Money for the Kings Râdemption I had rather send the Reader back to pag. to satisfie himself where I have related somwhat of thâ charge of the Kings Ransom than stay to repeat it ovââ again A fuller description the curious may meet wiââ in Neubrigensis l. 4 cap. 35. treating particularly therâof Some I believe may have observed in these unsettlââ times that they have fared much better and more eâsily avoided the malitious attempts of their Fellow Suâjects who have liv'd as it were in the Sunshine of thâ Kings presânce than such who being many scores ââ may be Hundreds of Miles distant have liv'd so ââ phrase it in the shadow I know not but ãâã âresence of the head Governour ãâã as needful always ãâ¦ã as is the General in ãâã Army Certâin enough it is by the History that ãâã this Kinâ Henry was thus absent from his Kingdom ãâ¦ã ways in France that Dissention arose'â Englaâd between the Kings Son Edward and the ãâã of Gloucestâr which might have immediately brougââ no small trouble to the Land had not there been greââ endeavours used to prevent it wherein this Honourabââ City shew'd much of her
nor league with them from the notorious ãâã these fraudulent Gibeonitish Ambassadours put upon theâ by their lying words and from the murmuring of thâ whole Congregation against them Notwithstanding all this we find they let them live lest Wrath shoulâ have been upon them because of the Oath they ãâã sworn unto them And that they did well in keepinâ this so solemn a league and Covenant though obtainââ by Fraud and hastily made we have divine Authority to assure us from the Lord in the Three Years Famine he sent upon the Land in King David's Days foâ Saul and his bloody House because in his Zeal to thâ Children of Israel and Judah he sought to slay the Gibeonites and so violated the Oath made by their ãâã Fathers hundreds of years before We cannot with out the greatest breach of Charity suppose that ãâã holy a Man as David one after Gods own Heaâ made use of this only as a pretence to ruine and exââpate Saul's Family and settle the Crown the faster ãâã his own Head and to fix it the surer to his posterity aâter him If any of us were so Atheistical as from thââ instance to look upon Religion as only a piece of ãâã Policy our Suspicious Thoughts and Censures woulâ be soon answered from David's own manner of actiââ in this particular who is recorded to have spared ãâã Son of Jonathan Saul's eldest Son and that too upââ account of the Lord's Oath that was sworn betweeâ them many Years before As the Scriptures plainââ shew us that Joshua and the Princes of Israel did we in keeping the Oath they had sworn though draw into it by Fraud and Deceit so in them we find ãâã ill it fared with Zedekiah the last King in Jerusalââ after he had broken the Oath which Nebuchadnezzâ had made him swear by God We doubt not but the there was force enough upon him to compel him ãâã it may be the price of a Kingdom likewise induced him thereto for the benefit of his present occasions but how ill went it with Judah for his breaking that Oath by whatsoever force at first gained of him even to the destruction of the chief City solitary desolation of the Land for many Years and utter ruine of the Monarchy for ever after For afâer the Captivity we find it reduced back again into a kind of Common-Wealth under Rulers and but one of them of David's Line mentioned in the Scriptures that I remember Governours the high Priests the Maccabees the Sanhedrim unto the coming of Shilo So fatal to the Jewish Nation was their Princes Irreligion There is no respect of Persons with the Almighty at whose Tribunal all must once stand to be judged High and Low Rich and Poor Noble and Ignoble Kings Princes and People as sure as the Scripture which we esteem the word of the great God is infallibly true But whither has the overflowing of my thoughts carried me To go back again therefore into the way from whence I have so far deviated In this same 44th year of King Henry wherein he commanded all of Twelve Years and upwards in London to swear to be true to him and his Heirs we read of further grudge and displeasure beginning to kindle between the King and his Lords The occasion is related to be for that the Barons with consent of the Peers discharged one and admitted another for Justice unwitting the King The displeaâure hence arising and encreasing more and more was âowever a little appeased for a while by the Policy of the Kings Brother and some Prelates of the Land ân this Year the Chronicler thought it worthy remark âo make mention of the variance that fell out between âhe Londoners and the men of Northampton at a Fair âhere held for a man of that Town there slain which occasioned a long Suit and Plea between them to ãâã great vexation and trouble of both Parties wherein ãâã the end the City had the better That City that ãâã able to make a Contest with the King 's whole ãâã is likely enough to match a particular Town In the 45th shortly after Alhallontide the Baroâ admitted and made Sheriffs of divers Shires namiââ them Guardians and Keepers of the Counties and Shiââ and discharged such as the King had before admittââ Neither would they suffer the Justices but such as ãâã of their own admission to keep the Itinerary ãâã The Law allowed them power and they were ãâã it seems to use it The King as any may easily suppose was grievously discontented therewith insomucâ as saith the Chronicle that after that Season he ââboured what he might to disannul the former Ordinanââ and Statutes and cause them to be broken To thâ end on the second Sunday in Lent was read by thâ King's Command at Paul's Cross a Bull of Pope ãâã the 4th as a Confirmation of another Bull before pââchased of his Predecessor Alexander the 4th to absolââ the King and all others that before had sworn ãâã maintain the Articles made at Oxford and afterwaââ the said Absolution was shewed throughout Englâââ Wales and Ireland streight charge being given to ãâã that none be so hardy to withstand or disobey the ãâã said Absolution And if any were found disobediââ to this Commandment that he should be put in Prisââ without Ransom or Deliverance till the Kings Plââsure were further known The Pope could pretend ãâã absolve on either side if he were well paid ãâã then could any Oaths be suppos'd to avail without sââable Power to compel their Observance Yet hitheâââ the Commons of the City held their Power formeâ granted them For we read of another License ââven to the King at a Folk-Moot to sail into ãâã according whereunto he departed the morrow followâng from London Anno 46. Tbomas Fiz Thomas being Mayor Phiâââ Walbrook Richard Taylor Sheriffs about Martintide âhe Jews felt the Peoples Fury to some of their costs âo odious was that Nation grown in many parts of âhe World since our Saviour's Crucifixion which had been formerly the darling of Heaven that it must have been a very small mattââ that would not easily have âârred up the common People of the Land where they lived against them In this Year is unkindness âoted to have arisen between the Londoners and the Constable of the Tower for that contrary to the Ciâies Liberties he took certain Ships passing by with Wheat and other Victuals into the Tower and made âhe Price at his Pleasure Hence might great harm have ensued had not by the Policy of wise men the matter been committed to the Chief Justice and others by direction of the Kings Council to set an order and Rule between the said Parties The effect whereof was that after Evidences and Priviledges produced to âhe advantage of both it was firmly adjudged that âf the Constable or any other Officer of the Tower would at any time take any Wheat or Victuals to the ââse of the King or the Tower he should come into
the City Market and have it two Pence in a Quarter within the Mayors Price and other Victuals after the âame rate And if he or any of his Officers would ãâã contrary to that Ordinance that then the Sheriffs âhould make report to the Kings Council and withââand him in all that they might so that the King's âeace were kept Here was Authority given to act âgainst some commissionated by the King What folây is it for every mean petty Officer to think to thwart ââis powerful City and hope to be too hard for her Citizens when their Liberties Priviledges and Franchises ãâã concerned This year silent murmurs passed up and down thâ Land of War that was too too likely to ensue bâtween the King and his Lords in short process of time for the Bull of Dispensation before shewed in ãâã Realm But the mediation of good and wise men appeased and stilled those Emotions for a while that ãâã King agreed again to the maintenance of the aforesâââ Statutes and sent his Writs wherein the said Articlâ were comprised into all the Shires of England givinâ strict Commandment to all men to observe and keââ the same and such other as were to them joined ãâã the discretion of some appointed to that end ãâã this again was shortly after revoked and denieâ What Change in Councils what Uncertainty ãâã Fickleness of Mind was this Give and grant anâ then recal What could be thought the end of ãâã variableness but Strife and Contention Hereupoâ the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury a Star in that coâjuncture of the first Magnitude in the English Firmâment proves erratick For fearing what might eâsue like a cunning subtle worldly Politician ãâã makes an Errand to Rome and by License of boââ Parties departs the Land and so keeps himself out ãâã the trouble was over He had been a main Instrument a few years ago in Cursing the Breakers of thâ aforementioned Acts. Should he have sided with thâ Kings Party he had openly contradicted his formeâ Actions and in effect declared all his so solemn Cursââ to signifie nought Had he sided with the Barons ãâã must have shewn himself an Assenter to their deeâ partaken of all the Changes and Chances of War ãâã publickly slighted and contemned the Popes Dispensââtion A crime in those days of very dangerous Consequence to the offending Party Upon Midlent Sundââ the Mayor and Commons being present at a Folk-Moââ held at Paul's Cross before Sir Philip Basset and otheâ of the Kings Council the Mayor was sworn to be ârue to the King and his Heirs Kings Upon the morâow at Guild-Hall every Alderman is said to have taken the same Oath in presence of the Mayor And so likewise upon the Sunday following we read that every Stripling of the Age of 12 Years and above was aâew charged with the same Oath before his Alderman in his Ward Then according to my Author the Displeasure between the King and his Barons which a long while ââd been kept secret began to appear insomuch that diverse of them assembled in the Marches of Wales gathered unto them strong Power and sent a Letter ânto the King under the Seal of Sir Roger Clyfford âeseeching him to have in remembrance the Oath and manifold Promises that he had made for the observâng of the Statutes made at Oxford with other Ordinances made to the Honour of God for Faith and Alâegiance to his Person Weal and Profit of all his Realm willing him further to withstand and defie all âuch Persons as will be against the said Acts saving âhe Queen and her Children After this Letter thus âent and no Answer received we read of the said Baâons going with Banners displayed against such as they ânew held against the Acts so often before mentioned The effect of their Fury at Hereford the Bishop and âany of his Canons Aliens born soon felt to their great cost and damage Hence we hear of their going to other places where they supposed to find their Eneâies keeping their course towards London this was the place it seems they desired so much to fix to âheir Party bearing before them a Banner of the Kings Arms and encreasing with the access of much People as they held on in their Journey In this March as they found any that they knew to be against âhe Maintenance of the aforesaid Acts they imprisoned them and spoiled their Habitations were they Spiââtual or Temporal Men all the case to them at thâ time In divers of the King's Castles they set in ãâã Persons as they pleased putting out such as were plâced in by the King and gave to them an Oath thâ they should be true and faithful to the King ãâã keep those Castles to his Use and to the Weal of ãâã Realm Here they seem to have outdid the Courtiââ in their own way The Mayor Aldermen and âthers of London were made of late to renew thâ Oaths of Allegiance to the King and his Heirs as if ãâã weaken the Barons Party by a crafty sly insinuatiââ that they went about to deprive the King and ãâã Heirs of their Right But as for those suggestions ãâã hold the Barons disappointing them by giving ãâã like Oaths to these of their own Party put into ãâã of publick Trust and thereby in effect declaring ãâã 't was not against the King but against the ill Ministââ of State about him whom they deemed the Authââ of iil Advice that they thus took up Arms either ãâã remove them or deliver the King out of such ãâã mens hands About Midsummer when they drew near to Londââ the Chronicle tells us that they sent a Letter unto ãâã Mayor and Aldermen under the Seal of Sir ãâã Mountfold willing to know of them whether thâ would observe the Acts and Statutes made in the Pââliament called at Oxford or not or else would aid ãâã assist such persons as intended the breach of the saââ and sent to them a Copy of the said Acts with a Pââviso that if any there specified were to the hurt of ãâã Realm or common-Weal of the same that they thâ by discreet Persons of the Land should be altered ãâã amended See here the Influence the City had upââ the Land the esteem the Barons had of London's ãâã and Authority and how desirous they were to ãâã it to their side and Interest The forementioned Copy was by the Mayor carried to the King then being at the Tower accompanied with his Queen his Brother Richard Edward his Son and others of his Council Then the King intending to know the Cities Mind asked the Mayor what he thought of those Acts and Ordinances who being refused time and leave to conââer with his Brethren the Aldermen and his Judgment demanded at that present season stands upon Record to have boldly answered the King that before-times he with his Brethren and the Commonalty of the City by his Commandment had been sworn to maintain all Acts made to the Honour of God to the Faith of the King
and Profit of the Realm which Oath by his license and most gracious favour they ântended to observe and keep One of the Ingredients âhat according to the Royal Psalmist goes to the comâosure of a Citizen of Zion who shall abide in the Lords Tabernacle and dwell in his Holy Hill is that âe changeth not though he sweareth to his own hurt ând moreover continued the Mayor to avoid all ocâasion that might grow of grudge or variance beâween him and his Barons within the City they would âut all Aliens and Strangers out thereof if he were so âontented The King shewed as if he was well pleaââd with this Answer so that the Mayor with his faâour departed and sent Answer to the Barons acâording to the same their Liberties alway upholden âid saved The Barons lying so near London and âith so considerable a strength 't was time for those âobles who were against those Statutes to be packââg as fast as they could for fear of the associated âords But the King is said to have sent after them ââvers Persons of his Houshold and of the Citizens of âândon to induce them to return and tarry with him ãâã that season according to the Mayor's former words all Aliens suspected of any favour owing to the one Party or the other were put out of the City Impartiality is rarely found among the Children of men though it is so commendable a Virtue not to have respect of Persons But not long after we hear of their being placed in Offices many of them in Windsââ Castle by Edward the King's Son So usual is it for contesting Parties to receive and prefer one anothers outcasts No wonder then if we sometimes see the same done in private Families when at variance among themselves which is so oft acted over and over again in publick differences Then Watch and Ward was kept dayly in the Câty and in the night certain assigned to ride about the Town with some Foot-Men allotted to them to search all the Town over But hence harm ensuing by reason that evil disposed Persons under colour oâ Watch-Men seeking for strangers robbed and spoileâ many Houses in one part of the City while the ridiââ Watch was in another place a standing Watch was oâdained in every Ward The mind of the City being made known by their publick Mouth the Mayor 't was time for men of a different Interest to endeavouâ to draw the King further off from it Accordinglâ we find the King departs from the City when ââ heard the Barons were coming into it The Baroââ enter the City the Sunday before St. Margaret's day and the King shortly after returns to Westminster wiââ the Queen and ohers of his Council Soon after ãâã Hugh le Spencer is made Chief Justice and Keeper ãâã the Tower by consent both of the King and the Bârons Upon the morrow following Maudlin Day was a Writ directed to the Mayor and Aldermââ charging them that the King's Peace be firmly ãâã within the City for in the same it was expressed thâ the King and his Barons were lovingly agreed Fuâthermore in the same Writ it was commanded that if within the Precincts of the City were any person or persons known that would withstand the foresaid Ordinances and Statutes that all such should be attached and put in Prison and their Goods also attached for the King till they knew his further Pleasure Well had it been for many great persons if this agreement had lasted longer but like other Worldly things this new peace was also transitory However here we meet with another instance of the Cities Concern of the Cities Power of the Cities Influence 'T was the Citizens concern to keep the Peace thus happily and quietly made 'T was their Power you here find engaged to see to it And their Influence upon either party you may guess by the due care taken to inform them of the late mutual Agreement In these days of Misrule and time of the Barons residing in the City we are given to understand that many Robberies were committed by divers therein and much harm done but little corrected they were so born out and maintained by their Masters Such is the too too common effect of Civil broils The Commons of the City were far out of Rule by the incensing of riotous Persons so that in the Assemblies and Courts kept at Guild-Hall or other places Worshipful men were little or nothing regarded and simple indiscrcet persons carried away the voice As the City was in those days powerful so the Lords seem well to have known it when to obtain the more favour of the Citizens they willed them to shew them if they had any of their Liberties withdrawn that they might again to them be restored and also to think of some new ones to their Weal and Profit and they would labour to the King to have them granted Can any one desire greater Evidence than Ocular Demonstration The City had a great many good and beneficial Liberties and Franchises already granted to the Emulation and Envy of many of her ill-willers Yet here our own Eyes may easily certifie us of a large offer voluntarily made to her Citizens by such as had Power to encrease them had they had the discretion at that time to have made a good use of it For the Mayor having upon this kind offer assembled the Commons at Guild-Hall and willed the Officers to devise such things as might be beneficial to the City they counselling together are said to have made such a note of Statutes Provisions and Ordinances to their own singular Profit and so prejudicial to all other Foreign Merchants coming to the City to all other Fairs and Markets of England and the universal Weal of the Realm that upon overseeing them the Heads told them they were neither lawful nor charitable and such as they knew would not be admitted So common is it in too too many concerns for private Interest to be brought up in the Van while the publick is left lagging behind as it were a loof off in the Rear The Heads of the City willing the Commons to devise other Ordinances their first being so uncharitably ordered and they I know not upon what account nor upon whose Incitation proving refractory and refusing both those and others right necessary for the Common-Weal of the City were rejected and put off saith my Author For men to go to logging of Bills when they cannot otherwise hinder their passing is a known Practice After St. James's day we hear of the Barons departure from London towards Windsor where they turned out the Aliens before plac'd therein by the King's Son Edward who thereupon with other associates rode to the King with Complaints in their Mouths against the Barons for spoiling them of their Goods But these being then put off by the King with a promise of Justice till more of his Council were with him he with other Attendants sailed into France whence being returned after Michaelmas to
