Chapter VI: Part 6

The Rights that belonged to Robert Fitzwalter, Chastilion and Banner-Bearer of London and Lord of Wodeham.

"The said Robert and his heirs ought to be and are chief Banner-bearers of London in and for the Castlry which he and his ancestors have of Baynard's Castle in the said City. In time of war the said Robert and his heirs ought to serve the City in manner hereinafter written.

"That the said Robert ought to come upon his Horse of Service, with 20 men at arms, mounted, harnessed with mail or iron, even to the great door of the Minster of St. Paul, with a Banner of his Arms displayed before him. And when he has thus come, then ought the Lord Mayor of London, with the Sheriffs and Aldermen, come on foot out of the Minster to the said door, with his banner in his hand, and the banner ought to be gules, an image of St. Paul d'or, the feet, hands, and head, argent, with a sword argent, in the hand of the said Image.

"And as soon as they shall have come forth, the said Robert shall alight from his horse and salute the Mayor, as his companion, saying, 'Sir Mayor, I am come to do my Service which I owe to the City,' and the Mayor shall answer, 'We allow you here as our Banner-Bearer, this banner of the City to carry and govern to your power, to the honour and profit of our City.' Then shall the said Robert take the banner in his hand, and the Mayor, Alderman, and Sheriffs shall present him with a horse of £20 value, with a saddle, garnished with the arms of the said Robert, and covered with a sendal of the same arms, and deliver £20 to his Chamberlain for the charges of the day.

"The said Robert shall then mount the horse, banner in hand, and desire the Mayor, forthwith, to cause a Marshall to be chosen out of the host of London, which being done, he shall then cause the signal to be sounded through the City, for the commons to assemble, and follow the banner carried by the said Robert to Aldgate, and a Council of two sage persons from each ward be chosen, in the Priory of the Holy Trinity, to look to the safe keeping of the City in case the said Robert should have to absent himself for the purposes of war. And if the said Robert with the army of London shall continue for the space of a year at the siege of any town or castle, he shall have 100 shillings from the commonalty of London, and no more. These are the rights of the said Robert in times of war; in times of peace they are as follows:—

"That is to say, the said Robert shall have a soke or ward in the said City, viz., from the wall of the canonry of St. Paul, as a man goes by the Bracine (brew-house) of St. Paul to the Thames, and so to the side of the mill standing by the water that runs down by Fleet Bridge, and thence by the wall, round about the Friers preachers to Ludgate, and so return by the back of the said Fryers' House, to the corner of the said canons' walls of St. Paul. That is to say, all the parish of the church of St. Andrew, which is in his gift in right of his lordship. Appendant to his soke he hath all these things under-written:—

"That he shall have a Soke-man of his own choice, provided he be of the Sokemannery of the Ward, and if any of the Sokemannery be impleaded at the Guildhall, his sokeman may demand a court of the said Robert, which shall be granted by the Mayor and Citizens. And if any thief be taken in his soke, he shall have stocks and prison in the soke and be taken hence to the Guildhall before the Mayor of judgment, but which shall not be pronounced until he is brought into the court of the said Robert and Franchise; and if the judgment be death for treason he shall be tied to a post in the Thames for two tides, and if he be a common Larcin he shall be hanged at the Elms and there suffer his judgment, as other thieves. Also the said Robert and his heirs have a great honour in holding such a franchise in the said City, where the Mayor and Citizens ought to do him right, that is to say, that when the Mayor is minded to call a great council he shall call the said Robert or his heirs thereto, and he shall be sworn thereof against all people saving the king and his heirs. And when the said Robert cometh to the Hustings of the Guildhall of the said City, the Mayor or his Lieutenant shall arise against him and set him down near to him; and so long as he is in the Guildhall all the judgments shall be pronounced by him, according to the records of the Recorders of the said Guildhall. And all the waifs which shall happen whilst he is there he shall give to the bailiffs of the City or to whomsoever he pleases, by advice of the Mayor of said City."

Robert, second baron, died in 1328, three years after his father.

Sir John, Kt., third baron, died in 1361, who was knighted for his bravery in war.

Walter, fourth baron, died in 1386. In the 44th Edward III., he was captured when fighting in Gascony, and was obliged to mortgage one of his castles for £1,000 to raise money for his ransom. He held many other military employments.

