*

intelligence of their approach, notwithstanding his being then in the Tower of London); and having secured the gates with their own troops, fell to plundering the houses of the royalists and Jews, the latter of which they demolished; and with the stones thereof, with the utmost diligence, repaired the defects of the city wall ; and, having got ready their military engines, laid siege to the Tower; and the king finding the defection of his partizans becoming general, consented to grant the whole of their demands; and, after a short negociation, the meadow called Runnimede, between Staines and Windsor, was fixed on by both parties as the place for a final adjustment. In a few days afterwards, the king and the barons met on the appointed spot; and on the 15th of June, the humbled monarch affixed his signature to those memorable records of British freedom, Magna Charta, and the Charta de Foresta; by an article in the first of which it was expressly stipulated, that "the City of London should have all its ancient privileges and free customs, as well by land as by water." The barons, having had frequent experience of the king's great insincerity, resolved upon taking all necessary precautions to oblige him to keep the treaty, and among other things they engaged him to leave them in possession of the city and Tower of London; notwithstanding which they soon found that neither oaths nor treaties were capable of binding John; who, soon repenting of what he had done, not only applied to the Pope for an absolution from his oath, but likewise to divers foreign princes for assistance, obliging himself, that, if by their help he should reduce his rebellious subjects, they should be put into inmediate possession of all their lands. This promise had so great an effect upon soldiers of fortune, that in a short time a vast number of men rived from Normandy, Poictou, Gascony, Brabant and

Flanders

The barons, finding themselves not in a condition to withstand so great a power, retired to London, where they were soon overtaken by a thundering bull of excommunication from Rome, whereby all confederate barons were excommunicated, and their lands interdicted, together with the city, that had joined them. But, whilst the barons and citizens seemed to despise the pope's thunderbolts, the king proceeded in ravaging and destroying all their lands and castles, by which they were reduced to a very deplorable condition; therefore, to be revenged of the king, they, with the Londoners, had recourse to a very desperate expedient, by inviting over Lewis, eldest son to Philip, king of France, to whom they offered the crown. This overture was readily accepted by the French king, who immediately began

* Act Reg. Gualt. Cov. Chron.

et civitas London, habea omnes antiquas libertates, et liberas consue

tudines suas tam per terras quam per aquas.'

Matt. Par. Hist. Angl.

his preparations to invade England, on receiving hostages from the barons for the due fulfilment of their engagements. In the inean time, a body of John's troops, which had approached the city, was routed by the Londoners, and Saverie de Mallion, their commander, being much wounded, escaped with difficulty. "The Londoners also," says Stow, tooke the 65 ships of pirates, besides innumerable others that were drowned, that had besieged the river of Thamis."*

On the arrival of Lewis, who, in May 1216, landed at Sandwich from a fleet of nearly 600 vessels, the citizens received him with much pomp, and, with the barons, swore fealty to him, after his solemn oath to restore to all their lost inheritances, and to the nation its ancient privileges.'+ Whether this oath would, or would not, have been observed, had success crowned his enterprize, it is difficult to say; unless we give credit to what Matthew Paris and Knighton relate of the Viscount de Melun, one of Lewis's principal confidents, who being seized with a mortal distemper in London, when at the point of death, disclosed to certain English barons, that the prince, in the event of his final triumph, had resolved to banish all the nobles that had opposed king John, as traitors to their country, and also to destroy their posterity. Certain it is, that the barons had been very soon convinced of their imprudence in calling in foreign aid; and at the time of the king's death at Newark, in the October following, many of them were preparing to return to their allegiance. The accession of Henry the Third occasioned a still more important change in the state of affairs; and through the political conduct of William Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke, who was declared regent, the French prince was constrained to shut himself up in London, being blocked both by land and water, and ultimately to relinquish all his claims to the throne, and to quit the kingdom. He obtained pardon, however, for his English adherents, and conditioned that the city of London should retain all her ancient privileges. This attention to their interests was so gratifying to the citizens, that, on the departure of Lewis from France, they lent him 5,000 marks to discharge his debts.

John is said to have been the first monarch who coined what has since been denominated sterling or easterling money; which obtained this name from the circumstance of his sending for artists from the German states to rectify and regulate the silver coinage; gold coin not having yet been appropriated as a circulating medium of commerce.

It is curious to observe that an income of 107. per annum, at the time we are describing, would have gone as far in housekeeping as 150l. of our present currency. Wheat was 38. per

quarter, or about 98. of our time; Rochelle wine 208. per tun; Anjou wine 248.; and the best French wine, at about 268. 8d., or about 80s. at present.

The manner of living during this period was grossly extravagant. Of the luxury of those times it will be sufficient to produce a single instance. Fitz-Stephen tells us, that an archbishop of Canterbury paid for a single dish of eels five pounds, amounting, according to the most moderate computation, to four-score pounds of our money; but, in reality, to almost double that sum. But the extravagance of the entertainments was compensated by the soberness of the hours. The time of dining, even at court, and in the families of the proudest barons, was nine in the morning, and of supping, five in the afternoon. These hours were considered not only as favourable to business, but as conducive to health. The proverbial jingle of the day gives us a picture of the division of time in the twelfth and thirteenth

History of London from the Reign of Henry the Third to the Reign of Edward the Second.