to have been there kept and that the King and his Lords parted thence all at Discord Besides the mutual Strength of People on either side The Barons had the Acts of Parliament made by the King Lords and Commons for of such I have elsewhere read these Assemblies were composed in those days to fight for which to observe the King and many others had been sworn besides a solemn Curse denounced against the Attempters to break them The King with his Party had the Popes Bull of Absolution the Sentence of the Council of Lords at Westminster and the Judgment given on the Kings side by Lewis the French King for their Incitement Such then being the cause contended for these being the mutual advantages to strengthen either side the difference is brought in the Spring into the Field to be decided All things in a manner thus tending to War the Barons drew towards London that 's their Place of Rendezvous where new Assurances by Writing indented was made between them and the Commonalty of the City without Consent of many of the Rulers thereof Whether they were swayed in their minds to the other side by Reasons they carried in their Pockets I find not or thinking they had most to lose they feared to be the greatest Sufferers if the chance of War should fall cross or else out of Envy and Emulation to the Commons who had already been entrusted with so much Power by the so often named Statutes and were in probability likely to get more if the Barons should prevail or at least keep what they had gotten Hence 't is plain that the Commons of the City were the men that stood by the Lords in defence of the Parliament Acts Many of the Rulers seem not to have appeared Wherefore the Commons as men enraged made to themselves Two Captains Thomas de Pywelden and Stephen Bukkerel whom they named Constables of the City At whose Commandment by tolling the great Bell of St. Pauls all the City should be ready in Arms to give Attendance upon the said Captains About the beginning of Lent the Constable of the Tower Sir Hugh Le Spencer came with a fair Company of men at Arms into the City and desired Assistance of the forenamed Constables who commanded the said Bell to be toll'd By means whereof the People shut their Shops and came out in Arms in great Multitudes who after Proclamation made that they should follow their Captains without knowledge what to do or whither to go followed them unto Thystleworth beyond Westminster and there spoiled the Manour of the King of the Romans Richard the King's Brother setting it on Fire and afterwards with great noise and cry returned unto London This Richard King of the Romans appears to have been a Mediator of Peace between the Two Parties but after this outrage what else could be expected but that he should become the Barons Enemy to the utmost of his Power Though 't is commonly seen that from War most come home by Weeping Cross yet there are still too too many found that desire to fish in troubled Waters Would any but such as were in Love with Blood and Wounds have counselled such a Fact as this in the midst of Civil broils thus to compel the only Mediator of Peace likely to prevail to become a man of War and which was worse an Enemy a powerful Enemy instead of a peaceable Friend In the time of these intestine Jarrs between Men of the same Country and Religion 't was much if the Jews should have escaped free who were strangers of different Rites and Customs and so odious to the Common People That they did not escape the enraged Multitudes Fury we find by mention made of Five Hundred of them said to be slain at one time in London on Palmsunday week The occasion is related to be for that a Jew would have forced a Christian to have given him more than Two Pence a Week for the use of Twenty Shillings This being the stinted Usury then permitted the Jews by the King's Grant According to which rate they might take iâ any Summ lent greater or lesser A reasonable man would have thought this might have satisfied the greedy Minds of most ordinary griping Extortioners Eight Shillings Eight Pence by the Year in the Pound Forty three Pounds Six Shillings Eight Pence in the Hundred Usury unconscionable enough of any sense While the Land stood thus divided into Parties the Jews felt the Peoples rage in the City and the Country did not altogether scape tasting the miseries of Civil Wars King Henry by divers places came at length into Sussex with a strong Power whereof the Lords hearing made preparation to go towards him Accordingly in the end of April the Barons with many of the Citizens in the vaward departed from London taking their Journey towards the King and hearing he was at Lewes with a great power by common consent drawing up a Letter sent it in the name of all the Barons to the King But the Answers were so rough and in such a stile that it plainly shewed that the Sword could be the only decider of the Quarrel and final determiner of the Contest so much were their Minds exasperated each towards other though of the same Nation and Kindred The Barons well perceiving by these Answers that there was no other way but to decide the Quarrel by dint of Sword they went forward towards the King Wednesday May the 24th 1263. is the day that may be writ in Red Letters for the great quantity of Blood spilt thereon in the Battle fought at Lewes between the King and his Barons wherein by the Will of Providence the Victory sell to the Barons with such a total rout to the other Party that they took Prisoners the King his Brother his Son with many other Noble-Men to the number of Twenty five Barons and Banerets above Twenty Thousand being slain according to my Author's Account After this so compleat a Victory the other Prisoners being sent elsewhere the Barons kept the King his Brother and Son till they came to London This was the place wherein they had found Shelter and had had such considerable Assistance from the Londoners that there seemed a kind of Obligation lying on them and it implied somwhat of a Recompence due to the City there to shew the Trophies of their Victory Now we may easily conclude that the forenamed Statutes are to stand in full force even by the Kings Consent And so acccordingly we find a Grant made and an Agreement that if any were thought unreasonable they were to be corrected and amended by four Noble Men of the Realm Two of the Spiritualty and Two of the Temporalty And if the four accorded not the Earl of Anjou and the Duke of Brittain were to be Judges in the case To continue this accord the firmer the King's Son and his Brother were to remain the Barons Prisoners till it was compleated A Parliament was also appointed to be
held at London within a short space though my Author writes that this never came to purpose So it seems that in those elder times a Parliament was the Subjects desire and as it were the last Refuge and means of Reconciliation to establish Peace and quietness in the Land Tuesday before Ascension-Day is the time named whereon the acceptable news of Peace were proclaimed between the King and his Barons in London and next day thither they came with the King his Brother and Son and the Two Princely Pledges were sent into safe Custody first to the Tower afterwards to Dover Castle In the time of these civil Distractions and before the Battle we find that the Wardens of the Cinqueports kept the Sea with Ships that no Stranger might enter the Land to the Kings aid against the Barons Sometime after the Battel we hear of Souldiers coming in great numbers unto Dover there to land But King Henry was induced to ride thither with a great power and force those Strangers to go back again and the Kings Brother sent Prisoner to Berkhamstead Castle till those Aliens were returned It stands upon Record in my Author that he and the Queen had sent over the Sea for them So that hence it had been manifest though the Relation of King John's Reign had not been extant that it is no late Device nor new Practice for Persons of Arbitrary Pretences to call in outlandish Souldiers when they fear they cannot raise assistance enough at home in their own Native Country to support and bring to effect their ill intended designs The Barons side stood firm for the Observation of the Parliament Acts The Kings party desired to have infringed them The Barons grew powerful and formidable the other side seem fearful that they should not be able to compass strength enough at home suitable to their Designs and desires and therefore sent abroad There being idle men enough to be had for mony in most places Soldiers were waged but there was a Sea to pass which required much time and a suitable Sail of Ships to waft them over and a considerable strength lay in the way to intercept them if they came not well provided for an attaque So that it was a day as it were after the Fair before they came and that was many hours too late whereupon they were compelled to return again without and against their first Intent This is the inconvenience some may think the great advantage others may conclude of an Island 's scituation that it cannot easily be over-run with forreign Forces as Lands upon the continent often are and with more facility If the shooing of themselves and their Horses with Cork would do the feat then they might happen more easily to pass the Sea but as things go in this Age of the World much time as well as a great Navy is requisite to transport an Army though little or no oppositioâ be made Yet how difficult would it be to prevaââ where among One Million Two Hundred Thousand One Million One Hundred and Fifty Thousand are on one side and Fifty Thousand on the other i. e. In Twenty four Twenty three parts against one part What could it avail if on some other fine neat pretence a good store of Forreigners might possibly happen to be introduced suppose Fisty Thousand Above Eleven to One would still be great odds If we should grant One Hundred Thousand could silently be let in under another Notion into how many little small Parcels must they be minutely divided at how many several Portâ must they arrive what charge to keep and maintain them unless put upon present service And yet there 's still hazard enough in the World and to spare One Million one Hundred and Fifty Thousand against One Hundred and Fifty Thousands to every man an opposite and Ten-over Odds sufficiently at Foot-Ball if in a lesser number Were it not for the Law of the Land in how many places d'ye think the 9 Lay Sheaves would not devour the Parsons Tenth Sheaf England stands firm upon its old bottom of Freedom but France hath had Experience more than enough of the aforesaid truths 'T is well known the present French King keeps his poor enslaved Subjects under with a strong Force composed most of other Country Souldiers and by their assistance with some otherâ connivance and the help of French Money is become the Terrour of Europe I doubt not but much of this his present greatness sprung at first from a successful attempt made in his younger days to introduce forreign forces upon his less wary Nobility and Gentry in hehalf and by the Guidance of a great Minister of State whom some of them had desired to be discarded from sitting at the Helm of Government Whereof his present Majesty I believe had no very pleasing nor desirable Experience 'T was in the time when Providence permitted our King to be injuriously kept out of his right by an Usurper that the French Nobles were urgent to have their King exile Mazarine and the better to effect it were ready to have appeared in Arms But their King in shew granting their desires and it may be through the mediation of our Gracious Prince who had too sad an Instance of his own to urge from his Fathers unfortunate Fate the Princes grew secure and laid aside their combined strength whereupon the exil'd Mazarine comes out of Germany so have I heard with a strong Army of many Thousands up to Paris and then order'd things at his own Pleasure and the Kings The deceiv'd Princes could never vindicate themselves since and our then almost friendless King shortly after thought good to leave the Country though the Place of his Mothers Original lest he should have been bid to depart and that disgusted States-man as may be suspected causes the K. to close with England's usurping Power and desert a poor distressed over-power'd Prince with no more regard to him or his till his Protestant what if I had also added Presbyterian Subjects recall'd him to possess his Fathers Throne wherein long may he live and flourish to the Nations good and his own continued Wellfare An. 48. Thomas Fiz Thomas Mayor Osbert Wynter Phil Taylor being Sheriffs The Lords of the Marches about Christmas assembled and did much harm â the Manours of the Earls of Leicester and Glocestââ the two noted Chiefs of the Barons Party thereabouts which occasioned the King to ride shortly after to Glocester where by a Council there called ââ was enacted that such of the Lords that did not come in and yield to the King by the Octaves of Hilary should be exil'd Let the question here be whether these Lords known to have been of the K'â Party both before and after this Transaction were guilty of Treason or Disloyalty in not coming in ãâã the King's Call yielding as the Barons party doubâless cordially desired with whom the K. was theâ personally present Had they straightways obeyed and come in all
of the Castle and Lodged by his Assignment except these five Persons viz. Tââmas Fizt Thomas Mayor Michael Tony Steven Bukkerââ Thomas Pywellyson and John Dâflete These five ãâã the King given to his Son Edward at whose coâmandment they remained in the said Tower long ââter notwithstanding the King 's safe Conduct to ãâã before made What became then of the King's worâ But who durst oppose a waking Lyons The ãâã Hunter in the fable lik't not to deal roughly wiââ him till his long Teeth were broken out and his ãâã cut off When upon the bruit of Queen Mary'â ãâã with Child King Philip of Spain her Husband ãâã to be chosen the Childs Guardian if the ãâã should Decease and offered the Parliament great ââsurances and Bonds of Security for his redelivery ãâã the Kingdom at the appointed time that Gentlemââ shew'd himself no Fool who when the assurancâ were likely to find acceptance stood up and inqâââed who should ãâã the Bond And the Parliameââ enough approv'd him when they immedintly theââ upon rejected the King's specious offers 'T is very dââadvantagious and often injurious to the Weak to ãâã making of bargains with the more Powerful who ãâã strong enough to break their Promises and Covenaââ with Impunity or keep them but e'en as they pleasâ When the tydings of the usage of the Mayor and thâ rest at Windsor came to London whereas many ãâã fear had absented themselves before upon this newâ many more convey'd away themselves and their good secretly into diverse parts of England so that many of them are said never to have return'd after In the 49th Year November the 6th We find thaâ the King came to Westminster and shortly after gave to diverse of his Houshold-Servants near about sixty Houses and Housholds within the City so that the Owners were compell'd to redeem their Houses and Housholds with all the goods in them or else to depart and suffer such Persons to enter to whom thâând Houses were given This grant is said to have âââended likewise to all the Lands Tenements Gooââ ãâã Chattels which the said Citizens had in any other âââces of England Riches have often made Persons ãâã singled out for offendors while the poor Man ââ the mean time scapes free few envying him his Poveâty After this was ãâã Constable of the Tower ââde Custos or Guardian of the City who chose ãâã Adrian and Walter Hervy Citizens to be Bayliffs ãâã him and to him to be accountable to the King's ãâã Then took the King pledges of the best Men's ãâã of the City that ãâã peace should be surely kept ãâã thâ same These were put into the Tower ând ãâã kept at their Parents cost Shortly after ãâ¦ã Labour and Sâit made the foresaid Londoners ââ the keeping of the Bayliff of the Castle of Windsor ãâã deliver'd and came to London except ãâ¦ã viz. Richard Bonaventure Symon De'Hadâstâk William De Kent and William De Glocester who with ãâã other five afore excepted were still kept in the Towâr of Windsor Then dayly Suit and Labour waâ made to the King to have his Gracious Favour and âo know his Pleasure what fine he would have of the City for their Transgressions and Displeasure by them âo him done The former Transactions seem to beaâ a Tendency hereunto The Citizens were prevail'd upon to resign up themselves their Lives and Goods into the King's hands submitting all to his Mercy that a good large fine might be the easier levied of them and the Nation the better made to beleive that the City was well dealt with for paying no more when as the King might have seiz'd upon all they having surrendred in a manner wholly upon discretion To what else tend the many preparatives before rehears'd but to make this bitter Pill go down ãâã smoother and quieter with them The Book ââquaiâts ââ that the King asked 40000l and ãâã stood at â0000 Marks I But the City alledged ãâã themselves that the poor Commons of the City ãâã of many were gone away were the Trespassers ãâã that the best of the City by these riotous Persoâ were robid and spoilââ and had lost a great part oâ their Substance in this ãâã some time by the Râvers of the Sea as the Wardens of the five Ports and others For these and many other considerations ãâã Citizens besought the King of his most Gracious ãâã your and Pity to take of them as they might âear This matter thus depending the King departââ ãâã Westminister to Northampton having a little ãâã his departure Ordain'd Sir John Lynd and Mâ John ãâã Clerk to be Guardians of the City and Towââ they âeing nam'd in the King 's Writing ãâ¦ã Steward 's of the City Upon the Day after thâ King was gone these Two Stewards sent for Twââty Four of the most notable Men of the City anâ warned them to appear the Day following before thâ King's Councel at Westminster At their appearaâââ it was shown unto them by Sir Roger Leyborn that tââ King's mind was That they should have the Rule oâ the City in his absence under the foresaid Seneschaââ and for to see good Rule kept in the City they should be sworn there before his Councel They were there upon sworn and countermanded unto the City The City's fine was inagitation till about Christmas ãâ¦ã End was made with the King by such friends aâ the City had about him for the Sum of 20000 Marks for all transgressions and offences by them before done some Persons excepted whom the King had giv'n to his Son Edward being those afore nam'd kept in the Tower of Windsor For the payment of this Sum at Days by agreement set where Sir ãâ¦ã and Mr. Robert Wareyn Clerk assign'd to take ãâ¦ã After Surety by them receiv'd and sent to ãâã King at Northampton the King sent immediately ãâã to thâ Citizens a Charter under his Broad ãâ¦ã may be seen in Eabian my Author in these ãâã ãâã needless to make many comments ãâ¦ã upon this affair Through the whole it is âââifest that the City was of considerable Power and ãâã so that the King thought not good to exaspeâââ the Citizens too much least evil should have ãâã of it To make a Bridge of Gold for a flying ãâã is no mean Policy Doubtless it was well ãâ¦ã Court that they us'd not the ãâã violence ãâ¦ã Baron's Party was not wholy destroyed as yet in ãâã hand though it was very much crush'd How ãâã the whole City joyn'd therewith might haâe ãâ¦ã pois'd if not turn'd the Scales had shâ been ãâã âarâhly dealt with I rather crave leave to ãâ¦ã the Readers consideration than hastily presume ãâ¦ã 'T is certain enough that within less than ãâã Years the Cause was in great likelihood to have ãâã reviv'd to purpose had not convenient course ãâã taken to âush it a sleep again without rashly âââceeding to the highest extremities as you may find ãâã the sequel of the History After the aforesaid ãâã was receiv'd by
the Citizens the pledges in the ãâã of London and the Four last mention'd to be ãâã in the Tower of Windsor were deliver'd The ãâã renam'd Stewards were also discharged and the ãâã chose of themselves for Mayor William Fiz ãâã and for Sheriffs Thomas de la Founde and Gregoââ de Rokisây as Fabiân acquaints us For Levying of ãâã foresaid Fine were set as well Servants and Coveâânt-men as Housholders and many refus'd the Liberties of the City to be quit of that charge ãâã which we may give some part of a guess at the ãâã of the fine what a considerable summâ ãâ¦ã marks was in those days before the ââdies were ãâã into Europe some hundreds of years This controversy with London being thus ãâã towards an end the King had leasure to mind ãâã suppressing the remains of the Baron's Party ãâã de Mountford upon certain conditions was ãâ¦ã be at large in the Kings Court and so ãâã a Season But when the King was come to London suddenly departed to Winchelsea where he accompânied with the Rovers of the Sea till after some ãâã taken he departed from them into France and ãâã himself into the Service of the French King So ãâã an end of the Potent Earl of Leycester's Family in Eââland This Powerful Earl bid fair for the Rule of ãâã whole Kingdom but had he reviv'd the Battailâ ãâã a Conqueror how much further he ãâã have gone I may think but not positively ãâã mine Another Act of the Kings this year in order to ãâã total rooting out of the Barons remains was his ââing a Seige to Kenelworth-Castle with a mighty ãâã but this prov'd a task not quickly at an end Now ãâã time comes to revenge old slights and neglects ãâã sides Strangers prepar'd to come over into Englâââ the Queen had also purchas'd a curse of the ãâã a womans aid to accurse all the Barons their ãâã and helpers Commissions were directed to ãâã Bishops of England to execute but they for fear ãâã the Barons are said to have deny'd and deferred ãâã Execution and Sentence of the said curse Wherefoââ she made new labour to the Pope and had it granâââ that the said Bishops should be corrected for their diââbedience Whereupon Octobon the Pope's Legate ãâã Councel by him and the Clergy held this year at Paul's ââch in London suspended those Bishops and sent ãâã to Rome to be absolv'd of the Pope A pretty ãâã to go nine Miles with Waltham's calf to Suck a ãâã In the 50th year about Christmas was Kenelworth ãâã yielded after near half a years Siege upon ãâã of life Limb Horse Armes and all things ãâã in the Castle to the defendants belonging and ãâã to carry them away and not to be disinherited ãâã is it any wonder that they had such ãâã granted them if that be true which Stow relates ãâã that at the King 's coming to besiege the Castle ãâã force was so great and those in the Castle so ãâã daunted at their Enemyes presence that they ãâã âpen their Gates and never closed them day noâ ãâã and come whoso would they came to their ãâã Thus you see the King found it no easy matter ãâã to suppress the remainders though he had ãâã power'd the heads of the Baron's party About ãâã were the Wardens of the five Ports reconcil'd to ãâã King by favour of Edward the King's Son Observe ãâã by the way his policy In his Father's time he ãâã to crush that power which might have ãâã him in his own Reign and having pretty well ãâã it he after seems a pretender to Popularity ãâã mediating with his Father in behalf of many that âddressed themselves to him for reconciliation It much âails to apply our selves to a fit Intercessor So have known a Stepmother when requested prevail with ãâã Father her Husband in her Son in Law 's behalf ãâã he himself could not The Conditions of this reconciliation of the Barons ââque Ports are not unworthy of the remark We ãâã that in Anno. 47. these Wardens of the five Ports ãâã the Sea with Ships that no Strangers should enter the Land to the King's Aid In 48 we are told ãâã they rob'd and spoild all men that they might ãâã sparing neither English Merchants nor others ãâã which preys as the Common Fame-went the ãâã of the Land had a good part In 49. we find ãâã Londoners alledging for themselves in mitigation ãâã the great Fine required of them that they had ãâã great part of their Substance by the Rovers of ãâã Sea among whom are named the Wardens of ãâã Cinque Ports And yet notwithstanding all these ãâã Harms done they are Recorded to have had all ãâã former Priviledges confirmed to them and ãâã was Granted That if any English-man or ãâã would Sue for Restitution of Goods by them ãâã taken or for the Death of any of their Friends ââfore Slain that all such Complaints should ãâã Sued in their Courts there to have their ãâã determin'd and not elsewhere What greaâ Assurance could these Barons desire for their own ââcurity They might well promise themselves impânity when they were in such fair probability to ãâã their own Judges in their own Cause unless we ãâã suppose Juries were to be chosen elsewhere ãâã we might in good reason that the King would ãâã to such Terms of Accomodation had we it not upââ Record that the common Fame at that Day ran ãâã the said Wardens of the Five Ports had then the Dâminion of the Sea Whereupon the King was after sort compell'd to follow their Pleasures When Man is to take an unpleasant Potion after he ãâã drunk up the greatest part thereof it not rarely haâpens that the Remains in the bottom are harder ãâã get down than was all the rest About the Feast of Philip and Jacob we hear of ãâã King's holding a Parliament at Northamptonâ ãâã which were confirm'd the old Franchises and Libertâââ by the King's Progenitors before Granted in the City âf London with a new Grant for the Shire of Midâlesex 'T is good to make things as sure as we ãâ¦ã this Parliament were likewise disinherited many Noble-men of the Land who before-time had taken the Barons Party For which cause they accompaââed together Robbed in divers parts of the Land âook Lincoln and spoil'd it and after Ransomed many of the Rich Burgesses of the Town And taking the âsle of Ely so strengthened it that they held it long ãâã Anno 51 At the choosing of the Mayor of London â Controversie arose between the Rulers and Comâons of the City Wherefore by advice of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen Sir Roger Leyborn a Courtier plain enough by his Actions related before with others âame to Guild-hall being Armed under their Gowns ând upon Fryday following Alhallon day called the Commons to the Election of the new Mayor How ââee was this Election likely to be whither men came âecretly Armed to assist their Party Fabian tells us âhat the best of