Walter, fifth baron, died in 1407, having married Joane, sister and heiress of John, second Baron Devereux, who died in 1379, when the Baronies of Fitzwalter and Devereux became united, Walter Fitzwalter becoming Baron Devereux, _jure uxoris_, his heir succeeding in his own right.

Humphrey, sixth baron, died _s.p._, a minor, in 1422. Walter, his brother, seventh baron, was summoned from 1429 and died in 1432, the last of the line of the Fitzwalters. He fought under Henry V. in the French wars with great distinction, and for his services had a grant of lands in Normandy. His daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, conveyed the baronies by marriage to Sir John Radcliffe, Kt., an eminent military commander, who became Baron Fitzwalter, _jure uxoris_. Dying 39th Henry VI., he was succeeded by his son, Sir John, Kt., who was beheaded in 1495 for implication in the Perkin Warbeck Conspiracy, attainted, and the barony forfeited. Nevertheless, his son, Robert, finding favour at the court of Henry VII. was restored in blood and estates; and in the 1st Henry VIII. to the forfeited barony. For bravery in the French Wars, and other services to the State, he was created Viscount Fitzwalter in 1529, and four years after further elevated in the peerage to the Earldom of Sussex, and was decorated with the order of the Garter. He was thrice married, having issue by all his wives, and died in 1542, when he was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Henry, K.B. and K.G., who died in 1556, from whom descended Sir Edward, sixth Viscount and Earl, who died, _s.p._, 1641, when these honours became extinct, the barony falling into abeyance, as it remained during the civil wars and after the Restoration, until 1669, when it was called out, in the person of Benjamin Mildmay, descended from Frances, second daughter of Sir Henry, second Earl of Sussex, who married Sir Thomas Mildmay, of Mulsho, Essex. He died in 1679, was succeeded by his eldest son Charles, who died _s.p._ 1728, to whom followed his brother Henry, who in 1730 was created Viscount Harwich and Earl Fitzwalter; but dying, in 1753, without surviving issue, the two latter titles became extinct, and the barony fell into abeyance, which was terminated in 1868, in the person of Sir Brook William Bridges, fifth baronet, who was called to the House of Peers as Baron Fitzwalter, of Woodham Walter, in the county of Essex, and who died in December, 1875. Having thus disposed of the Barons, Viscounts, and Earls Fitzwalter, it becomes us to inquire into the subsequent history of the old Norman castle, which, flinging its shadow over the then silvery Thames, was the home of the Castellans of London. We have no record of what the Castle of Ralph Baynard was like, but may presume that it was in the usual Norman style, heavy and ungainly, and in its general features not unlike that given in Aggas's Map, _temp._ Elizabeth, as it appeared after its restoration in the 15th century. A view of it was published in 1780, and its site is indicated in the map of Baynard Castle Ward in Northouk's _History of London_. It appears to have been a huge, quadrangular block, the body presenting five gabled divisions, with sextangular corner towers, each division and the towers containing two lofty stories, with narrow slits for windows, and rooms in each gable. Little is known of the castle after its alienation to the Dominicans in 1275, until the reign of Henry VI. It appears to have come to the Crown, and was in the possession of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, fourth son of King Henry IV., to whom it had probably been granted by that king. In 1428 it was partially destroyed by fire, but was re-edified by the duke, who continued to reside within its walls until his death. Incurring the jealousy and hatred of Margaret of Anjou and her faction, the duke, who was arrested on a charge of high treason when attending the Parliament of St. Edmundsbury, 1446, at the instance of the queen was committed to prison, and there murdered by suffocation or strangulation, when the castle reverted to the Crown.

In 1460 the Earl of Warwick defeated the Lancastrians at the second battle of St. Alban's, the result of which was a deputation to Edward, Earl of March, now Duke of York, and living in Baynard Castle, to request him to assume the Crown; and it was from its portals that he went in procession to St. Paul's to hear the _Te Deum_ sung for the Yorkist Victory, and hence to Westminster, to be vested in the mantle of Royalty, after which he summoned a great council of barons and ecclesiastics to Baynard Castle, to consult with them on the state of the realm. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was residing in Baynard Castle, after the murder of his nephews, when he was waited upon by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, for the purpose of requesting him to assume the Crown. Shakespeare delineates the scene with wonderfully graphic power in his drama of _King Richard III._, act 3, scene 7.