IMMEDIATELY after the departure of Lewis, Henry, the young king, made his public entry into London in a pompous manner, where, to appearance, he was received with the greatest demonstrations of joy. But this was not sufficient to wipe off the dislike the court had conceived against the city, as may be discovered in the tyrannic proceedings of this reign.+

In 1218 the citizens paid him the sum of forty marks, that they might not be questioned for selling a certain sort of cloth, that was not full two yards within the list.

At the same time the forest of Middlesex being disforested, it gave the citizens an opportunity of purchasing land and build

mg thereon, whereby the suburbs of the city were greatly increased; at which time the king wrote to the sheriffs of London to repair the prison of Newgate, and the money disbursed by them should be allowed in their accounts; which shews that this gaol was not then under the direction of the city. And in the same year the citizens paid the king a fifteenth of their personal estates, for the enjoyment of their ancient rights and immunities.

Proclamation was made in London, A. D. 1220, strictly enjoining all foreigners whatsoever, merchants excepted, to depart the kingdom by Michaelmas following. At the same time, the citizens of Cologne, who were merchants and members of the Anseatic corporation in London, paid the king thirty marks, to have seisin or possession of their Guildhall in the city, which stood where now the Still-yard is in Thames-street.*

The year 1222 furnished the court with a plausible pretence to carry their resentment into execution against the Londoners; the event is thus related by our historians :

:

A great wrestling match being held without London, at Matilda's Hospital, now St. Giles in the Fields, on St. James's day, between the citizens and the inhabitants of the adjacent villages, the Londoners obtained the victory from the people of Westminster, who being thus exposed to the raillery of the conquerors, sought an insidious and base revenge. The steward of the Abbot of Westminster (who, it is to be presumed, vainly imagined that his master's or his own honour was thereby affected) meditating revenge against the Londoners, perfidiously appointed another wrestling match to be held at Westminster, on the first of August following, and as an encouragement, gave a ram for the prize; thither the citizens, at the time prefixed, resorted in great numbers, when, to their great surprise, instead of diversion, which they went for, they found themselves betrayed in a most cowardly and villainous manner, and set upon by a great number of armed men, appointed for that purpose, who cruelly beat and wounded many of them, and put the rest to flight.

This treachery occasioned great commotion in the city, where the populace being assembled, they breathed nothing but vengeance: insomuch that Serle Mercer, then mayor, though a wise and prudent magistrate, was not able to restrain their fury; for one Constantine Fitz-Arnulph, an eminent citizen, who had been a great favourer of the French during the late troubles, putting himself at the head of the mob, told them that the best way to revenge themselves upon the abbot and his steward, would be to pull down their houses; whereby they would be made sensi

Fabian's Chron. p. 7.

ble that the citizens of London were not to be affronted with impunity. This advice being approved of, he led them to Westminster, crying with a loud voice, Monjoye St. Denis, God help us, and our Lord Lewis; and, having pulled down several houses belonging to the abbot and his steward, returned to London in triumph.

The Abbot of Westminster, who afterwards repaired to the city to complain of the loss he had sustained, was himself insulted, and with great difficulty effected his escape by water. When the tumult was appeased, the Chief Justiciary, Hubert, came with an armed force to the Tower, and summoning the Mayor and principal citizens before him, inquired for the authors of the late riot. Fitz-Arnulph, who was present, with a boldness worthy of a better cause, avowed himself to be one; and said, that they had done no more than what they ought, and were resolved to stand by what they had done.' Hubert, highly incensed at this speech, ordered Constantine to be hanged on the fullowing morning; though when the latter' sawe the rope about his necke,' he offered the enormous sum of 15,000 marks to have his life spared. With him were executed his nephew, and one Geoffrey.

The executions being over, the Justiciary repaired to the city, attended by a strong guard, where he apprehended many of the principal rioters, and in a most inhuman and arbitrary manner, caused the hands or feet of most of them to be cut off. These citizens, with the former, suffered without any manner of legal proceedings, or form of trial. Hubert, thinking that he had not sufficiently punished the city by those dreadful severities. (for which he was ever afterwards rendered justly odious to the citizens) degraded the mayor and all the magistrates, set a Custos over the city, and obliged thirty persons of his own chusing to become security for the citizens' good behaviour; which the community of the city not only confirmed by charter under their common seal, but likewise promised to surrender either one or all of the sureties, when demanded; and, in case of mortality, to fill up the vacancies with other persons of worth. This was the beginning of the grievous sufferings of this city under the intolerable government of Henry III.† And besides the punishments above-mentioned, Henry, before he would restore their privileges, compelled the citizens, with heavy threatenings, to pay to the kinge many thousand marks.'‡

Some time after, A. D. 1224, the states of the kingdom being assembled in parliament, at London, and the arbitrary and crue!

The watch-word of the French

during the previous troubles.

+ Matt. Paris. Matt. West. Brad Hp. Hist. Eng.

Stow's Ann. 263