the City gave the Nomination to Aleyn ââwch and divers of the others cryed upon Thomas ãâã Thomas at that time Prisoner in Windsor Castle âherefore the said Sir Roger with the Assistance of âhe Mayor and others took those Persons and sent ââemun to divers Prisons So that what they could not âo well get by fair means some seem resolved to obâain by force And yet 't is not unlikely but they âould be ready enough to bear People in hand that âuch was a free Election The Act against Disturbance ãâã Free Elections wherein the King commandeth upon Forfeiture that no man by force of Arms nor by âalice or menacing shall disturb any to make Free âlection was not at that time dreaded as not being ãâã yet enacted for it is plac'd in the third of Edward the First the following King wherefore the Distââbers might not then think they had such cause ãâ¦ã having the Court also on their side as ãâã must have had since as soon as ever they should ãâã acted so imprudently as to bring themselves ãâã the laâh of that standing Law Observe we here ãâã Power and Esteem that usually accompanieâ ãâã Mayoralty of this Honorable City since that ãâã Faction were for choosing one of their own ãâã Shall I further remark upon the whole of this ãâã what Party in a Nation 't is that sticks not at ãâã nor force to effect their Designs when fair ãâã is too weak to compass them But who will ãâã me that this will not be offensive Therefore to ãâã In this Year the Gentlemen who kept the ãâã Ely and liv'd there like Outlaws broke out ãâã times and did much harm in Norfolk Suffolk ãâã Cambridge Shire took Norwich and after spoiling ãâã carried away with them many of the rich men ãâã ransomed them at great sums of Mony This ãâã occasion the story says to Thieves and other ãâã dispos'd People to do many other hurts and ãâã in divers places of the Land and the blame was ãâã to those Gentlemen Then the Pope's Legate labouââ with the King that those disinherited Gentlemââ might purchase their Lands of him by Fine and ãâã some Whereupon it was agreed that they ãâã have their Lands again at five Years value some ãâã excepted and others of small Possessions to ãâã Fined at the discretion of the King's Councel ãâã this took no conclusion saith my Author Anno 52. Aleyn Sowch being Mayor Thomas ââsingâ and Robert de Cornehyll Sherists we read of anâther broyl beginning which was like to have creaââ no little disturbance in the Land had it not ãâã timely appeas'd and brought to an end by the inteâcession of wise Mediators For Gilbert de Clare Earl ãâã Glocester formerly a powerful Man among the Bârons Party by reason of difference and disgust ââising between him and the no less Potent Earl of ãâã of the same Party having turn'd to the King's side adding to it such considerable strength that it soon over powr'd the weakend Barons but ââw upon what occasion Fabian expresses not he refused the King and gathered to him a strong ãâã in the Marches of Wales To him likewise drew Sir John Eyvile and others of the disinherited ãâã So that after Christmas he comes with a âear Host near unto London When the Mayor and Aldermen of the City were aware of the Earls ââming with so strong a Power and not knowing ãâã he were the Kings Freind they shut the ãâã against his Fore-Riders And for that neither ãâã King nor any of his Councel were then near ãâã City they went unto the Legate at that time ââdged in the Tower and required his Councel âhether they should suffer the Earl to enter into the âay or not whereunto the Legate answered that ãâã thought not the contrary for the knew well that ãâã was the Kings true Subject and Friend Not ãâã after came a Messenger from the Earl to the âayor to have Licence to pass through the City ãâã Southwark where he intended to lodge with ãâã People which was granted and so the Earl ââssed through the City and was lodg'd in Southâark To him came shortly after by Surry-side ãâã John Eyvile with a great Company Then the âayor kept the Gate of the Bridge shut watchââg it dayly with armed Men and every night ãâã the Draw-Bridge to be drawn and the Waterside daily and nightly to be watched with Men in Arms. In short time after the Legate and the Earl agreed in such wise that the Earl by his advice was suffered with certain of his People to be lodged in the City By means whereof he daily drew more and more of his People into it so that finally many things were ordered by him and many of the Commons took his part against the Mayor and Aldermen The Commonalty of the City had had great Power put into their hands by the Statutes made at Oxford as appears before in the Meeting of the Folâmoot at Pauls Cross they had been lately fin'd after the Barons overthrow for their standing in defence of those Parliament-Acts and but the last year had been disturb'd by the Mayor in their Election of a new Mayor by force of Arms and therefore now we may beleive it all remembred What shall we loose so seasonable an opportunity we may suppose they might then think if not to regain our former power yet at least to vindicate our selves against future affronts Here we may note not a little of the Earls policy After he had gathered together his People he comes away to London and getting leave to pass through it ãâã part of his Forces he settles himself as near the City as he might in Southwark and then by degrees gets himself and his Power into the City hoping doubtless to find a Party therein willing to second him which hopes we perceive by the sequel were not ill grounded Is not this a plain instance of the Cities Power Esteem and Influence in these days If any can produce plainer proof hereof let them as soon as they please I think here ãâã Mathematical Demonstration matter of Fact not of Fancy In Easter week we read that the Earl took the Keys of the Bridge and of the Gates from the officers of the City and deliver'd them to such as pleased him and received into the City many of the disinherited Perfons and gave them free liberty to pass the Bridge at all hours of the day and night Of all this the Mayor sent word to the King who then was gathering of this Power in Norfolk and made hasty speed towards London In the mean time the Earl with his Company made Bulwarks and âââbicanes between the Tower and the City casting ãâã and Trenches in some places thereof and forfâited it wonderfully saith my Author Then many of the Citizens fearing a new Insurrection deparred from the City as secretly as they could whose goods the Earl seized to his own use or suffered his men to spoile them at his pleasure
day in the Afternoon and then was discharg'd upon the Oath of two Commons sworn in the name of the City that the City should stand to the Ordinance and Judgment of the Church So Eabian informs us but he likewise telis us of another Chronicle which affirms that this Interdiction should have continued longer had it not been for the sternness of the Londoners who held the Legate so streight that they inforc't him to withdraw that sentence upon the foresaid Condition So that is seems the Legate had not strength enough to ãâã with the Londoners so roughly and harshly yet sâcurely as otherwise he might perchance have doââ with lesser Places and Parties His reverend Legaââship seems not here to have went so cunningly ãâã work as did a Legate much of the same Name iâ not the same Man in the twenty first of this Kinââ Reign with the Oxford Scholars He first got ãâã enough off from them to Wallingford and then accus'd the misdoers that had put him into such a ãâã that for his Safeguard he took the Belfry of Osney ãâã abode there till the Kings Ministers coming froâ Abbington with strength mixt with fair words deââvered him and conveyed him away as is in ãâã before shewn No no the Londoners were too stronâ and stern so to be fool'd and us'd They would ââther we perceive by the story compel him thââ sawningly crouch to him After this the Bulwarks and Barlicarnes made by the Earl in the City were plucked clean up and Ditches fill'd so that no part of them was seeâ Good to destroy all the Monuments of civil Broils and Discord When the Citizens should have had their new Pardon granted an obstacle was madâ for so much as they as yet had not recompenced the King of the Romans for the Subversion of hiâ Manour of Thistleworth Well remembred and as seasonably put in A good convenient opportunity to put in for his share when he knew all the other differences were pretty well quieted in the Lââd and might reasonably conclude the City would rather wisely part with a little Money than begin a new trouble for a small matter and so hazard all For his Reparation was ask'd we find six thousand ãâã But finally with great Labour and Freindship ãâã was made to give him for amends one ãâ¦ã maâks to be paid in two years Thus you ãâã observe some will be sure however to ask ãâã where they know there is good Ability to ãâã though they take at last much less Like the ãâã that requested five hundred Oaks of the King ãâã âuild him an House when as one hundred was enough and it may he too much After these Transactions the King accepted and ãâã to his Grace Sir John Eyvile and several ãâã some of them named before among the ãâã Party Accord was also made between ãâã the Kings Son and the Earl of Glocester Therâ ãâã all Fortresses and other Defences before made ãâã and the places adjoyning pull'd up ãâã my Author and destroyed and the Earl with all other Souldiers departed After things thus set ãâ¦ã and Rest except that some yet kept the ãâã of Ely the King Rides to Shrewsbury and ãâã there a Season to commune of matters between him and Lewellin Prince of Wales While he there ãâã I find that a Writ was directed to Sir Aleyn ãâã Mayor of London eight days before Michaelmââ from the King charging him that the Citizens should not proceed to Election of new Sheriffs till ãâã coming to London but to suffer the old to abide still in Office By this we may guess at the honourable Sheriffs Power even in those days and beleive that the Court thought it convenient for their interestâ in those unsetled times to influence the Election what they might What else means the Kings command to defer the Election till his coming to Town And indeed we may perceive by the History thââ there was medling to the purpose the following year for the King himself instead of permitting ãâã free Election did in effect put in two Sheriffs of ãâã own nomination For the Mayor was commandeâ to present to the King six Persons able to be ãâã it may be it was also privately intimated to hiâ whom they should be and out of them the ãâã chose two to be Sheriffs William de Durham ãâã Walter Henry and caused them to be sworn ãâã they should gather the profits of the City and give a true Account before the Barons of the Exchequeâ But for this the Court seem to have had a ãâã plausible pretence from some disorders lately coâmitted in the City As indeed they appear by thâ History of this Kings Reign very ready either ââ find occasion for pretences or else to make ãâã that they might seize the Cities Charter and âfter restore it again for a good round sums of Money The Disorders in London above mention'd werâ occasion'd through variance falling out between the Fellowships of Goldsmiths and Taylors in November in the fifty third year of this King reckoning with my Author from the usual time of the Mayors eâtring into his Mayoralty This variance was so greaâ that it grew to the making of Parties so that with the Taylors held the Craft of Stainers with the Goldsmiths held another Fellowship or Craft By means whereof much people nightly gathered together in the Streets in Arms. At length as if before appointed there met one night of the said Parties upon the number of five hundred Men on both sides and ran together with such violence that some were slaim and many wounded To this purport I find it related Then upon outcry made the Sheriffs with a strength of other Commons came to them and took certain of them and sent them to the Prisons Upon the Morrow such search was made that most of the cheif causers of that Fray were taken and ãâã into Ward Upon the Friday following Katherines ãâã at the Sessions kept at Newgate by the Mayor ãâã de Broke Justice and others were many of ãâã Persons Arraigned of Felony and and some of them cast and hang'd Among them was likewise ãâã one Godfrey de Beverlay who had helped to ãâã of them Thus the Accessary is not seldom thought aâ guilty as the Theif On the Morrow after St. James's day the King dââcharged as writes my Author Sir Aleyn Souch ââyor and made Stephen Edworth Constable of the Tâwer and Custos of the City of Londrn Fabian after whom I most write hath left us the Names of a Mayor and Sheriffs affixt to every year of this Henry's Reign yet he likewise gives us to understand that of these Rulers of the City after the year that Thomas Fytz Thomas was Mayor there are divers opinions For after some Writers continues he from that year viz. forty eight till the fifty fifth of King Henry's Reign in which year John Adrian Draper was Mayor they were all Guardians and no Mayors and who so was then Constable of the Tower
Citizens disâgreement But if such was the effect of the Ciâizens contest what then may we think of those who âurposely create those differences and stir up dangerâus animosities among them upon slight trivial âorn out pretences that from the like cause or occasion the like effect may follow At Candlemas by discreet and wise peaceable means the forenamed Sir Walter Harvy was set in Authority as Major and so remained the whole year after In the third year the King confirmed the Liberties of the City and granted some new Thus you see after a storm comes fair weather In this year we meet with a Relation concerning Walter Harvy how that in the first year of this King after long controversy and strife with the Aldermen he was made Major of London at a Folkmoot or Common-Hall at Pauls-Cross and so continued that year but in this third year occasion was found to remember and as the event seems to intimate revenge it For being accused of divers perjuries and other detestable deeds contrary to his Oath for them and for making Assemblies of the Commons who favour'd him he was depriv'd of his Aldermanship and turn'd out of the City Council for ever and for keeping the Kings peace within the City for the term of his life was bound to the good behaviour upon the suretiship of twelve persons 'T is not unusual for the Commonalty and heads of the City to be at difference each with other Here 's one who seems a promoter of the Commons power over-power'd himself by his Enemies for making assemblies of the Commons and other Crimes objected to him true or feigned I know not however thence was taken a pretence to thrust him out of his former power These Folkmoots or Assemblies of the Commons seem to have been very unpleasing tâ the chief Rulers of the City and their power disgusted as may be guess'd from the fore-pass'd transactions in King Henry's days where we may remember that the Commons were the men whâ had power allotted them by the Parliament at their Folkmoot or Common-hal to grant the King Licence to depart out of the Land for a Season 'T were they who most firmly adher'd to the Barons standing up in defence of those Parliament Statues made at Oxford but few of the chief Rulers of the City comparatively are noted to have appear'd openly in that fam'd contest of the Barons War In the fourth year occasion was taken against Michael Tony upon some demeaours of his in the Welch War to accuse him of Treason of which he was arraign'd judg'd and condemn'd and after drawn hang'd and quartered This man doubtless had been a noted stickler in the Barons War for I find one of that Name among the five persons so long kept in Prison in Windsor Tower after the Barons overthrow till mony bought them out as is before related Princes once highly offended may openly profess to forgive the offending party but they do not however so soon forget him Tho David pardoned Shimei during his life and swore to him not to put him to death with the Sword yet as good a Man as he was he charg'd his Son Solomon to bring down his hoary head to the grave with blood and so accordingly we find an occasion was afterwards taken by Solomon to revenge his former cursing his Father David by commanding Benaiah who went out and fell upon him that he dyed This year was the famous Statute of Mortmain first enacted that no man should give Lands or Rents to the Church without the Kings Special Licence which Statute had afterwards many additions annext to it to make it the stronger For the Lay-fee was in great danger to be devour'd by the Spiritualty such Arts did the Clergy use on mens minds to augment their power and Riches Tho now our Courts of Law are fixt at Westminster yet in these Ancient times it was not so for we read that this King in his sixth year remov'd his Courts of Kings-Bench Chancery Common-Pleas and Exchequer to Shrewsbury and afterwards return'd them back again to the no small damage of the Records thus carried to and fro This King held his Parliament at London in his seventh year for Reformation of his Coyn much clip't and diminish'd This storm fell chiefly upon the Jews by reason of the Inquest charg'd in London to enquire of this matter Whereupon were cast two hundred and ninety seven persons before the Major and other Justices sitting at London and afterwards Executed at sundry times and places My Author hath left upon Record that among these there were but three Englishmen all the rest were Jews or Jews born in England Famous is the 12th year for the Conquering and subââââing of Wales to the English Scepter and divâsion of it bâ King Edward into Shires whereupon were ordain'd Sheriffs and other Officers therein as were then us'd in England David Brother to Lewellyn late Prince of Wales who was condemned to be drawn hang'd and quarter'd as a chief ââirrer and beginner of the Welsh War in time of a Parliament held at Shrewsbury was shortly after Executed and his head sent to London to be sât by his Brothers which had been order'd to be plac'd the âear before on London-Tower In this year was Edward of Carnarvan born the first of our English Kings since William the first that I read of publickly unking'd and depos'd by his own Subjects The great Conduit standing against Saint Thomas of Acres in Cheapside owes his foundation to this year The 13th year may be noted for the Kings seizing the Franchises and Liberties of London into his own hands on the day kept in Memory of Saint Pauls Conversion so that he discharged the Major Gregory Rokisle and admitted for Custos or Guardian of the City Stephen Sandewich who continued till the Monday following the Purification of the Virgin Mary when being discharg'd Sir John Breton sâands upon Record charg'd for the residue of the year My Author writes that the cause of this displeasure the King bore to the City is not shewn of a certainty He mentions an old Pamphlet whereby it appears that the Major took bribes of the Bakers and suffer'd them to sell bread lacking six ounces in a penny Loaf for which the King was sore displeased but to him this seem'd no convenient cause that the Liberties of the City should be seiz'd for one man's offence Wherefore he rather supposeth it was for a more grievous cause However it is observable from History that it was a Common thing in Elder times to seize the Cities Charters on pretences slight enough of any sense till the Citizens grew so wise as at convenient seasons to procure new grants and graces to prevent such seizures for the future And that it is not still so feasable and practicable is the grief I believe and heart-burning of some in the world The 14th year of this King may be accounted famous for the Statutes called Additamenta Gloucestriae made at a
Thomas Weyland Adam Stretton and others who being by the Kings order Examined and found guilty of the Trespasses laid to their Charge were âither out-law'd and lost their goods or else long âmprisoned and deeply Fin'd A large Catalogue âf them and their Fines are to be seen in Stows ãâã whence 't is observable how suddainly vengeânce over-takes Oppressors let them be never so Rich High and Mighty in Office Power or Authority as soon as ever the Kings mind is inspir'd from above to inspect their actions and punish their crimes Remarkable is the 19th Year for the Jews Banishment which we find bought of thâ King by the Commons at the price of a Fifteen In the 21st year we hear of a Parliament held at London and of the King of Scot's coming thither with divers of his Lords The punishment inflicted on three men for rescuing a Prisoner from an Officer belonging to the Sheriffs of London by striking off their right hands at the wrist in Cheapside is noted for one of this years actions Hence let us leap to the 24th year and there among thaâ years deeds we find mention made of a new subsidy levied by the King upon Wool going out oâ England Fels and Hides for his War with thâ French King of his Commanding the Mony before granted by the Clergy towards the defence oâ the Holy Land to be brought into his Treasury upon the Report he had from Rome of Pope Boniface the 8ths manners of the grant he got of thâ Clergy of half their Spiritual and Temporal Lands from a Benefice of 20 Marks and upwards to bâ paid in three years And of the Tax he had also granted him by the Lay-fee viz. the Tenth penny of their movables to be paid in two years time If any one be desirous to certifie himself whaâ Relation Scotland stood in towards England foâ many ages before let him read through the Relation of this years actions in Fabian's Chronicle and there he may be satisfied if it will conduce to his satisfaction to find that Scotland even in Elder times in a sort depended on England and waâ so far from giving Laws or an Example and Patern thereto that it's Nobles were fain to submit themselves to the King of England's Judgmenâ and decree and do him Homage and Fealty in effecâ by the submission of their King whom King Edward had appointed and set over them Memoâable is the six and twentieth year for that thereân the Londoners obtain'd of King Edward newây come from beyond Sea into England and so to Winchester a grant of their Liberties and Franchises which had in some part been kept from them by âhe term of twelve years and more so that they âgain chose a Major of themselves whereas in âhe aforesaid time their Custos or Guardian was appointed by the King or by such as the King would assign But we are to understand by the Chronicle that this was not redeem'd without a great Sum of money Some Writers it seems fixing it at three thousand marks As this King had many Wars especially with Scotland which put him to great charges and had much money granted him by his Subjects so he ceased not to devise other ways to raise more and get what was denied him For as much as divers men âichly benefic'd in the Land refus'd to aid him with their Goods as others had and for that end had purchased from the Pope an Inhibition that they and their goods should be free from the King's Taxes he put them this year out of his protection a strain of State policy beyond some other Kings and seis'd their Temporalties permitting them to enjoy their Spiritualties till they agreed with him Though this was a warlike Prince and oft successful in his undertakings yet the Clergy's power so over-top't the Laity's that he chose rather to make use of his Wits than his Arms in dealing with them So have I read in William the Second's days how when his Unkle being both a Bishop and an Earl grew troublesome to him he seis'd upon the Earl and clapt him in hold whereby he caught and revenged himself on the Bishop too without openly pretending to meddle with a Clergy Man An offence esteem'd piacular in those days to such an height of Pride were the Popish Clergy grown An other practice of King Edward was his suddain Condemning certain Coines of Mony call'd Pollards Crocardes and Rosaries in his twenty seventh year and causing them to be brought to a new Coynage to his great advantage as testifies the Historian Among others may be also numbred that Inquisition he caus'd to be made throughout the Land in the twenty eighth year which was after nam'd Trailbaston This we find made upon Officers as Majors Sheriffs Bayliffs Escheators and many others who had misborn themselves in their Offices and had us'd Extortion or treated the people otherwise than was according to the order of their Offices So vigilant appeared this Prince and careful of his people that they might not be abused nor oppressed by their fellow Subjects when got into power under pretence of being his Majesties Officers a thing we know common enough in the world In the twenty eighth year we have mention made of the City of London's Splendor and Magnificence upon the account of their receiving the new Queen Margaret Sister to the French King Thus runs my Authors short Relation hereof The Citizens to the number of six hundred Rode in one Livery of Red and White with the Cognizance of divers Misteries broidered upon their sleeves and received her four Miles without the City and so conveyed her through the City which then was garnished and hanged with Tapestry and Arras and other Cloths of Silk and Riches in most goodly wise unto Westminster This is the year wherein Fabian makes the first mention of Pierce of Gaviston in his Chronicle upon Occasion of the Bishop of Chesters complaining to the King of him his Eldest Son Edward and others for breaking the Bishops Park and riotously destroying the Game therein For this was the aforesaid Edward and his Accomplices Imprisoned So that under this famous King the very next Heir apparent scap'd not the Lash of the Law when he had offended even to an actual Imprisonment so far were men in those days from asserting him to be above the Law and not Lyable to condign punishment because the next Heir Afterwards the King Banished the aforesaid Gaviston out of England for fear lest he should debauch his Son But this Banishment was after his death annulled by his Son Edward when King to the great trouble and vexation of the Land afterwards The twenty ninth may be esteemed not unworthy of remark for the Kings giving to Edward his Son the Principality of Wales whereunto he likewis'd joyn'd the Earldom of Cornwal newly Vacant and return'd to the Crown In the 33d year we read of the taking arraigning drawing hanging and quartering of William Waleys who of an unknown