King Henry VII. occupied the castle as a place of residence some three or four years; and Henry VIII. expended large sums of money in repairs and embellishment, and entertained there the King of Castile, but appears to have granted it to the Earl of Pembroke, a gentleman of the bedchamber, who had married Anne, sister of Queen Katherine Parr. On the death of Edward VI. he favoured the pretensions of Lady Jane Grey to the Crown, but almost immediately changed his opinion; and in his City castle a council was held, where it was determined that Mary, King Edward's sister, should succeed, and she was at once proclaimed Queen at Cheapside Cross. In the reign of Elizabeth it appears to have been occupied by Sir John Fortescue, master of the wardrobe, close by, and the Queen is said to have supped there occasionally. It afterwards became the town residence of the Earls of Shrewsbury, coming to that family, probably, through the marriage of John, the tenth earl, with Mary, daughter of Sir Francis Fortescue, and so remained until the Great Fire of 1666, when the venerable old castle, which had witnessed so many important and tragical events connected with the City of which it was the guardian, was finally, and for ever, destroyed, not a vestige now remaining.

Sir Nicholas Brember, Knight, Lord Mayor of London.

Edward III. was one of the greatest of English kings, and the progenitor, by Philippa of Hainault, of a family of stalwart sons, brave warriors and able statesmen, whose names will long live in the annals of England and the poetry of romance. They were Edward the Black Prince, the hero of Creci and Poictiers; Lionel, Duke of Clarence; John of Gaunt, "time-honoured Lancaster," titular king of Castile, father of King Henry IV. and of two queens, and the most conspicuous figure in the pages of Froissart; and Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, the most persistent opponent of his nephew, King Richard, and his government by favourites.

Unfortunate was it for England that the Prince of Wales died prematurely, and equally unfortunate was it that he left behind him a son, by the quondam "fair maid of Kent," who succeeded to the throne of his grandfather as Richard II. at eleven years of age, A.D. 1377. In his nonage a council was appointed for the government of the realm, from which all his uncles, the best fitted by affinity and great abilities for the office, were excluded; a measure which gave rise to jealousy and antagonism on their part to his government, with disastrous results to the king's favourites, and ultimately to the king himself. Richard was spoilt by adulation and flattery, and became the tool of intriguers; never displaying much ability, caring more for the display of his grandeur than for the good government of his people; desiring to rule absolutely, but lacking the power; impetuous, fierce, revengeful, and weak-minded, and attempting to accomplish by crooked ways what would have been better carried out by straightforward measures. His chief favourites were Robert de Vere, ninth Earl of Oxford, created Marquis of Dublin in 1336, and Duke of Ireland the following year: Michael de la Pole, a Hull merchant, created Baron de la Pole 1366 and Earl of Suffolk 1385; Alexander Nevill (a younger son of Ralph, second Baron Nevill), Archbishop of York; Sir Robert Tresilian, Chief Justice; and Sir Nicholas Brember, Knight, alderman of London.

Sir Nicholas was a merchant of London of considerable wealth and influence. He is styled by Froissart, "King's Draper," but seems rather to have been a wholesale merchant. Towards the end of the reign of Edward III. the ancient trade-guilds, crafts and mysteries which had hitherto been confined, each to one special trade, were reconstructed as Livery Companies, by charter, and endowed with certain privileges and immunities; as the means of developing commerce.

From _Rot Parl._ ii. 278, it appears that at this period, certain wholesale merchants established the "Grossers' Company," which threatened to ruin some of the smaller crafts. In a petition, 36 Edward III., it is stated that "great mischief had arisen, as well to the king, as to the great men and commons, from the merchants called Grossers, who engrossed all manner of merchandize vendible, and who suddenly raised the price of such merchandize within the realm, putting to sale, by covin and by ordinances, made by themselves, and keeping goods in store till times of dearth, etc.," suggesting as a remedy that these merchants should not be permitted to deal in more than one class of these commodities; and an Act based upon this suggestion was passed 37 Edward III. Although Brember was one of the original members of this monopolizing company, he enforced the penalties provided by the Act with great strictness, as, when he was Lord Mayor in 1385, he disfranchised several freemen for carrying on trades other than their own.

At this time the aldermen were elected annually until 17 Richard II., when they were chosen for life, or during good behaviour. Brember, who had been elected several years in succession, served the office of sheriff in 1372, and that of Lord Mayor not less than four times—in the years 1377, 1383, 1384, and 1385, being the first alderman who held the office in two consecutive years. This, however, was not by the goodwill of the freemen, but in opposition of their wishes, the citizens being favourers of the Duke of Gloucester, and disliking Brember as one of the evil counsellors of the king. In the _Chronicle of London_, printed 1827, from a MS. in the British Museum, is the following passage:—"Also this yere Sr. Nicholl Brembre was chosen Maire agene be the saide craftes, and by men of the contre at Harrow and the contre there aboughte, and not be fre eleccion of the citee of London, as it owith to be; and the olde halle was stuffed with men at armes overe even be ordinaunce and assente of Sr Nicholl Brember fur to chose hym maire on the morrowe, and so he was." This interference with the rights of free election was not allowed to pass without remonstrance. "The folke of the Mercerye" made it the subject of a petition to the King, in which they stated that "Though the eleccion of mairelte was to be to the fremen of the citee bi gode and paisable avys of the wysest and trewest, at a day in the yere, frelich," (free) "Nichol Brembre wyth his upberers, had through debate and stronger partye and carrying grete quantities of armure to the Guyldehall," overawed the citizens and procured his re-election, adding that they of the Mercery or other crafts protested against the election as illegal, "they were anon apeched for arrysers ageins the pees" (impeached as the disturbers of the peace). Although Brember's election was not set aside, this and other remonstrances led to certain reforms in the Corporation.

In 1381 the memorable meeting between King Richard and the Kentish rebels took place in Smithfield, when their leader, Wat Tyler, was stabbed by Lord Mayor Walworth, and when the boy king, by a bold and masterly act, appeased the mob, who were preparing to avenge the death of their captain. Speed informs us that Walworth, after the fall of Tyler, rushed into the City and returned accompanied by Sir Robert Knowles and a thousand citizens in armour, when he "commanded the head of Wat Tyler to be chopt of from his dead carcase and borne before him on a speare to the king." Froissart says, "among the first" (from the City) "came Sir Robert Knolles and Sir Perducas d'Albret well attended, then several aldermen, with upwards of 600 men at arms, and a powerful man of the City, by name Nicholas Brember, the king's draper, bringing with him a large force on foot." After the dispersion of the mob with ample promises of a redress of their grievances, the king knighted Walworth, and gave him a fee farm worth £100 per annum, as he did also Aldermen Brember, Philpot, Laund, Standish, Twiford, and Traver, granting to each a fee farm of £40 per annum. Thomas of Woodstock, the king's youngest uncle, created Duke of Gloucester, 1385, was the most vehement opponent of his nephew's policy, and the favourites Vere, Pole, and Brember, perceiving him to be the greatest obstacle to their assumption of the supreme direction of affairs conspired to remove him. They arranged that he should be invited to a supper in Brember's house, and whilst there should be assassinated. It was, however, necessary that the invitation should be sent through Lord Mayor Exton, "who," says Maitland, "was no sooner acquainted with this wicked design than he received it with the utmost abhorrence and detestation, and boldly declared that he would never consent to so flagitious an act of villainy," and forthwith gave information to the duke, who took measures for his safety, and resolved upon the destruction of the conspirators, in which he was backed by the citizens of London, who suggested that he should assume the government of the country, hinting that they would be ready to give him support. This, however, was not a practicable scheme, for even if York and Lancaster should approve of the deposition of Richard, they, as elder brothers, would have prior claims to the succession.

The question was brought before the Parliament of 1386, which met at Westminster, when a council of eleven, with Gloucester at the head, was appointed to govern the kingdom under the king, who was required to dismiss Pole, his chancellor, and the rest of his favourites, which he promised to do, but as soon as Parliament broke up he carried them with him into the west of England to devise measures for opposing the confederacy. They resolved to take up arms against the duke, and, as a preliminary, called a council of the judges at Nottingham, who, under compulsion, declared the acts of the Parliament invalid, and those who passed them traitors. Whilst at Bristol the king sent Pole, Brember, and Sir Peter Gouloufre to London for intelligence, where they had an interview with the governor of the Tower, who told them that they ran great risk in coming there. "How so," they inquired; "we are the king's knights, and have a right of entry into his palaces?" The governor replied "that it was true the Tower belonged to the king, and that he would be obedient to him, but could no further than when his orders were not in contravention to the will of the council and the Duke of Gloucester; and (added he) I tell you for your welfare that you had better depart, for if it become known that you are here, the Tower will be besieged by the citizens, and you will be torn to pieces." Upon hearing this they departed, not caring to brave the fury of a London mob, returned to Kensington, mounted their horses, and rode back to the king.