low birth became the head Leader of the Scots against the Kings Power and had Created him no little trouble in Scotland but now in revenge was his head set upon London-Bridge and his four quarters sent into Scotland to be set upon the Gates of some Towns in that Land About this time we hear likewise of several Nobles of Scotland coming to the Kings Parliament at Westminster and there voluntarily Sworn in the Presence of the King and his Lords to be true to the King of England and to keep the said Land to his use against all other Persons Among these is named Robert le Bruce who not long after sends to the Pope for a dispensation of his Oath raises more Commotions in Scotland and gets to be Crowned King thereof at Saint Johnstons Anno Thirty four But when King Edward had overthrown the Scots Army and taken many of the Nobles he sent the Bishop of Saint Andrews and Bastoon with the Abbot of Scoon to the Pope with report of their Perjury and how they were taken Armed in the field to shed the blood of Christian men And the Temporal Lords he sent into England to the Tower of London who were afterwards Arraigned at London and put to death and their Heads set upon London-Bridge The longest Sword carries away the Bell. If the Scots had prevail'd in the like sort against King Edward it 's a question whether they would not have done much after the same manner How would they have then vaunted themselves and their Cause for the most rightful whereas being Conquer'd they suffer'd as Rebels That the weakest goes to the Wall is a known saying Yet as strong powerful and succesful as this King Edward was we find he cared not to meddle himself with the Spiritual Lords taken in the field fighting against him but rather chose publikely to send them to the Pope with an high offence laid to their charge to be punished at his pleasure Whereby we may presume he gratified the Popes Ambition in making him as it were the sole Judge of their offences and yet thereby doubtless sufficiently secur'd himself against those men of the Church his late Enemies for the future Could the Pope in Civility and Gratitude refuse to revenge the King in punishing these Clergy-men for fighting against him who had thus highly mounted the power and Authority of the Triple Crown above his own in this matter to the publick view of the world If the Popish Clergy in those times were grown so formidable that this Triumphant King in the midst of his Victorious Arms thought it safer to remit these Clergy-men's offences to the Popes Correction than punish them himself for I think it was policy more than zeal that made him act thus what weak matches were the other Puny Princes to them in those days of their worldly Prosperity Pomp and Grandeur Now their wings are pretty well clipt by the escape of so many people Nations and Countries out of this Popish House of Bondage let Crowned Heads and free States be careful that they suffer not the Popes wings to grow again or permit their Sworn Vassals the Jesuits to imp them anew with fresh Feathers lest they mount up again over their heads to their Ancient greatness or take a flight higher than ever they did Now the French King through the base connivance of some others Treachery and many great Mens careless negligence is become Europe's Terror if Popish Plots and designs should ânce so far take effect as treacherously to deârive our present King of his life and Crown and ântroduce a Popish Successor into the English Throne how far they might in time proceed towards the extirpation of that pestilent Northern Heresy as Mr. Coleman out of his Extraordinary âândness to the Religion from which he himself âpostaliz'd has been pleased to term the Protestant Religion oât of these parts of the world I submit âo the better Judgments of more able Politicians Hast we now hence from this Edward the first who died in the five and thirtieth year of his Reign after a charge given to his Son in divers points upon his blessing and Oaths taken of some of his chief Nobles to keep the Land for his Sons use and to Crown him King as soon as they conveniently could after his death at Burgh upon the Sands beyond Carlile in his return into England unto Edward the Second where I could find matter enough to exercise my Pen were I minded to describe all the disorders and troubles that hapned throughout the Land under his unprosperous Reign We need not wonder that this Prince met with so unhappy a fate at his End when as we find him at the very beginning immediately transgressing his dead Fathers commands by recalling Gaveston from his Banishment contrary to his Father's charge on his Death Bed he entailing his curse on him if he should presume it as Stow tells us governing himself wholly by his advice affecting him so much as to affirm that he should succeed him in the Kingdom if he could effect it If I should endeavour perfectly to delineate thâ many Crosses Losses Battails and Bloodshed thaâ fell out in the Land under this King and to Writâ in a stile and manner suitable to the matter â know not but I might well dip my Pen in Blooâ instead of Ink such were the misfortunes of thâ Land and unfortunate fates of many Noblemeâ thereof For in his Reign there were Beheaded anâ put to death by Judgment upon the number of eighâ and twenty Barons and Knights as Fabian Coâputes besides the Noble men slain in Scotland The number whereof one Author expresses to â mount to two and forty besides sixty and sevââ Knights and Barronets and two and twenty ãâã over that of name taken in that one Battel of Bannocksborn Unsteadfastness of manners and vileness of Conditions the refusing the Company of Lords and men of honour and haunting the Society of Villains and vile Persons The being given to great drinking and lightly discovering therein things of great Counsel with many other disallowable Conditions related by Historians were blots in this Kings Scutcheon Scarce was old Edwards Obsequies fully finished according to my Author but the young King sends in all hast for his old Companion Piers of Gaveston receiving him with all joy and gladness and advances him to much honour gives him the Earldom of Cornwal and Lordship of Wallingford rules all by his wanton Councel and follows the appetite and pleasure of his body not guiding things by order of Law or Justice Then he Revenges himself and his favourite Gaveston on the Bishop of Chester who had before complained of them and their Outrages in his Fathers Reign by commanding him to the Tower of London and keeping him there strictly many days after When by the means motions and words of many potent Lords of the Realm Gaveston was again sent out of the Land though contrary to the King's pleasure and banish'd
into Ireland Yet thither we hear of the Kings sending him oftentimes secret Messengers and comsorting him with many rich gifts and the next year we read of his being fetch'd home again to still the grudges springing up between the King and his Nobles and continue amity amongst them which prov'd but so much the more mischievous to the Realm For this exorbitant Favourite's power more and more encreasing he having the keeping of the Kings Treasure and Jewels convey'd many of them some of great value out of the Land and brought the King by means of his wanton Conditions to manifold Vices as Adultery and others whereupon by the Lords Counsel and Resolution taken at Lincoln he was shortly after exil'd into Flanders to the Kings great displeasure In comes Gaveston again though he had before abjur'd the Realm with this condition by the Barons added that if he were found again in any Lands subject to the King's dominions he should be taken as a Common Enemy and Condemned But being recall'd by the King he ventures on his favour and afterwards demeans himself worse and worse In so much that we read that he disdain'd the Lords of England and of them had many spiteful and slanderous words so that there 's the less wonder that the Queen and the whole Court were sorrowful because they saw the King as Stow words it not very sound so great was his Joy and Jollity for his receiving him in safety Whereupon the Lords of one mind saith my Author consented to put him to death which they soon after effected by taking the Castle wherein he was and so having him in their hands smote off his Head For this was the King grievously displeas'd with those Lords and vow'd we hear to revenge his Death so that after this he sought occasion against them to grieve and displease them If the foremention'd disorders with many before express'd by Authentick Writers to have fallen out under this King If Treachery Robberies Rapes Extortions Divisions Civil discords at home slights contempts and losses abroad and much blood-shed in Battels fought and lost both at home and abroad If murrain of Beasts and scarcity of Grain dearness of Victuals sickness and mortality of Men ravages and outrages of cruel insulting Enemies and almost a general desolation in several places of the Land be glories that can eternize a Man's memory to succeeding Generations I know not whether this Kings Name and Reign may ever be forgotten as long as England stands a fixt Island in the midst of the Ocean In the midst of these troubles and crosses you are not to suppose the City of London scap't free from partaking in the Common misery of the Land In the first of this King's Reign I find that he and his new Married Bride were received joyfully by the Citizens and so conveyed to Westminster but the times afterwards grew so cloudy and full of storms that I don't think they had over much reason to rejoyce more than the rest of their poor distressed fellow Subjects Yet Providence in good time delivered the City out of these troubles and with advantage too as may be observed and remark't in the end of this and beginning of the next Kings Reign Twice more particularly in this Kings Reign do we read of a breach made on the Cities Priviledges by constraining the Citizens at their own charges to raise and maintain a certain number of Soldiers and send them whether they were appointed but the last time it seems it was conditionally that it should not be made a President which possibly was to appease them when they refused to go out of the City to fight unless they might according to their liberties as Stow says return home again the same day before Sun-set For 't is plain how great soever their respect was towards their Soveraign that they had no great kindness for some about him And therefore when aid and assistance was requested of them against the Queen who with her Son Edward was newly Landed and pretended Reformation of abuses they made this plea or excuse as favouring rather Reformers than makers of Grievances yet with profession of due obedience and Honour to the King the Queen and their Son who was after his Father the Right and Lawful Heir to the Crown At the Parliament of Whitebands held in the twefth of this King whether the Barons came in Arms the Citizens were the Keepers of the Kings peace in the City a thousand of them well Armed by the Majors order watching by day and as many by night in divers Wards and at several Gates thereof under the inspection of two Aldermen with Officers assigned to Ride about every night to oversee them and the rest of the Citizens were enjoyned to have their Arms in readiness upon a very short warning for more surety And what pray now was the effect of all this but that the peace was kept the City guarded it and no disturbance hapned that I read of notwithstanding there was so great an Army then on foot Ill men were removed several things were ordained for the good of the Realm Transactions were carried on without violence or blood-shed the Parliament was peaceably dissolved and every one returned home in quietness safety and security But on the contrary afterwards in the later end of this Kings Reign when the Courtiers were much disgusted in the City by reason of many violences committed and much harsh dealing used by some towards their fellow Subjects in the time of their power under the wings of Authority and pretence of Law and Justice the Citizens were so far from keeping the King's peace as before that they soon shew'd openly their favour good will and kindness for the Queen who under the glozing pretence of reforming the ill Government was come into the Land with a considerable force of Soldiers and had sent to the Mayor and Commonalty for their aid help and assistance in carrying on this her pretended Reformation A work generally highly acceptable to all such as think themselves oppressed and glorious in the Eyes of the people but such is the misery fate and infelicity the frailty and imperfection incident to all sublunary attempts that it very seldom if ever fully answers the expectation of every one concern'd Neither was the Citizens affection to the Queen and her Party barely shewn in words and expressions but it went much farther and was publickly brought into Act by beheading such as they took to be the Queens enemies not so much as sparing the Bishop of Exeter himself a great man among the spiritualty who had been there left by the King to have the Rule of the City in his absence The occasion is said to have sprung from his stiff and peremptory demanding of the Keys of the City Gates by vertue of his Commission which highly exasperated the Commons against him and so much the more because as was the saying he had rais'd an Army to withstand the Queen a fault
deluded though besides the affections and contrary to the inclination of the rest of the Nation could he but have prevailed upon the Londoners by threats or fair words to have sided with him But their opposition quite spoil'd the Game and kept the Duke off the Cushion a Duke stil so Tryumphant were they in Power Prudence and Loyalty Wherefore to satisfie his restless reven geful Spirit the Duke ceas'd not till he had got the old Major put out and a new one Elected the Aldermen depos'd and others set in their places So little did their late Complicance and humble Procession avail them while the Commonalty remain stiff firm and unshaken as well by the Dukes power and greatness as by his Threats and Menaces He had gain'd a great Ascendent over the weak Kings affections but yet for all that could not sway this Honourable City to his Interests and the Interest of his then prevalent Faction at Court The Citizens Loyalty is plainly shewn beyond denial in Couragiously adhering to the Juster claim and Title of the abus'd Nephew and preferring his Birthright before the Pretensions of his Uncle who Ruling the King and those about him thought also to have over-rul'd the City too Their Prudence is manifest in that they wisely chose to yield many things to the times for peace sake but when neck and all was in danger they would not budg a foot nor stir one step further to humour all the Dukes in Kent or Christendom Neither is their power less conspicuous who not only dar'd but did oppose this high minded Duke in the Days of his Visible Grandeur and prov'd a match by far too hard for him For in a short time comes the News of the Old Kings ââing at the point of Death and presently we have the Londoners sending the chiefest and worthiest of their Citizens to the young Prince and his Mother then Resident not far from the City declaring their ready minds and good wills to accept him for their true and Lawful King upon âis Grand-Fathers Decease beseeching him on the behalf of the Citizens and City of London that he would have the City Recommended to his good Grace submitting themselves only to âis Rule and bowing to his Will and Pleasure ânder his Dominion to serve in Word and Deed as being known to be so much at his Devotion as not only ready to spend their Goods and Eââates for his sake but also to jeopard their lives ân his behalf as Stow expresses it in John Philââts Oration in the beginning of the life and Reign of King Richard the second who was thus âo undeniably setled in the Throne of his Fore-âathers by the Cities apparent interest and viâible influence upon the Councels of the Nation in that great turn and change of affairs The Cities power seems plainly demonstrated give me therefore leave to bring one instance more of their wisdom caution and prudence in these dangerous because unsetled times before I pass ân to other particulars The young King being âhus entred upon the Government it was thought good by the King or those about him to have âome care taken to accommodate former differences especially such as had hapned between this potent Duke and the more powerful City Wherefore several persons of Eminency were speedily sent to London to salute the Citizens in the new King's name and acquaint them how the Duke in all things had submitted himself to the Kings will 't was time for 't is certain he had lost the day though not perhaps his high-tow'ring Ambition and that they should do so in like manner and then the King would endeavour a Reconciliation to the City's honour and advantage Fair words and large promises But the worthy Citizens were not Birds to be caught with chaff much less to be hamper'd in a Noose of their own making They were for no Resignations it seems at Discretion though to the dearest Friend alive They knew the King to be but young and weak to help them in such a troublesome business if they should so heedlesly desert their own Cause and put the staff out of their own hands by their own Consent They had enemies enough still they might think at Court as long as the Duke was there and his flattering favourites who might possibly over-rule at least if not over-aw the King to their prejudice should they render all they had at pleasure into his hand by their own voluntary Act and Deed when as they knew themselves well able to defend their liberties and properties in a legal way without hazarding them upon so intire a submission as was required without Reserve Wherefore upon consultation this Medium was at length found out that if the noble persons sent to them with that message would be bound to the Citizens that their submission should not redound to the temporal loss or bodily harm of any Citizen or prejudice of their City they would gladly obey the King's Commandment This those eminent persons of quality undertook by Oath and upon their Knighthood And so upon this surety away go the Citizens to Court and being soon brought before the King besought him as the Annalist words it to reform the peace betwixt the Duke and them affirming that they were ready in all things to submit themselves unto his will and pleasure not as though they confessed they had made any fault against the Duke consider this but as men that came at this time for the benefit of peace and honour as well to the King as the Duke to pacifie the hearts and mitigate the pleasure of both That this was their intent is evident enough from their own request before made to the King that he would vouchsafe to make a good and profitable end of this discord For that they fear'd not the Duke is most certain from the precedent passages and that they were all of a suddain fallen deeply in love with him and his party I can hardly believe No no They love the Nephew too well to dote upon the Uncle and may they always be so minded upon a good account The Citizens having thus prudently though we see not without great caution referr'd themselves to the King the Duke readily accepted of this form of peace as not hoping possibly for such an other opportunity nor expecting so honourable Conditions a second time if refus'd the first and upon his knees became Intercessor to the King to take the cause in hand under the form by the Londoners expressed and so a Reconciliation was made between these two contesting Parties the Duke with an Oath promising them his friendship for the future and in token thereof bestowing a kiss of peace upon each of them before the King at the same time Whereupon the Citizens return'd home with joy and gladness rejoycing that the Duke was brought to such humility who a little before had in great Pride demanded of them for his favour an hundred Hogsheads of Wine and an infinite number of precious