Meanwhile Gloucester and his nephew, the Earl of Derby, afterwards King Henry IV., finding that none but the most decided measures would prevail with the king, raised an army of 40,000 men, with which they marched towards London—not with the object of dethroning the king, but to uphold the council and destroy the power of the favourites. Richard, who was not deficient in boldness, came to London, and it was reported that Brember and Sir Thomas Trivet accompanied him with a thousand armed men, who were secretly placed in the mews at Charing Cross, with the view of killing the most obnoxious of the king's enemies as they passed from London to Westminster.

Richard kept state in Westminster Hall, and when he was informed of the rumours relative to Brember and his thousand men, swore solemnly that he knew nothing about them, but contrived to get them away and join De Vere in the West, who was raising an army in Wales in the king's service.

When the lords presented themselves before the king, the Bishop of Ely, the new Lord Chancellor, asked them why they were assembled in warlike array at Haringey Park, to whom they replied, "For the good of the king and the kingdom, and to weed out the traitors by whom he is surrounded." On being asked to name the traitors, they answered, "Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland; Alex. Nevill, Archbishop of York; Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk; Sir Robert Tresilian, that false Justicier; and Sir Nicholas Brember, that false knight of London;" and then threw down the gage of challenge. The king, having sent his favourites out of immediate harm's way, rated the lords soundly for presuming to take up arms against his supreme will and authority. "You," said he, "whom I could kill like cattle, and whom I esteem no more than the basest scullion in my kitchen!" yet he eventually promised that the matter should be taken into consideration by the Parliament, which would assemble at Westminster on the morrow after Candlemas.

A proclamation was soon after issued by Richard, forbidding any one, under pain of death, to supply arms, ammunition, or provisions to the rebel army, and he sent word to De Vere to hasten his muster of men, and march towards London to put down the rebellion. Simultaneously with the proclamation, the confederates sent a letter to the Corporation of London, soliciting their sympathy and aid, which was immediately responded to with assurances of both.

The Duke of Ireland, with his Welsh army, marched eastward and came to Oxford, when he heard that the Dukes of Gloucester and York and Lord Mayor Exton were coming to meet him, and were not far distant, having crossed the Thames by Reading Bridge—those of Staines and Windsor having been broken down by direction of de Vere. He had been appointed Lieut.-General of the king's forces, with Suffolk and Brember in command under him; but on hearing this intelligence he became terribly alarmed. He called a council of war, and it was decided that they must give battle to the enemy; but it was also arranged that they—De Vere, De la Pole, and Brember—should station themselves on fleet horses in the wings of the army, so that if the day went against them, they might save themselves by flight.

Soon afterwards the army of Gloucester made its appearance, and the King's Welshmen, panic stricken, threw down their arms, and took to flight in disorder. Their leaders followed—or set the example—and escaped to Wales, and hence De Vere, De la Pole, and the Archbishop gained the Continent by way of Scotland, the Duke of Ireland dying an exile in Holland, Suffolk in France, and Nevill as a parish priest in Flanders. With respect to the others. Froissart says: "Brember was arrested in Wales, brought to London, and beheaded;" Speed: "Sir N. Brember and others were aprehended, and kept in straight prison to answere such accusations (which if meere calumniations) as in the next Parliament at Westminster, should be objected. Parliament met at Candlemas: Tresilian had sentence to be drawn to Tyburne in the afternoone, and there to have his throat cut, which was done accordingly. This Bramber" (saith Walsingham) "was saide to have imagined to bee made Duke of New Troye (the olde supposed name of London), by murthering thousands of such citizens (whose names he had billed for that purpose) as were of such likelihood to oppose him." Maitland says, "Soon after Nicholas Brember, late Lord Mayor of London, one of the wicked favourites of Richard, was condemned by Parliament for High Treason, for which he was adjudged to be drawn and hanged, which was accordingly executed upon him at Tyburn, and not according to that idle story mentioned by Holingshed, Stow, and others, of his being beheaded with an ax, which he had prepared for the execution of all such as opposed his measures. If this perfidious and cruel man and his accomplices had succeeded in their wicked schemes he was to have been made Duke of New Troye, as London is denominated by the fabulous Geoffrey of Monmouth."

Brember was buried in Christ Church, Newgate Street. His arms are emblazoned in the Hall of the Grocers' Company.

An Olden Time Bishop of London: Robert de Braybrooke.