Stones So great a value did this high-flown Duke set upon his grace and favour till the Citizens of this honourable City by their power and prudence had brought down his haughty spirit a Peg or two lower and that visibly too For we don't find him as ambitious as he still continued so openly aspiring to Englands Crown for the future how successfully soever his Son made a Rape thereon at the end of this Princes Reign under the pretence of I know not what hidden right accruing to him from his Mother We read indeed I confess in Cotton's Abridgment of the Records that in the seventeenth of this King the Earl of Arundel laid several things to the Dukes charge as not honourable for the King to suffer in him nor fit for him to do being a Subject as that he went Arm in Arm with the King and his Men wear the same Livery the Kings did which seems to shew much of Arrogancy and Ambition to say no more besides some other Objections but herein he was so far justified by the King himself that the Earl was ordered to crave the Dukes Pardon in full Parliament in a certain form of words appointed him In Stows Annals also we meet with an Accusation brought against him in the seventh of this Kings Reign tending to prove his intent and design suddainly to oppress the King and take upon himself the Kingdom but it seems little notice was taken of it by the King himself who was to have lost most had it been attempted Successfully and doubtless as little believ'd otherwise surely the Schedule containing the time place and other Circumstances had not been presently delivered into the Dukes hands nor the accuser committed at his request to the charge of his near Kinsman nor the occasion of his violent Death so little inquired into afterwards The Duke was not so powerful nor so great a Terror but the City was as well able still to deal with him and his whole party and make as vigorous opposition as ever in defence of their Soveraign Lord the King if occasion should have offered it self This we have reason to believe was known in those days to all the Nation much more to the Duke himself from former experience who therefore may be suppos'd not any more to have aspir'd openly whatever secret fires of Ambition lay hidden within his breast whether or no he design'd and attempted ought by unseen Plots and Conspiracies I leave to the Judicious Reader to believe or not as he pleases without speaking to or for in the case Besides the decree of an over-ruling Providence Common equity in siding with what was reputed the juster title natural humanity in defending the young and weak and a well grounded affection to the Prince for his Father and Grand-Fathers sake one the famous Black Prince the other the Glorious Edward the third their King and Sovereign we may conclude the generality of the Citizens had the greater aversion to the Duke and his faction because he was a known favourer of Wickliff and his Doctrines whether on a good account or only out of any Ambitious Design I shall not determine in this place and so look't upon perhaps as little better than another Juliân the Apostate For we are to know that Londons Religion and consequently the Nations was at that time Popish and the generality of the People in Town and Country Romes Votaries who had Wickliffs Doctrine in as great detestation then under the Notion of Heresy as we Protestants have it now in esteem under the Seal and assurance of Truth As indeed for many of the ages past from our ever-blessed Saviours Birth through which I have drawn the thread of this discourse and under the succeeding Kings for above an hundred years Popery continued the National Religion under the power and prevalency of which perswasion was the body of the Citizens bred up who prov'd so famous in their Generations for their powerful influence on the grand concerns of the Nation in every considerable turn and change of the times before the Reformation And when England was made happy with this blessed alteration the Cities Power Strength and Esteem remain'd the same in effect as ever the change of her Religion introducing no change therein unless for the better she encreasing proportionably in every age in Wealth Riches and Honour as the Nation grew stronger and stronger And still continues as visibly conspicuous under Protestantism as before under the Romish Faith a thing easy to be demonstrated in due time and place How influential the Cities actions were upon the Nations affairs and her Love advantagious to the Orphan Prince in securing his Claim Right and Title to the Crown in his Grand-Fathers life time and setling him quietly on the Throne at his Death in spight of all the opposition the deep designs and daring Spirit of his Aspiring Uncle John of Gaunt and his faction could make when they had got the reigns of publick Government into their own hands through the Old Kings Connivance hath been the subject of several of the aforegoing pages The next thing of course falling under present consideration is to observe how this Honourable City of London behav'd her self after she had lent her âssistance to raise this Young Prince from the âeanness of a Subject to the Royal Dignity and Grandeur of a King under the Name of Richard the Second what place she held in his affections ând of what esteem in the eyes of all the rest of âhe people But where shall I begin and when âhall I end Sooner may I be wearied with readâng and tir'd with writing than fail of matter âo exercise my Pen so copious is my Subject and âo full of Variety For in my searches into the Histories of this Kings Reign I find it plain to a âemonstration that the City carried a great sway âmongst all Ranks and Degrees from the Prince âo the Subject from the King the Supream to âis subordinate Magistrates and Ministers and was highly Honour'd Rever'd and Respected âmong the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty âf the Land both in the calm of peace and the âoisterous storms of civil distractions I begin first with the Honourable House of Commons the known representative of the Commons of England and concerning them obâerve out of Sir Robert Cotton's exact Abridgment of the Records in the Tower revis'd by William Prynne Esq that in the first Parliament of this King in his first year among other Petitions of the Commons there is to be found one particular division under the Title of Petitions for the City of London wherein the House of Commons become express Petitioners so great was the Cities influence over their Debates and so high a respect had they for her to the King for many considerable Grants in favour of the Citizens and to them very advantagious and beneficial As that all their Liberties may be confirm'd with a Non obstante That they attend upon no Commandment
there mentioned be utterly remov'd against a short time particularliz'd That the Butchers of London build convenient Houses to hold whatsoever they had noisome in their Calling thence in due time to be carried in Boats into the middle of the Thames at high-water there to be cast at it's beginning to Ebb so to be born away with the Tide And that no Rubbish or the like be cast into Thames between Westminster and the Tower on a considerable forfeiture Small slight trivial matters some may haply think these to be and not worth perhaps a remark Yet to me it seems a manifest sign of the Citizens care and esteem the House of Commons respect for them and the influence the City had upon their debates that they shew'd themselves so willing and ready at all times to take into more especial consideration the slightest and minutest things so it came recommended to them from the City of London or appeared in their Eyes advantagious to her Inhabitants And that these had an equal share in making Laws with the Lords or even with the King himself is as evident as the shining of the Sun in a hot Summers-day From the Commons let us pass to the King and Lords joyntly consider'd For the esteem the Lords had for the City when lookt upon as single in themselves and not expresly united with the King may best be shewn either when we come to touch upon the Civil distractions of these times whereof the whole Nation were partakers or the more immediate afflictions of the City in particular as some we may be sure they had in a General Delâge of miseries my Subject being as yet principally of Proceedings and Transactions carried on in a Parliamentary way that is or ought to be in meekness and calmness What I have chiefly to observe here is in plain words out of the Abridgment of the Records Relating to the Parliament of the seventeenth of this King where we read it enacted that it is not the Kings meaning or intent nor meaning of the Statute made in the twenty eighth of Edward the third touching Errors and misprisions in the City of London that the Mayors Sheriffs and Aldermen of London that now are heretofore have been or hereafter shall be should incur or bear the pain contained in the said Statute for any erroneous Judgment given or to be given in the said City This is one of the three Acts there noted to be enacted by the King by the assent of the Lords only And therefore makes good my assertion of the respect shewn the City by the King and Lords as may be made to appear more obvious by giving the Reader the substance of the forecited Statute still to be seen among the Printed Statutes in the twenty eighth of Edward the third Chapter tenth where we find it ordain'd and established that the Mayor Sheriffs and Aldermen which have the Governance of the City of London shall cause to be redressed and corrected the defaults errors and misprisions above named and the same duly punish from time to time upon a certain Pain That is to say at the first default a thousand Marks to the King and at the second default two thousand Marks and at the third default that the Franchise and Liberty of the City be taken into the Kings hand And it is likewise enacted that enquiries shall be made of these defaults by Enquests of people of these Forreign Counties Kent Essex Sussex Hertford Buckingham and Berks And the receiving and execution of the Writs as well Originals as Judicials is committed to the Constable of the Tower or his Lieutenant in place of the Sheriffs of London so runs the Statute Whence occasion might seem likely enough to be taken one time or other by the Cities designing adversaries to Hector the Mayor Sheriffs and Aldermen into compliance by threatning to sue that Act upon them or opportunity given to treacherous friends foster'd within her Walls bred up under the shadow of her wings rais'd and enrich'd through the benefit of her Franchises and Priviledges and crept into Authority by the overflowings of her favour for a lick or two at the publick hony-pot wilfully to incur the forfeitures that her Liberties might be seiz'd and her good old Charter as far as in them lies wholly lost But such an Honourable respect had both the King and his Nobles at that season for this most deserving City and so glorious appear'd she in their Eyes that they seem in a manner resolv'd as well as highly desirous according to their power to prevent the very possibility of such ill consequences by this favourable interpretation that after-ages might not rue for the oversights of former times if they could help it For this rather looks like an explanation of the Statute than a Repeal an Act Declaratory of their good Will and intentions more than a result of the whole Legislative power of the Nation here being only the King and his Lords assent mention'd and not a word of the Commons And yet possibly this Declaration may amount to little less than a vertual tho not a formal repeal if it be joyntly consider'd with what hath been before related in the seventh of this Kings Reign concerning the Clause licet usi non fuerunt vel abusi fuerunt notwithstanding any Statute to the contrary to be found enacted among the Commons Petitions of that year in favour of the Cities Liberties So that upon this account we find Authority in every part of it concurring in the point And that it was in favour of the City in General as well as in behalf of particular persons is plain from the sense and substance of the original Statute and the consequential adjuncts thereto belonging But if any one shall think this conclusion will not clearly follow from the premises I don't think but I am able to prove it undeniably as to the part at least of several of the Lords from Statute Law As strong an assurance as we English-men can expect as being the boundary of our Lives and Liberties and giving us the security of all we enjoy or can properly call our own The Statute is to be found in the first of Henry the fourth Chapter 15th where after a recital of the before-mention'd Statute of 28 Edward 3. though through a mistake or misprint it is said there to to be made in the seven and twentieth year we find as follows Our Lord the King considering the good and lawful behaviour of the Mayor Sheriffs and Aldermen and all the Commonalty of the City of London towards him and therefore willing to ease and mitigate the Penalty aforesaid by the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and of the Commons aforesaid hath ordained and established that the penalty aforesaid as well of the thousand Marks and of the two thousand Marks and of the Seisure of the Franchises comprised in the same Statute shall not be limited in a certainty but that the Penalty
esteemed most amiable and counted highly powerful since she is to be admired for the goodness and greatness under which comprehend the large Riches Power and Spirit of particular Citizens incorporated into Her For the first let me instance in the commendable diligence of her Mayor Adam Baume who upon a very great scarcity of Corn in the fifteenth of this King providently took care to have Corn brought to Lââdon from forreign Parts to the relief of the whole Realm and add hereunto the Charity of the Aldermen who for the furtherance of so good a Work laid out each of them a sum of mony in those days very considerable to the same purpose and bestow'd the Corn thus procur'd in convenient places where the Poor might buy at an appointed price and such as had no ready mony upon Surety to pay the year following besides the common Act of the Mayor and Citizens in taking two thousand Marks out of the Orphans Chest in Guildhall for the same intent In Proof of the later viz. The Greatness Riches Power and Spirit of particular Citizens I challenge all the Cities in the world besides to shew me such another Example as that of John Philpot Citizen of London the Citizens Orator to this King in the beginning of his Reign who in the second year observing the young Kings inability the Nobles neglect and the oppressions of the poor Commons voluntarily hir'd Souldiers with his own mony rig'd out a Fleet at his own charge and hazarded his own Person to defend the Realm from Pirates Robbers and incursions of Enemies and therewith successfully took in a little time Mercer the Scot with all his Ships which he had before violently taken from Scarborow and fifteen Spanish Ships besides laden with much Riches which came to his Aid Can Rome her self shew me a like Parallel As for the Fabij they were a whole Family among the Patricians and Crassus himself a great Magistrate in the heigth of that Common-wealths Grandeur amidst Equals and Inferiors whereas this publick-spirited Person liv'd still a Subject under a limited Monarchy none of the greatest nor the strongest then in the World This noble Act some would have thought should have deserved great praise and commendation and so it had among the Common People but among the great Lords and Earls it met with Reproach and Detraction as being a manifest reproof of their carelesness and negligence and he himself was endanger'd thereby they speaking openly against it as done unlawfully without the Councel of the King and his Realm though his design could not be denyed to have been very honest in the general Had he suffered for that unpresidented Act because it was deficient in some formalities required by Law the Statesmen of the times therein instrumental without all peradventure had appeared as odious in the Eyes of the Commons as some of the chief Episcopal Clergy-men in a Protestant Country within the Memory of Man would have made themselves obnoxious to the Peoples Censure should they have publickly burnt Vindiciae Pietatis i. e. a Vindication of Godliness from the imputation of folly and fancy which I have heard intimated as if thought of because it wanted such an Imprimatur as the Law demanded and was writ possibly by an Author not altogether Episcopal in his declared Judgment But to pass on If such were the superemient and supererogating Acts of particular Citizens so many Ages ago to what an height of Wealth Greatness and splendor must we needs think the City to have arriv'd at this day some Centuries of years since that time If ten thousand Pounds was a Mayors Estate heretofore we may give a shrew'd guess at the Cities advancement and encrease in Riches since now that the same is made the limited sum for the Citizens to swear themselves not worth who desire to avoid the chargeable Honour and Honourable charge of the Shrievalry Nay to go a step or two further now adays we find her Sheriffs Revenue commonly reputed at double the value and others of her Citizens thought able to number their thousands by scores What if I had also added that some are esteem'd so wealthy as not to know an end of their Riches Certainly such if any must needs come under the denomination of men vastly rich in worldly goods So that this glorious and Triumphant City seems in many things able to vy with if not out-vy the Quondam Mistress of the World Rome her self She exceeds her in Antiquity as being founded in Fabian's Compute above four hundred years before her and hath this advantage of her now that whereas Rome is confest and acknowledged to be in the wane of her power and Greatness both as to her Civil and Ecclesiastical Authority London still continues on the rising hand Rome 't is visible hath suffer'd a considerable diminution as to her former extent and Jurisdiction in both capacities whether she be lookt upon as once head of the world or now pretended head of the Church but London plainly appears to be dayly getting ground both in Fame and Reputation as well as building And whereto she may come in time belongs to a Prophet not an Historian to declare She is already become the Fam'd Metropolis of this our little World and Rome was but Empress in a greater Neither was she anear so influential over the greatest part of that how much soever thereof she had under her Dominion as London is known to be at present over all ours Having thus shewn the influence this Honourable City had upon the Commons of this Land in Peace and amidst tumultuous disorders and the great respect both King and Nobles in Conjunction had for her I should now proceed to disengage my self of an obligation I presume lying on me from part of a promise before made to declare the esteem the Lords when singly consider'd had of her strength and power But before I pass on more immediately thereto I crave leave to observe the great variety and difference in Parliamentary transactions and proceedings under this King within the compass of whose Reign we find but two years on Record viz the nineteenth and twenty second wherein there was not a Parliament called and assembled in one place or other by his Authority sometimes oftner and so those Acts of Edward the third were exactly kept for eighteen years running wherein it is ordained and established that a Parliament shall be holden once every year and more often if need be which being omitted but one year in twenty one and not observed in the twenty second we may easily think it prov'd fatal to the unfortunate King that in the next Parliament he should be depos'd by his own Subjects and the Crown set upon anothers head And is it any wonder to see things so injurious and unjust sometimes done in National Assemblies when in a vein of contradiction they make Ordinances so diametrically opposite each to other as was done in this Kings time For we find parties
mutually clashing in publick and what was ordain'd in one Parliament for the Commons good as was then pretended by an other repealed in favour of the other side former Laws Annull'd Pardons revok't Grants recall'd and new punishments inflicted for oâd offences And yet in an other Revolution within a very small space of time the last Parliaments Acts were casher'd and thrown out of doors to make room for the revival and Establishing the Elder Parliament Statutes Such changes were then Rung and so much contesting between Priviledge and Prerogative as if the differences were whâlly and altogether irreconcilable or at least made to seem so by some mens poliâies the better to carry on their own more particular Intreagues And therefore when fair words were fear'd not likely to prevail Arms were prepar'd to force and there was danger oâ hâving Swords drawn Bows bended and Arrows shot for the promoting the designs on foot But of all Statutes Acts Ordinances Laws and Grants most memorable and observable is the Petition of the Commons and the Answer thereto given in the Parliament begun at Westminster April 25th in the second of this Kings Reign The Petition is to be seen among the Commons Petitions in Cottons Abridgment of the Records in the Tower so often mention'd and Printed 1657. pag. 169. Tit. 28. in these words That Answer reasonably may be given to all their Petitions now or hereafter to be moved and that Statutes be thereupon made before departure of every Parliament The Answer hereto runs thus such Bills as Remedy cannot otherwise be had but in Parliament reasonable Answer shall be thereto made before such Departure Now we are to understand that Petitions in the old are Bills according to the new Stile which in this Parliament were thus ordained to be produc'd at least for the Royal Assent if not to be passed formerly into Laws So that if the Houses were so minded by straining this grant to its utmost bounds though perhaps further than was design'd at the first 't was no hard matter for them to sit e'n as long in a manner as they pleas'd and the old King of late Memory his present Majesty's Royal Father may hereby very easily be vindicated from the Censures of those undutiful Subjects who pretend to blame his conduct and Arraign if not condemn his Judgment for passing the continuing Act in the Parliament of forty whereby he more plainly and immediately put the dissolution thereof out of his own hands whereas before he had been haply lyable to have been trickt out of it with greater affront to his Prerogative by the quirks that nimble wits would have been apt enough at that conjuncture to have started out of this Grant For what would not they have attempted in that posture of affairs who actually did so much afterwards by the noise of an Ordinance a term new to the vulgar but weil enough known though possibly never in that use and extent before to the Learned Lawyers who can easily inform the Questionist out of the Records in the Tower that in the thirty seventh of Edward the third they met with the name and nature in a demand of the Chancellors to the whole Estates whether they would have such things as they agreed on to be by way of Ordinance or of Statute and in the Answer thereto made by way of Ordinance with this reason then and there given that they might amend the same at their pleasure If we wonder at this grant which seems to trail after it such inconveniencies to the Regal Power as were before hinted or at least might be made an Inlet to pretences as prejudicial to the Royal Prerogative we are to understand that this was obtain'd in the Kings Nonage though not perhaps in times absolutely factious for I don't read but that things were carried then calmly and quietly enough But when the King came to full Age then we may observe that he or his bosome Favourites were not well pleased with this or other Grants that confined the Regal Power within stricter Boundaries than their own desires peâmitted them to like and therefore there was striving amain to remove the ancient Landmarks and the Court effected it at last for a short space but with so ill an event that the issue proved as fatal to the King himself as thâs counterplottings had been dâstructive to many others before People hereupon may say what they think fit and pass their Verdicts as they please But can any blame that mans Will and Desire to disintangle himself from Fetters and Chains who thinks himself born free and so would fain live according to his own pleasure and good liking 'T is his Judgment rather that is to be quessioned when it suggests to him that he may command and ought to be obeyed in such things where no obedience was before due by nature or consent and the goodness of his Intellectuals are liable to be doubted of when they make him to fancy he may be absolute where known Laws and long continued Custom hath authoriz'd the contrary Such seems to have been Englands Case of old where the Subjects have oft put on Arms to prevent encroachments upon their dearly belov'd and many times deaâly bought Liberties And such the Nations State under this King he being come to his full Age when several of the Barons headed by the Duke of Glocester his Uncle thought it their main interest and concern to speak high and look big with Armour on their backs and Swords by their sides though it subjected them to much obââquy and displeasure at Court and brought themselves and all theirs into much hazard and danger But this it seems they little thought of or as little valued That the Court highly resented the actings of such as indeavoured in Parliament time to bring some oâ the Prime Favourites to Judgment âor Crimes laid to their Charge is evident in that they had laid a Plot to invite the Principal Lords to a Supper in London and there murder them as such who crossed the King's coursâs But the present Lord Mayor utterly refused to do it though mov'd thereto saith my Author by the King himself and thereupon this design miscarried But then other Rodds were laid in Lavender and contrivancâs secretly carried on to intrap and suppress the Country Lords The King calls all the High Sheriffs of the Counties before him and demands what strength they could make for him against the Lords if there should be occasion But they answered 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 Then they were commanded to take care that no Knight nor Burgess should afterwards be chosen to any Parliament but those whom the King and Council should name whereto they replied It was an hard matter in those times of Jealousy and Suspicion to deprive the People of their ancient Liberties
so far as to acquaint us that even the Duke of Lancaster John of Gaunt appeared likewise in their favour an Intercessor unto the King Whether out of respect to them or secret dislike of his Nephews proceedings forgetfulness of Londons past opposition or his desire at last to become Popular and to ingratiate himself with the Citizens whose power he had before try'd to his loss I dare not venture to resolve upon such unsure grounds as my own bare surmizes But this I presume may easily be granted me that he was then grown ancient and the burning fires of his Ambition were much âabated if not altogether quenched through forââer disappointments length of time and the visible increase of years old age growing fast upon him So that the first heats being over he might probably be inclin'd to try his fortune in foreign Countries and content himself with the titulary âonour of a King abroad now that he had long ãâã the smart of a frustrated expectation at âome London having then such powerful Friends of âame and note in the time of her adversity parâicularly exprest in History how many more may ãâã presume she had not expresly mention'd of ãâã same or somewhat inferior rank and quality âho either out of their own affection and particular respect or through the prevalency of these great Examples ingag'd themselves in the Cities interest and became Reconcilers and Repairers of her late Breaches But if the Readers candour will not yield me this not irrational supposition these doubtless in themselves are enough to make out the truth of my assertion and free me from the undesirable imputation of a vain pretender when I offer'd to shew the esteem the Lords singly consider'd in themselves had for this great and honourable City The aforementioned passages shew their good will yet all this notwithstanding somewhat else was expected at Court which the Cities Enemies mainly drove at and seem resolv'd by one means or other to compass and bring about The City was Rich in Priviledges Rich in Glory Rich in Coyn besides the Spirit and Courage of her Citizens all which conjoyn'd made her powerful at home and abroad fam'd in Foreign Countries for Trade and Commerce and highly honour'd within the Circle of the Brittish-Isle through which she was known I lanet-like to dart her over-ruling influences Among Arbitrary Designers these have been generally look't upon as Malign and therefore no wonder if at Court ill-affected Their Liberties and Priviledges are thought too great let 's then have 'em lesâened now time serves And so they were For the Londoners being Commanded to come to Windsor there to shew them and product then Charters both old and new some of them arââatified some condemn'd some restor'd others detain'd Their Glory likewise is to be made to suffer if possible a diminution in the eyes of the world and therefore almost all the Lords are gather'd together at Windsor against their coming thither and also a great Army that the people might think them terrified thereby and frighted into submission and so have the less esteem for them hereafter as such as may easily be accus'd of offences and as easily be made to undergo grievous penalties for them whoever was originally in fault These Preparations must needs occasion considerable charges but the Londoners must pay the shot if they are Covetous of peace and quietness And so they did at last to their no small expences 'T was not the Honourable Cavalcade of principal Citizens sent out in one Livery to meet and Conduct the King and Court through the City 'T was not the Triumphant Reception of him in his passage through a lane of Livery-men lowdly ecchoing forth his Name the running of Cheapside Conduit with more than one sort of Wine the adorning the Windows and Walls of the Streets with Tapistry Cloth of Gold Silver and Silk nor other gawdy shows to entertain him 'T was not the Rich and Chargeable Presents made to him and his Queen as they pass'd along or afterwards the next day the Costly Crowns and Tables of Gold Horses with their Noble Trappings Plate of Gold and Silver Cloth of Gold Silk Velvets Buttons and Ewers of Gold Gold in Coyn Precious Stones and Jewels so Rich excellent and Beautiful that the value and price was inestimable that could fully appease the Angry King or rather satisfie the ravenous Courtiers Covetuousness until they had laid down also Ten thousand pounds in ready mony And this did the feat for that time And but for that time as far as I can find For new Lords new Laws New Favourites produce new Changes and old ones being cast out of Doors they are for finding out new Crimes Pretences and Devices to empty other mens Purses and enrich themselves under the common notion of levying Fines and Amercements for the King King Richard had received Royal Gifts and Noble Presents of his truly Royal Chamber of London in the sixteenth year of his Reign Yet within less than half a dozen years space this was forgotten and quite out of memory or else so well remembred as to make some heartily desirous of more such Boons as hoping that some of Daâae's showers might descend also into their own laps These being the true Chymical Drops to restore enliven and invigorate the tir'd spirits of such hunger-starv'd Expectants And where throughout the whole British World are they to be had in greater plenty than at London And by the sequell of the story we may believe this was an approved Recipe in those days For some Informations had been given in against the Londoners which incens'd the King to such a degree that the Commonalty Fabian tells us was indicted with other Sheriffs and therefore consequently their own likewise which might have brought great damage afresh to them but that Providence then rais'd them up two Potent Friends and Favourers among the Spiritual Lords by whose advice they made an humble supplication to the King and so by their aid and assiââance with help of other Lovers of the City the Kings anger was much appeased But yet nevertheless Blank Charters were brought into the City and many of the most substantial meâ thereof forc't to seal them highly to their disadvantage which was likewise soon after put in practice in many other Counties So fatal was the Citizens Example to the rest of the Land and so little gain'd they themselves in these Conjunctures by their Submissions Resignations and other like compliances to the Court besides expence charge and much trouble and the continual fears of greater molestations for the future But when was this and how was it brought about If we trace the Serids of times and affairs a little backwards by the unerring Clue of Authentick History we shall find these transactions to bear date some years after the end of the Parliament that wrought wonders when possibly 't was almost forgot and it's Statutes by some Mens Artifices slighted through disuse and inexecution
then the Mayor and Aldermen with their Assistance took Councel together to drive him and his Adherents out of the City and oppose his further entrance thereunto The effect whereof in the Issue was that After a sharp bickering and contest upon the Bridge the Mayor and the Citizens got the better the Kentish-Men were worsted a truce for a few hours was concluded on whereof the Lord Chancellor took the Advantages by a general pardon to disperse the malecontent and Cade himself was within a little time after Slain in a Garden in Sussex So fatal was it to him by this his Robberies thus to have displeas'd the Citizens For Fabian tells us expresly that had it not been for that he might have gone far and brought his purpose to good effect if he had intended well And so Prejudicial might it have been to the Court had he not by these extravagancies forfeited that favour and respect which had before been shewn him at London to such a degree that the Commons were very highly incens'd against Alderman Horne for opposing the admission of him and his company thereinto at a Common-Councel held by the Mayor aâ Guild-Hall and speaking vehemently against such as were for his entrance and ceas'd not saith thâ Annalist till they had him committed to New-gate But now the tide is turn'd again and the King himself is joyfully received by the Citizens of that very same place from whence ere-while he thoughâ it his best security to depart As the Citizens Favour ebb'd and flow'd such was the posture of his affairs in the wane or the full so stooâ his fortune either increasing or decreasing where of here is a demonstration that no body can deny thaâ has but an Historial Faith unless he woulâ have us believe that the many Historians thââ writ hereof could joyn altogether in an unusual confederacy at several times and from several placeâ to impose a manifest falshood upon posterity An Opinion almost as absur'd pardon the compariâon though not to that degree as theirs who âs foolishly as prophanely fancy the original Penâen of the Scriptures made a mutual agreement though in several ages and from different parts of âhe Universe to obtrude those writings âpon the World for the Word of the Eternal God ãâã of I know not what design of State-Policy to keep ãâã Common People in greater aw and subjection to ââeir Governours How fair a Cast the Yorkists lately had for the âame through the City's Favour till their own ãâã management lost it we have seen But that as not all It left such a rub in their way that may be suppos'd to have spoyl'd their bowling upââ the next open adventure For in the thirtieth ãâã the Duke of York in Person having rais'd an ââmy upon disgusts and pretences and the King ââing in the Head of another to oppose Him He ãâã out of the way and eschews the Kings ãâã and hastens as fast as he could up to London ââping doubtless for assistance or recruits thence ãâã being deceived in his expectations upon notice ââen him that the Londoners would not admit his ârance to refresh himself or his People he ââightwayspasses away from London over the Thames ãâã Kent and what pray now was the event ãâã Not according to his wishes successful we may ãâ¦ã For from the History we may easily ãâã he thought it his greatest interest to come ãâã terms of accommodation with the King had ãâã such been his apprehensions doubtless he would ãâã have yielded thereto dismisses his Army and ãâã in Person into his Majesties Presence where ãâã with the Duke of Somerset he ãâã was accused of conspiring the Kings Death and usurpation of the Crown and sent before the King as a Prisoner to London where he was kept a while till upon a Report of his Sons coming with another Army towards London the Queen and Her Councel thought it convenient to set him at Liberty upon taking openly his Oath of Submission and Allegiance at the High-Altar in St. Pauls-Church before the King and great part of His Nobility To what a plunge was the Duke and his party here driven and with how many difficultyes did the King and his side likewise contest while neither of them were absolutely sure and certain of the City that she would cordially assist the one against the other York was disappointed in his Hopes and Confidence of the Citys favour and thereupon had run himself into great danger for which he knew at that Instant no better remedy than to swear over again his Allegiance to him whom he had intended and designed for a long time to depose The Kings Party heard of an Army marching up towards London against them and rather then venture to throw themselves upon the hazard of a battail withouâ better assurance of the Citys Love and affection they consented to set at Liberty the Head of the oppositâ Party then in their Hands a Prisoner and permiâ him to go whither he pleas'd notwithstanding they had so much reason to fear and dread his Designs And possibly they esteem'd it greater wisdom to Temporise for a Season till they had made their Party visibly stronger in London and more able to copâ with that secret reserve of favourers which they might fear the Duke of York had still in the City as concluding him and his party a litle better advised than to break out into open Arms againsâ the present established Government without somâ probability of help and assistance thence or at leasâ some suggestions thereof before they put on theiâ Armour This seeming not an irrational supposal appears to me to carry the face of another argument of the Citys Power For t is undeniably plain that the Yorkists carryed the day when she afterwards within a few years declared her self openly for them as I shall come by and by to shew when I have produc'd two or three passages more as further evincing proofs of this Honourable Citys Strength and Influence One is noted in Fabian in the Thirtyfifth year upon occasion of dissention and unkindness hapning between the young Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Salisbury's Son both at that time lodg'd within the City For the Mayor having notice hereof is expresly said to have ordain'd such Watches and Provisions in the City that if either had stir'd he was able to have subdued both Partyes and kept them in duress till he had known the Kings further Pleasure And the Event was answerable to his Intent For the Friends on both sides being well aware of the strict Watch and Ward and the Consequents thereof labour'd so effectually for an Accommodation that they concluded an Agreement between them for that time without any further disturbance for the present that we read of So well able were the Citizens to keep and preserve the Kings peace whether they would or no. They durst not provoke each other to open Hostilityes in that City whose Power and Armes they had most
assuredly raised about their ears to their mutual disadvantage had they been guilty of such unadvised rashness and daring presumption as to slight and contemn her Magistrates Order and Resolution An other stands on Record in the same Author and other Writers among the next years transactions under the Maâoralty of Godfery Boleyn and Shrievalries of William Edward and Thomas Reyner For upon the Kings Calling of a grand Councel at London to accommodate differences and the Lords of each Party coming up thereto with great Retinues they having from Four-hundred to One-thousand-Five-hundred in a Company lodging some within some without the City holding their Consultation apart each from other as if at mutual defyance and ready to put all to the decision of the Sword the Mayor kept Five-thousand Citizens as Fabian Numbers them dayly in Arms riding about the City and Subburbs to preserve the peace and for the night Watch provided Two-thousand to give Attendance upon three Aldermen till Seven a clock next morning that the day Watch was set by reason whereof continues my Author good order and rule was kept and no man so hardy once to attempt the breaking the Kings peace The Councel was held in quietness and a Reconciliation patch'd up for the time For who durst move when the City says nay Several such Instances are to be seen in the Chronicles and have been hinted before in the precedent Relation And if need were I might produce the Disturbance likely to have hapned in the Fourth year of this King by the Bishop of Winchesters meanes then at Variance with the Protector the Duke of Gloucester when upon strict Commandment given to the Mayor he set a sure Watch by night that kept out the Bishops Servants by force and would not permit them to enter the City over the Bridg whereupon a pacification was at length concluded between these two great Men their differencies in time amicably adjusted and the City seems to have protected the Protector himself But that I hasten to the fecond general Head before propos'd under which I am to make out the visibility of the City's affection to the house of Yorke distinguish'd from that of Lancastor by the white Rose their particular badg and thee ffect thereof her influencing the nation in their favour in behalf of the Yorkists Interest to the raising it up above the Lancastrians And this may be demonstrated beyond contradiction both from the suspicions fears and jealousies of the Queen and the Court that in their Hearts the Citizens bore too great Respect to the other side and would assist them upon Occasion and from their actual joyning at last openly with the Yorkists in word and deed to the visible exaltation of that Family above the other whereby the White Rose grew up amain and flourished not only above the rest of the flowers of the field but also above the Red though it's whiteness was first ting'd with a Scarlet dye and the Red had lost much of it 's before lovely ruby Colour so much blood was there shed in this unhappy Contest It being related out of Philip de-Comines that within his Remembrance in the Civil-Wars of England dyed above Eighty Persons of the Blood Royal. For the proof of the Queens Suspicions or others Apprehensions Instances more than one or two and a triumvirate of Witnesses may be brought Stow tells us before the battail of St. Albans how that the King having assembled his Power to oppose the Duke of York then marching towards London at the Head of an Army his meaning was rather to meet the Duke in the North parts than about London where it was thought he had too many friends and therefore departs with speed from Westminster on the same ântent And afterwards acquaints us that upon the difcharging of York and Salisbury of their high Offices and Places of Government about the King This change among the Nobility caus'd sudden alterations and attempts which he calls Seditious to spring in the Commonalty especially in the City of London Fabian informes us that the Queen caus'd the King to remove in his Thirty-fifth from London to Coventry and their held him a long season as suspecting the City of London and deeming it to be more favourable to the Duke of York's Party than to Hers. Baker gives us much the same Story under the Notion of the Queens perswading the King for his Health and Recreation to make a Progress into Warwickshire as finding the little Respect the Londoners bore to Her Party or the Kings And Stow shall here bring up the Rear to back their Informanions with this expression that because the Duke was had more in estimation among the Citizens than either the King or Queen she caus'd the King to make his Progress as perceiving she could attempt nothing against him near to the City of London If we consider Actions and respect Matters of Fact we shall find the Yorkists often received at London when the Lancastrians were either expresly refus'd or at least compell'd to get further off into other parts for their better security and safeguard After the Yorkists had won the Battel at St. Albans London was the place whereto they presently remov'd carrying the King along with them and kept there their Whitsuntide with great Joy and Solemnity When an Assault was made at Court upon the Potent Earl of Warwick a great Yorkist as he was coming from the Councel Table by the Kings Servants with Intentions to have Slain him London was the place whereto he Row'd in all hast as soon as got into his Barge and thereby escaping the danger intended he Consults with the Principals oâ his Party and retires afterwards to Callice Thiâ was the place to which the Chronicle saith the Earl of Salisbury his Father was coming up with some Thousands of Men when he was necessitated to Fight his Way through his Enemies iâ Bloreheath Field Here likewise was Warwick received encouraged and refreshed in the 38th of Hen. 6. before the Battel of Northampton when the Lord Scales appointed by the other side with some Troops to go and secure the City was directly refused admission by the Mayor and being received into the Tower he was besieged by Land and Water and they of the City planted great Guns against it and break the Walls in divers places And after the fatal over-throw of the Lancastrians at the aforesaid Battels hitherto was the King conveyed by the Party a Prisoner in effect tho' in shew a King as if eager there to shew their Triumphant Success or else further to secure to themselves the Londoners good will love and affections by their Presence For Fabian tells us they return'd hither in haste upon their obtaining this Victory the Duke of York comes out of Ireland to them and after a Report banded about the City that King Henry was to be Deposed and the Duke to be made King to make Tryal doubtless of the peoples mind and sound the Citizens
redounded so much to his own advantage and the Interest of the York Family which he had for a long time before espoused by the favour he gained thereby among the Commons of the Realm in general and of the City in particular For when he came to London the Analist informs us he kept such an House that six Oxen were eaten at a Breakfast and every Tavern was full of his Meat and whoso had any acquaintance in his House might have had as much Sodden and Rost as he might carry upon a long Dagger All this notwithstanding when upon disgust and discontent he had turned to the other side and became a favourer of the Lancastrians he was never the less disappointed in his aims and expectations from the Londoners For though by his turning sides the York Party had been once routed King Edward taken Prisoner and King Henry resettled once more on the Throne and he had in a manner the whole power of the Land in his hands besides the general Love and Affection the Commons bore to him and the dread and terror the sound of his Name oft struck into his Enemies Hearts it having in effect altered the Fortune and turned the Scales in two Battels one in King Henry's days for the Yorkists another in King Edwards for the Lancastrians yet upon the return of King Edward from beyond Sea whither he had some time before escaped out of Custody into England to recover his Inheritance and regain his Crown and the News of his Marching up to London both sides saith Baker seeking to make the City their Friends the Citizens backwardness to take up Arms in Defence of Old King Henry his Crown and Dignity and inclination to Young King Edward was so apparent that Warwicks own Brother the Arch-bishop of York distrusting the Event secretly sought King Edwards Favour he himself was received into London King Henry was redelivered unto him and the Great Warwick slain not long after at Barnet in a pitch'd Battell to the utter Ruin of the Lancastrian Party for that Age the consequence of this overthrow being enough to read them their succeeding ill Fate at Tewksbury they themselves having sufficient Cause to be daunted with the loss of their most powerful friends and favourers and the Yorkists to be flush'd with their Success in gaining so important a Victory As the Citizens continued thus favourable to the King so I don't find them them chang'd and alter'd in ther Inclinations to the other side till some of the Yorkists themselves by their own hands began to loose and untye those Bonds of Amity Friendship and Fidelity the Late King's Children being dispossest by his own Brother the Duke of Gloucester and the Earl of Richmond the surviving hopes of the Lancastrians had openly declar'd his Intentions and solemnly Sworn to marry King Edward's Eldest Daughter the rightful Heir of all the Yorkists Greatness which afterwards was as honourably as honestly perform'd whereby both Families became united in one Line and the two Roses happily inoculated each upon the other The expression I hope the ingenious Society of Gardiners and Florists will pardon me if harmlesly guilty of an absurdity in translating the term from fruits to flowers Did the Citizens of London appear so zealously on the Yorkists behalf and yield such powerful assistance to carry on their designs What other than can we expect with reason but that King Edward behaved himself very gratefully towards that City which Espoused his flaughtered Fathers Cause against even the Governing Party and contributed so considerably to his own Restauration Though it is but too commonly seen that as mean services are but meanly recompenced or else wholly ' slighted add forgotten so an excess of merit too great to be rewarded brings oftner danger than advantage to the party concerned Evident examples whereof our own and Foreign Histories can abundantly afford us and it is well if the City of London could produce no experience of her own in confirmation of their verity and validity while some others having gotten well by their services to the facilitating their ascent into high Places have no better improved them in the Eyes of the World than in keeping their Coaches their Horses and their Misses and made little other returns of thanks and gratitude to the City but some small slight acknowledgments and concessions and perhaps a few verbal promises and assurance or else forgetting their former needs and necessities have endeavoured most ungratefully to turn their power upon her which they may be thought to have gained chiefly and principally by her means But King Edward it seems or those about him had honester Principles in them or were better tempered For we find in Baker that he furnished his Councel Table for the most part with such as were gracious among the Citizens and we Read in Stow of no less than eleven Aldermen besides the Lord Mayor and Recorder Knighted by him at one time in the Highway betwixt Islington and Shoreditch upon his return from the Battel at Tewksbury in reward of the good service the Londoners had done him As for the jovial Entertainment of the Mayor Aldermen and Commons in Waltham Forrest by the Kings express order and appointment in his presence about an year before he dyed 't is a Subject Treated on by more English Historians than one with the circumstances and consequents thereof the pleasant lodge of Green boughs set up on purpose for them the Complemental condescention of the King in refusing to go to his own Dinner till he had saw them served the Hunting sport he shewed them the plenty of Venison he gave them at their departure and the noble Present of two Harts and six Bucks with a Tun of Wine he sent to the Lady Mayoress and her Sisters the Aldermens Wives to make merry with which they did afterwards at Drapers Hall where without all peradventure the Kings Health went all round the Table if it was then in Fashon but for this I will not put one finger in the fire If we dive into the reasons of the variation of the Pole at London and search into the occasional Causes of the manifest change and alteration of their Affections from thr Family of Lancaster to the House of York we may impute it partly to the losses crosses and unsuccessful management of Affairs under a weak King and a self seeking Court of Lancastrians but chiefly to the encrease of National grievances without timely care taken to redress them and the fixt Resolution of the Court Party to oppress their opposites the Yorkists any manner of ways by right or by wrong for we may easily observe from History and experience such to have been the usual motives to disgusts and the common incitements to discontent Therefore I presume I may draw hence better grounds and reasons of the Cities Love to King Edward than those alledged by Baker out of Comines viz. that he got the Love of the Londoners by owing them
of the Secluded Members that procured a free and fuller meeting of the Lords and Commons and soon after the King was recall'd from his forced Exile to the open Exercise of his Royal Power and Authority over these his Three Nations and made his Publick Entrance in the greatest Calm of Peace and Tranquility imaginable Thanks to the Honourable City for concurring so unanimously to the Revival of the remaining part of the Old Parliament which brought forth so Miraculous Effects as to have an Injur'd and Exil'd Prince fully restor'd to his Throne and yet the Glory of the Action not tinctur'd with Blood Such was the Influence of Londons concurrence of Londons Power of Londons Prayers If then the many instances hitherto related being conjoyn'd rise not up to a demonstration as much Mathematical as the subject can bear I know not what will As for the truth of them I defie any one to disprove me who hath but the least grain of sence and reason in him and as much Historical knowledge as may amount to the sixtieth part of a scruple The particular reasons of the Cities Potency have been shewn and the general ground thereof is as plainly evident For how can it otherwise be but that a City endowed with such Royal Grants fortified with so many and so great Priviledges and exalted to the heighth of Grandeur by the vastness of her Trade multitude of her Merchants Wealth and Riches of her Inhabitants Spirit and Courage of her Citizens Stateliness of her Buildings Preheminances of her Antiquity Conveniency of her Scituation and Regular Order of her Government so Ennobled with the highest Courts of Judicature for the Law adorned with numerous Churches for the Gospel and frequented by Strangers from all parts of the habitable World the Receptacle of all Arts and Sciences the Haunt of the Commonalty the Delight of the Gentry the Habitation of the Nobility the Residence of the King and Glory of the whole Nation so pleasant to Admiration and so populous to a Wonder where many Scores if not Hundreds of Thousands can be Raised and Armed in a few Hours Warning How I say can it otherwise be but that such a City must needs highly influence over-rule and over-awe the Counsels of the Nation and turn the Inclinations of the People whithersoever she please For Nature generally uses the common ordinary means and methods and I do not see that the All-powerful God of Nature often diverts her Course or works Wonders and Miracles in every Age and Season Now that London is such a City I appeal to History and Experience for my Witnesses These are the Observations I had to make concerning the Glories of the City of London and the Influences she had upon the grand Concerns of the Nation in that great and famous Contest between the two Houses of Lancaster and York through the most considerable part whereof I have hitherto traced her Actions wherein finding her most triumphant amidst the great variety of the publick Transactions of these times I think it not much material to give so distinct a Relation of her private Affairs though among them I might likewise find many things most worthy of Remak as hastening apace towards the Conclusion of this Treatise that it may not swell into too great a bulk to the Reader 's Discouragement and the wearying out of his Patience I fear already almost tired Wherefore as to what concerns the private Troubles of the City the Tumults Riots and Insurrections sprung up out of her own Bowels in these perilous Times and happily supprest by the Power of her Majestrates and the accidental Casualties happening within her Liberties or else the many Benefits accruing to her by the Care and Vigilance of her chief Officers the good Rule and Order of her Government the strict Observation of her particular Ordinances and putting in Execution her Injunctions Or as to what relates to the external Augmentation of her Honour her Splendor and Renown by the Reparation of her Walls Renovation of her publick Structures founding and erecting of new Fabricks I pass them all over without a more particular mention sending the curious and inquisitive to the Chronicles Baker's especially who hath treated purposely of such remarkables in distinct Sections at the end of the Kings Lives as not so pertinent to my present design tho' in other Kings Reigns I may have here and there touch'd upon some such Remarks And shall direct the Reader with an Instance of the Courage of some bold spirited women of the City having hitherto entertain'd him with the Heroick and Illustrious Acts only of the other Sex The Relation I have out of Stow who places it in the Seventh of King Henry the Sixth Anno 1428. where after mention made of a Parliament Asiembled at Westminster that Year he gives it us in these words In this Parliament there was one Mrs. Stokes with divers other stout Women of London of good reckoning well Apparell'd came openly to the upper-house of Parliament and deliver'd Letters to the Duke of Gloucester and to the Arch-Bishops and to the other Lords there present containing matter of Rebuke and sharp reprehension of the Duke of Gloucester because he would not deliver his Wife Jaqueline out of her grievous Imprisonment being then held Prisoner by the Duke of Burgundy suffering her there to remain so unkindly and for his publick keeping by him another Adultress contrary to the Law of God and the honourable Estate of Matrimony Bold words and bold women For this Duke was then Lord Protector of the Realm and so confequently of great Power Place and Dignity therein But these were Londoners that durst be so couragious as to say to Princes Ye are Wicked and then the wonder is not altogether so great on one hand that they dar'd to reprehend the great ones of the Age and on the other that we still find such Heroical Spirits in the City since they spring from such a Race both by the Fathers side and the Mothers The Roman Historians celebrates the Memory of that Noble Matron who came into open Court and with so undaunted a spirit of boldness pleaded her own Cause to the great amazement of the Senate for the present that they made an Order to forbid the like for the future What Viragoes then were these English Matrons of London that in open Parliament durst reprove the Nobles to their faces and were not afraid to attempt to teach our Senators wisdome wherein they may seem to have out-did that fam'd Roman Matron in that what she did may be thought to have proceeded from self-love and self-defence whereas these with a greater Courage espous'd another Cause an excess of Charity and Humanity and instead of staying for an opportunity of defending their own Interest upon occasion or necessity durst voluntarily make an onset on the more powerful with sharp rebukes for neglecting the distressed and refusing to assist the poor weak and disconsolate So that the Royal
City of London appears emulous of the Old Imperial City of Rome both in the Courage of the Women and valour of her men as if resolved not to yield to her Fame on any account in Glory and Merit nor come behind her in the Heroick Acts of either of the Sexes while one continues as potent in the Brittish World by the Spirit of the Citizens and influence of her Actions as the other once was famous for her Arms all over Europe Asia and Africa And who knows whitherto she may come in time as how far the Fates or rather Providence have decreed to advance her Was she so powerful so many Ages since what is she now since that she 's very much encreased in the Strength and Number of her Inhabitants and her private Buildings are reform'd from Wood and Earth into Brick and publick into Stone low humble Cottages into stately Edifices and who dares be so positive to aver that they may not in time be chang'd into Marble Hitherto have I treated the Reader with variety of Proofs and Evidences sufficiently I hope demonstrative of the Repute Fame Honour Glory and Renown Magnificence Grandeur Strength Power and Influence of this so Triumphant a City whose Approbation and Assistance hath setled Kings upon their Thrones and the dissatisfaction of whose Inhabitants hath sometimes left the way open to the ruine of Princes In the Examples and Instances whereof the Concurrence of her Citizens was for the most part general and universal at least so far as concern'd the Majority But now I shall produce an Instance and not easie perhaps to be parallell'd from either Divine or prophane Writings to shew how influential the bare shadow of her Name hath been in State-Affairs and how contributary to the transforming of a Subject into a King without any apparent assent of the Main Body of this ancient Corporation which I am so far from thinking a diminution of her Glory that I rather look upon it as here circumstantiated to be an Argument of the City's great Power Reputation and Esteem under this Consideration That if that aspiring Protector the bloody Duke of Gloucester better known by the Name of Crook-back'd Richard the Third could do so much by the shadow what might he not have done could he have but enjoyed the substance As in Divinity Circumstances make many an Action good or bad so in History the Design and Event not seldom ennobles or debases an Enterprize 'T is not so much the bare Act or thing done in this particular that is to make good my Assertion as the Deduction from the Consequences thereof whether real or designed which come now to be related in this manner following When that ambitious Crook-back'd Duke upon his Brother's Death had got his eldest Son and Heir and the rightful King into his hands and by treacherous Plots devis'd Crimes and false Calumniations taken away the Lives of those true and trusty Friends of the old King that were most likely to continue faithful to his young Son and Heir in his Minority and loyally stand by him with their Lives and Fortunes against the open Attempts or secret Designs of his Treacherous Uncle and thereby remov'd many of the Rubs out of the way to his aspir'd greatness His next Care was to get the Peoples Consent to the turning of his Ducal Corronet into a Regal Crown and their Concurrence to acknowledge him for their King whereas before he was but Protector But how should this be done A Pretence must be found to cajole them seeing that he had so little Equity and Justice on his side to confirm them to him The City of London was known to be powerful and populous and their Example was thought to do much with the rest of the Nation to make them if not approve at least connive at his Nephew's Deposition and his own Exaltation therefore the Citizens were to be Caress'd and their Approbation to be sought Whereupon he seeks for and procures Instruments fit for his turn that to honour his ambitious Desires stuck not openly to turn Renegado's to Truth Honesty and Loyalty so that they mighâ get Worldly Honour and Preferment thereby Among whom none of the less noted nor least useful are reckon'd the present Lord Mayor of London a Man of a proud Heart and highly desirous of Advancement how little soever he deserv'd it and two brazen-fac'd Sons of the Church both great Preachers of more Learning than Virtue of more Fame than Learning So useful hath the Pulpit in the Church been always thought to carry on Intreagues in the State The Contrivance was first to prepare the People and break the Matter at Paul's-Cross and then Motion it to the Citizens at Guild-hall to accomplish which and bring his purpose to perfection the Duke cared not so his dead Father were thought or call'd a Cuckold his Mother a Whore his Brethren Bastards and his Nephew illegitimate to the shame of the whole House of York such Fires of Ambition rul'd and rag'd in his Heart The flattering Clergy-men readily did their Parts in the Pulpit as far as they were able but with so ill success to the Duke's Cause and their own Reputation that he was wholly disappointed of the desir'd Acclamations and they lost their Credit and Estimation among the People ever after One lost his Life after his Sermon the other his Voice in the midst of his Preaching and so was forc'd to leave off and come down From Paul's Cross away go we the Tuesday following the Doctor 's Sermon to Guild-hall and there we find the Mayor upon the Hustings and all the Aldermen assembled about him and the Commons of the City gather'd before them To whom the Duke of Buckingham newly come thither attended with divers Lords and Knights from the Court makes a long and large Oration about the Grievances under the late King his many unnecessary Taxations great Severities and the looseness of his Life to cast dirt thus upon the late King's Government was thought then it seems an effectual Means to make way for this Popish Successor ãâã them of the Doctor 's Sermon and desires them to joyn with him and others in a Petition to the Duke to take upon him the Name and Office of a King hoping by his many Arguments and Perswasions with the volubility of his Tongue to obtain the Citizens Concurrence in a full Cry of of King Richard King Richard But they were it seems by the story very deaf of hearing on that Ear to his no little wonder and amazement Wherefore upon further consultation with the Mayor and others privy to the Design Buckingham resumes his Discourse and rehearses the same over again with a louder Voice as if the Citizens had not all heard or not well understood the meaning of his former Speech But neither did this move their Affections nor produce a Word in favour of the Motion from the Auditors Then Mr. Recorder by the Mayor's Advice was pitch'd upon to second
evil May-day when we read of the King 's pardoning the many hundreds Indicted for that day's Riot and Insurrection at the three Queens intercession upon Cardinal Woolsey's Advice and perchance in Complaisance to the City Not to mention that eminent Instance of the King's Charity Love and Affection to the City when in so great a scarcity of Bread therein that many died for meer want he freely and frankly sent thither out of his own Provisions 600 Quarters of Corn which serv'd for a very seasonable Supply till more could be brought from other Parts But as to the former I dare aver it from the consequence of the Contest between the City and the Cardinal in the 17th year of this King out of Stow and thence prove beyond denial how like her self the City always continued in opposing the Arbitrary Power and Exorbitances of over grown Favourites Commissions were sent forth by Order of the Council into every Shire to Levy the Sixth Part of every Man's Substance towards the King's passage into France but this was so vehemently oppos'd by the People as contrary to ancient Laws and Customs and not granted by the Paliament that the King thought good to deny that he ever knew of that Demand and by soothing Letters sent to London and elsewhere he requested only his Subjects Benevolence This was a Term more plausible than a set Demand and a fix'd Contribution and the Cardinal forsooth would needs undertake personally to induce the City's consent thereto and therefore sent for the Mayor the Almen and the most substantial Common-Councel-Men to Westminster thinking by fair Speeches good Words and large Promises to have overperswaded them To him indeed they lent their Ears but we don't find them over hasty to part with their Purses However they sent Deputies to him Four Aldermen and Twelve Commoners to return him their thanks and every Alderman assembles his Ward and makes a Motion for a Benevolence which was openly deny'd them by the Commonalty Then the Cardinal sends again for the Mayor and his Brethren who informs him what they had done Whereupon he would have examined them apart and demands a benevolence of them in the King's Name But for Answer was told by a City Councellor that the Motion was against an Act of Parliament which could not be disprov'd though it was in part gain-said Thereupon the Mayor resolutely denies to grant any thing so that upon his coming home to London all publick endeavours were laid by and it was declar'd that every man should come to the Cardinal and grant privily what he would This was so little grateful to the Citizens and upon the Mayor's endeavours to qualifie them by promising they should be gently treated and exhorting them to go when sent for they were so highly offended thereat that in their fury they would have had several expell'd the Common-Councel and so without further answer angrily departed home Whereby we may be well assur'd of the truth of Hall's Observation that though the Mayor and Aldermen had granted the Demand the Common-Councel would never have assented For we must know this was done at the Common-Councel call'd the next day after my Lord Mayor came from Court The Result therefore of all was in the Issue that the King openly protests in a great Council call'd at York-place now White-hall that his mind was never to ask any thing of his Commons that might sound to the breach of the Laws and so this Project was rejected and laid aside by order of the Kings Letter sent into all Counties For seeing that the City refused how was it possible to perswade the Country who look upon London as their principal Guide and Directress and so generally square their Actions by the Citizens Rule Doth not then this seem a clear Example of the Londoners constant fixedness to their old Principles of Liberty And if the Reader likewise please it may pass for an Instance of the Citizens disclaiming their Mayor's Resolves and the prevalency of the Commonalty over the Magistracy when resolute in their just opposition As an Overplus I shall cast in a Passage out of Baker's Chronicles where we find it upon Record under the Title of King Henry's Taxations how that when in the Fourteenth Year a Tenth Part of all Mens Substance was required by the Cardinal towards the Charges of the King's Wars and he would havâ had every Man sworn to tell what he was worth The Londoners thinking this very hard they were thereupon excus'd for taking the Oath and allowed to bring in their Bills upon their Honesties from whence may be argued either the Strength Greatness and Power of this honourable City whom the Court nor the Cardinal durst not displease or the great respect then shewn her in regard of those many glorious Rays of Influence she sheds all over all the Land when the Word of a Citizen went as far and was as well accepted as another Man's Oath If such then was the Honour and Respect of the City heretofore what may we think it to be now that London hath since receiv'd so considerable an Addition and Augmentation in several respects by the happy concurrence of many more Circumstances to render it eternally famous Was this City able to hold a Contest with so grand a Favourite and potent a Courtier as Cardinal Woolsey and at last to come off with flying Colours to the vindicating her own Rights and the Liberties of all the Nation besides and the forcing King Henry in the strength of his Age as stout as he was to so great a Compliance as hath been hinted before 'T is plain then she was strong and her Citizens not destitute of Spirit Did the King as cruel as he was to others of his Subjects shew himself favourable to London 'T is evident he had great cause and reason so to do unless he was desirous to be tax'd with ungratitude so un-Prince-like a Crime For we may observe the Citizens were ready enough to please him in any thing wherein their All was not concerned and in that I never yet found them ever prone to humour the Follies of any King living Witness their readiness on all Occasions for the Honour of the King to appear in the most splendid Equipage on publick Solemnities Among which the most remarkable in my Opinion were the Coronation of Queen Ann Mother of the never to be forgotten Queen Elizabeth of blessed Memory with the Preparatives thereto the Celebrity of her Attendance by Water from Greenwich to the Tower and her honourable Conveyance from thence through the City amidst the great variety of pleasing Shews and delightful Objects to Westminster particulariz'd in Stow and the glorious appearance of the Citizens at the great Muster in St. Iames's-Park May the 8th Anno 31. to the Number of Fifteen Thousand in bright shining Armour with Coats of white Silk or Cloth and Chains of Gold where the Citizens strove in such sort to exceed each other in bravery of
Arms and forwardness of Service as if the City had been a Camp and they not Men of the Gown but all profess'd Soldiers which they perform'd to their great Cost but greater Commendation saith Sir Richard Baker But the greatest Inducement may be supposed to have been that they never appear'd prone to join with the King's Enemies of which he had good store abroad besides Domestick Troubles and private Insurrections at home especially towards the latter end of his Reign when he had taken away the Pope's Supremacy excluded his Authority and suppressed the Abbies and Monasteries the chief Fortresses and Pillars thereof either by force of an Act of Parliament or by vertue of the Resignations of their Governours either over-aw'd by fear or brib'd with Pensions Not long after which there were several Commotions in the Land which might have much shaken the Throne had the Citizens openly shew'd any inclination to joyn with these disturbers of the Kings rest and repose but they continuing quiet thâse troubles were quickly compos'd and so the foundation undesignedly doubtless was laid for a publick Reformation which was more vigorously carried on in the next Kings Reign though I hardly think it hath yet arriv'd to such perfection as to render it so compleat as might be piously desired Short was the Reign of this pious Prince Edward the sixth yet not so short but that it gave such an Addition of strength to the Protestant Religion by removing out of the way many of the Relicks of Popery and openly encouraging the Preaching of the Gospel that hitherto it could never be rooted out of the Land notwithstanding the damage it sustained under the next Successor a most violent and rigid Papist and the many secret Plots and practices of Popish Emissaries to undermine it and introduce Popery again into England prov'd upon them Thus was the outward face of Religion visibly chang'd in the City under this Religious King but yet her power we find not in the least diminished nor the esteem our great men had thereof of which we meet with an evident instance in History on account of the difference arisen between the potent Earl of Warwick and some of the Privy Council on the one hand and the Lord Protector Seymour the Kings Mâternal Uncle on the other The Privy Counsellors having designs upon the Protector and withdrawing themselves from Court got to London with their attendance and taking possession of the Tower made it their business to secure the City to their side by sending for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to Ely house in Holborn where they were assembled and entertaining them with a long Oration about the ill government of the Protector and the many mischiefs that came thereby as they affirm'd upon the Kingdom attended with a request of their joynt assistance to help them to remove him wherein they were so successful that upon the arrival of two Letters almost at the same instant to the Common Council held at Guildhall one from the King and Lord Protector for a thousand of the City to be arm'd in defence of the Kings Person and the other from the Lords to have two thousand men to aid them with the same Plea for defence of the Kings Person and that the City should be well kept with Watches day and night the Citizens shew'd themselves so inclinable to the Lords that they arm'd an hundred horse men and four hundred foot men in defence of the City suitable to the motion of the Lords and sent no Assistance to the Protector though it had been desir'd in the Kings Name but rather suffered a Proclamation containing diverse Articles against him to be made in several Parts of the City and the Lords were entertain'd with a Dinner at one of the Sheriffs the eighth of October after they had been themselves in Person at Guildhall and on the tenth they din'd at the other Sheriffs after that by a Common Council the same day in Stows Computation five hundred men of the City had been granted to be ready on the next morning Evident marks signs and tokens doubtless which way the City bended and the event is a sufficient confirmation thereof For the next News we hear is the removal of the Protector from about the King and the sending him to the Tower within two or three days after where an humble Confession and Submission was his best security for that time by which he got his Liberty some time after and was sworn again a Privy Counsellor but no more a Protector Had the City sent him the Aid requâsted he would possibly have had little reason to have stood infear of the combined Lords or had but her Magistrates continued Neuters in the Case and not been so openly favourable to his Enemies he might perhaps have been able enough to have cop't with them with little or no bazard for he had raised much People about Hampton Court in the Kings Name and conveyed him to Windsor with a great number of Horsemen and Footmen But the Strength and Authority of the City was not to be contradicted much less opposed Thus the Protector lost his Place and well it might have been haply for the King and Nation if that had been all For his Enemies having remov'd him from his Protectorship and thereby gain'd the greater access of Power to themselves and the Principal of them the politick Earl of Warwick lately created Duke of Northumberland advanced in Title and Honour equal with and in Authority and Power above the highest whereby his aspiring thoughts were grown ripe to be put in execution they were resolv'd to have the other touch with him for his Life wherein they made use of the Cities Power to secure them for his Tryal by ordering every Housholder in London to take care of his own Family keep his house and have one ready in arms upon call for the day time and that by Night a sufficient Watch of substantial Housholders should be kept in every Ward So litte durst they attempt without ingaging the City therein and so frail and transitory had been their projecting designs had she refused But with her concurrence what could they not do So then at last tryed the late Protector was acquitted of Treason and condemned for Felony and afterwards beheaded on Tower-Hill much against the Kings Will the Constables of every Ward in London by vertue of a Precept directed from the Council to the Lord Mayor strictly charging the Citizens not to stir out of their houses before a prefixt hour for fear perhaps of a Rescue for 't was known he was well belov'd generally by the People and plainly evidenced when upon a mistake thinking him acquitted they gave so great a shout for joy that it was heard Stow tells us from Westminster-Hall to Long-Arce to the Lords astonishment So fell Sommerset by the malice of his Enemies and weakness of his Friends and we may easily believe 't was not design'd the King should be long liv'd
may be the care taken in London to watch and guard the Gates upon the first discovery of the Gun-powder Treason and the great joy and rejoycing manifested therein soon after upon its further detection by filling the Streets with Bonfires and the Solemn Assemblies with publick praises and thanksgiving to the Almighty for the Kings happy Deliverance This Gunpowder Treason so to observe by the way was one of the seven particulars the Intelligencer tells us were sometime since set up in a Table in St. Martins Church at York under this Title Things never to be forgotten by Protestants The other six were The bloody Reign of Queen Mary The many Plots in Queen Elizabeths Reign The Massacre in Ireland in Forty one The horrid Murder of King Charles in One thousand Six hundred and Forty eight The burning of London in One thousand Six hundred and Sixty six And the horrid Popish-plot in One thousand Six hundred and Seventy eight An Inscription that some harmless well meaning persons would have been apt doubtless to have thought very honest in its self and deservedly written in Letters of Gold till an Order came to one of the Church Wardens to take it down or appear at the Spiritual Court to answer the Contempt For 't was above the ordinary Capacity of a Common lay-Protestant to apprehend any thing ill or offensive therein till such wits among the Clergy as had far more sagacious intellects perceived the drift and design thereof and judging it perhaps to be part of the Presbyterian Plot might think fit to have it thrown down that the Vulgar might be no more amus'd with the dreadful remembrance of such things But to return to the Cities Love and Loyalty to King James another remarkable proof thereof may be deduced from the double Guards set in all places about London the Precept issued out by the Lord Mayor to the Wards to raise the Train Bands and the unexpressible distraction of Mens minds upon a flying rumour suddenly spread about the City March 22d somewhat above four Months after the Powder Plot was discovered of the Kings being slain that morning at Oking some twenty Miles from London which occasioned great weeping and waiâing and much lamentation in old and young rich and poor till in three or four hours time all these Clouds were happily dispers'd by better and more certain news brought of the Kings safety and his return to Whitehall thereupon the same afternoon where the peoples hearts were as much raised with joy as before they had been drowned in grief and the Lord Mayor and Aldermen went to congratulate his Majesty upon the assurance of his continued Health and Security Such were the expressions of the Cities affections let us now see the return of Kindness on the Kings part and his Princely acknowledgment of their singular love and loyalty to him Much doubtless of the Kings mind in this particular may be guessed at from the frequent Visits he made the City but I presume by no one Act of his better known than by his repaying the Citizens of London in the seventh of his Reign the Threescore thousand pounds they had lent Queen Elizabeth three years before her death An Act of the greatest Justice and Equity and whereby likewise he got more love saith the Chronicle than he paid mony This may pass both for an Example of the Kings Goodness and Prudence and an Instance of Londons Power and Esteem since his Majesty thought it good to be at such charges to oblige her For to pay their Predecessors Debts is so rare among Princes that many of them hardly ever pay their own Hitherto have I presented the Reader with variety of passages out of our English Chronicles to demonstrate the Glory Honour and Renown of the City of London and the Courage of her Citizens the Power of her Magistrates the Strength of the Commonalty and the undeniable Influence of the whole Corporation upon the rest of the Kingdom and have given him here and there the words and expressions of private men as so many illustrative Arguments on the Points Wherefore now I shall produce no less than what I account a Royal Testimony in confirmation of the many demonstrative Evidences already brought and that of no less a Prince than his present Majesties Royal Father King Charles the First and out of an Author so little partial to the City that the very name of Peter Heylin and the diligent perusal of Arch-Bishop Lauds Life by him writ may sufficiently convince an indifferent Reader that he was none of Londons greatest Favourers or Admirers since 't was look'd on as the Retreat and Receptacle of the Grandees of the Puritan faction as he is pleased to stile all those he thought contrary to that Party of Men he will needs call the Church of England A Proof therefore out of such an Adversary's mouth as Heylins seems a very convincing Argument when he himself is forced meerly by truth and matter of fact to confess and acknowledge the influence of London on all parts of the Kingdom in that passage where he intimates it to have been generally look't upon as the compass by which the lesser Towns and Corporations were wont to steer their course and to plead it's practice on all occasions What I conceive to be the Kings Testimony by that writer deliver'd is by him brought in as the reason of his Majesties preferring Laud to the Bishoprick of London viz. For that he was a Man of a more active Spirit than the former Bishop and so fitter to carry on the design of rendring the City conformable to that propos'd Model of Church Government which was intended for the whole Nation and therein therefore principally to be promoted because of the Influence it had by reason of it's wealth and trading on all parts of the Kingdom and that upon the correspondence and conformity thereof the welfare of the whole depended This Testimony doubtless is of great authority because proceeding from so Judicious a Prince and related by an Author not to be suppos'd over ready to write any thing in favour of this City to which he seems to have born a very great animosity because the Citizens would not be so thorough-pac'd Episcopal as his Reverend Doctorship would have had them to have been But now methinks it should be of greater prevalency than ever since that King Charles himself before he dyed out of his own experience knew much more of the Cities strength and Power than many of his Predecessors did for some ages before For 't is plain beyond denial dispute or contradiction out of the memory of Man and the everlasting Records of time that in the late Wars between him and his two Houses of Parliament 't was the Cities power and influence that rais'd them to that height of Grandeur which made them so formidable to all the Royal party Whereas without her help and assistance how little able they had been to have long subsisted or
dearly belov'd Liberties when they might with greater ease and as effectually gently walk them down as a certain Person is said to have express'd it on a much later Occasion The City petition'd and address'd and she was follow'd by the Country She waited a while with patience and the secluded Members that were chosen in forty and from forty eight kept out of the house till fifty nine for almost twelve years space were restor'd in peace and quietness though under some few Obligations And so there was again the face of a House of Commons Being restor'd they dissolv'd themselves in a short time after to make way for another assâmbly call'd a Parliament though some thought in thâse times that the Parliament of Forty had been dissolv'd long before by his late Majesties death and so might haply think this a needless Ceremony It being most certain that that Parliament ow'd its beginning to the Kings Writ although its continuance was thought to depend on the continuing Act as long as the King liv'd Yet notwithstanding the House of Commons had actually dissolv'd themselves and it was become the receiv'd opinion that the Parliament of Forty was in Law dissolv'd before upon the old Kings death the next Assembly Stylo Communi Parliament would not barely stick to either of these ways but thought good likewise themselves by vertue of their Authority to declare that Parliament of Forty dissolv'd Whether or no they thought that the bare Act of a single house of Commons without King and Lords could not in Law be took for a formal Repeal of the former continuing Act made by King Lords and Commons joyntly and so rejected it as really insignificant in its self though made use of for the time and out of a Cautious foresight dreaded some ill consequences attending the receiv'd opinion of the long Parliaments being dissolv'd by the Kings death whether or no the continuing Act were formally repeal'd by as good Authority as made it lest thence in time no body knows when occasion might be taken to argue that if a Kings death repeals one unlimited Act it may likewise on the same ground vacate all by him made and so by affirming the same of all other Princes since the first William a foundation might be laid for the Introduction of Arbitrary Power when evil minded Pretenders are absolute enough to attempt it with hopes of Impunity I pretend not to determine For I remember my self to be a Relater of matters of Fact not a Reader of Law Cases Therefore I proceed to acquaint the Reader that that Assembly though call'd without the Kings Writ yet by his Majesty afterwards most Graciously own'd and acknowledg'd for a Parliament thought it fitting and convenient to declare and enact that the Parliament begun and holden at Westminster the third day of November in the sixteenth year of the Reign of the Late King Charles of blessed Memory is fully dissolved and determined They are the words of the Act to be seen in the Statute-book Cap. 1. 12 Car. 2. This was the Assembly that blessed us with his Majesties actual Restauration towards which there had been made so many steps a little before by the Loyal Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of the Land and the Worthy Citizens of this Honourable City Whose publick Reception and Triumphant Cavalcade through the City of London to White hill was very remarkable for the splendid appearance of the Citizens to conduct him the Gallantry shewn by them on so acceptable a Solemnity and the many demonstrations of joy and gladness they gave him worthy themselves and that glorious day which they had so long expected and contributed so much of their assistance to hasten For which I have a passage or two more to produce besides what hath been already brought For the first out of the supplement to Baker I quote his Majesties most Gracious Letter To his Trusty and well belov'd the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of the City of London wherein he Honourably acknowledges the publick and frequent Manifestations of their affections to him and the Encouragement and good Example âhey gave the Nation to assert the Ancient Government and thereupon concludes with large Promises of Extraordinary kindness to this his Native City to the Renewal of their Charter Confirmation of all priviledges granted by his Predecessors and the adding of new favours to advance the Trade Wealth and Honour thereof The next is a Commemoration of the Cities Joyful Resentment of this Letter and the Kings Declaration enclos'd in it as it was was express'd by the Grateful Duty of the Common-Council who immediately upon the reading of them ordered a Present of Ten thousand Pounds to be made to His Majesty and a thousand pounds to each of his Brothers And likewise deputed several of the Aldermen and worthy Citizens to attend upon His Majesty from the City with a Presentment of their most Dutiful acknowledgments for his Clemency and Goodness towards them So desirous were they to give him the greatest demonstrations of their affection and Loyalty before his Return and Judiciously Wise as well as Loyal to set all parts of the Nation a good Example to imitate in a ready manifestation of their Duty and Allegiance to him after his Return Neither in this would they be behind hand with any of them all For the City of London as being the first the richest and most Honourable and the Seat of Kings for many ages might Judge it self oblig'd as the Supplementer insinuates in point of duty and Reputation to exceed all the rest in the Glory of their performances towards their Soveraign But whatever the Citizens did think of the Obligation on either side certain enough it is that the reiterated expressions of their Loyalty to the King were Honourable and Meritorious to the highest degree For to the splendor of their former Preparations at his first Reception and Triumphal Entrance they added the cost of a most magnificent Entertainment at Guild-hal for that very purpose richly beautified and adorned whither the King his two Brothers the Lords of the Privy Council the two Houses of Parliament and the chief Officers of State were conducted July the fifth 1660. in great Pomp by the Lord Mayor and the Grandees of the City and treated in a Royal manner with the choicest of Delicacies with excellent Musick and whatever else could be thought on or delightful for so Illustrious an Assembly As if the Citizens thought it not enough to entertain the King but for his sake were resolv'd to put themselves to the charge of gratifying others for their Loyalty Where 's now the Man can bring me a parallel hereto General Monk appear'd and London concur'd and then the House of Commons of the Parliament of forty is immediately reviv'd a face of the Ancient Government restor'd a new Parliamentary Assembly call'd the King sent for home to enjoy his Fathers Throne and most peaceably settled therein without the noise of War or