In the pleasant Northamptonshire village of Braybrooke, on the verge of a forest, and near the Leicestershire border, there was born, some five-and-a-half centuries ago, a child who was destined to pass his name down to posterity in the annals of London.

In the earlier portion of the thirteenth century, Robert May, otherwise de Braybrooke, a favourite of King John, and landed proprietor in Braybrooke, built a castle on his estates for his residence. His eldest son, Henry, married Christian Ledlet, a great heiress, and assumed the name of Ledlet. The estates passed by marriage to the Griffin family, who were created Barons de Braybrooke, 1688, the barony expiring for lack of male heirs, 1742; but the heiress married William Whitwell, whose son assumed the name of Griffin and was created Baron Braybrooke, 1788, with limitation to his nephew, Richard Neville Aldworth, who succeeded to the barony, and assumed the name of Neville in addition to and after Aldworth, from whom is descended the extant Baron Braybrooke. Henry de Braybrooke, probably the son of Robert, was a "justice itinerant" in county Beds. and was dragged from the bench at Dunstable by the Norman Falcasius—who held Bedford Castle for the King against the barons—and cast into a dungeon of the castle for having given adverse judgments in thirty-five law suits which had been instituted by Falcasius.

The boy Robert was probably born in the castle, and educated in the little monastery in the forest hard by, or possibly in the more distant great abbey of Medehamsted (Peterborough), and in his youthful wanderings would doubtless sometimes visit the neighbouring town of Lutterworth, where Wyclif, the leader of the Lollards, Braybrooke's victims, was afterwards to pass away from this world.

After his preliminary studies he went to Oxford, where he became a licentiate of civil law, and took Holy Orders.

His very first act after ordination displays his character as a determined supporter of Papal supremacy, and at the same time demonstrates the influence of his family. In spite of the statute of provisors, recently passed, and of præmunire, he obtained a provision from the Pope for induction into the living of Hinton, in Cambridgeshire, the patronage being vested in the Fellows of Peterhouse; and notwithstanding the penalties attaching to the offence, obtained the living in 1360, and held it nineteen years. In 1366, he was nominated Prebendary of Fenton, in York Cathedral, which he exchanged for that of Friday Thorpe in the same cathedral, 1376, and the same year was appointed Archdeacon of Cornwall, and Prebendary of Wells. In 1380, he was constituted Dean of Salisbury, and a few months after exchanged his archdeaconry for the rectory of Bideford, resigning at the same time the rectory of Hinton. The following year, by virtue of a Bull of Pope Urban VI., he was appointed sixty-third Bishop of London, succeeding Courtney, who had been translated to Canterbury in place of Archbishop Sudbury, who had been beheaded on Tower Hill three months before by the Wat Tyler insurgents.

Braybrooke lived in one of the most important periods in the annals of England—a transition period—when the religious, political, and intellectual systems of the country were experiencing earthquake-throes, essential in working out that liberty and social civilization which we now enjoy.

In the early portion of his life, the throne was occupied by "the greatest of the Plantagenets;" in his middle life, by one of the weakest; and the latter portion witnessed that change of dynasty which resulted in the Wars of the Roses, sweeping off vast numbers of the Norman lords, and leaving England more Saxon than it had been since the Conquest. In the century preceding his birth the feudal barons had been struggling with John and Henry III. against oppressive monarchial prerogative; had wrested from John the Magna Charta; and under the leading of Simon de Montfort, had in the latter reign summoned the first representative Parliament. And now the mass of the people—who had remained serfs, mere chattels, who could be bought and sold like cattle—rose under Wat Tyler and Jack Straw to assert their rights, proclaiming that all men were by nature equally free, and demanding the abolition of serfdom, the abrogation of unjust and oppressive laws, open markets, etc., adopting as their motto,—

"When Adam delved, and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?"

Their demands eventuated in certain concessions; but it was not until the Stuarts, by their exaggerated notions of kingly prerogative, had precipitated rebellion, that the liberties of England were established on a sure foundation by the victories of Cromwell. It was the period, too, of the commencement of the struggle with Rome for liberty of conscience. Never had England sunk so low in degradation as in 1213, when John, after boldly defying the Pope, found himself compelled to lay his crown at the feet of Pandulph. But now, "the morning star of the Reformation" was, by voice and pen, awakening the people to a consciousness of their slavery to a foreign priest, proclaiming that the Scriptures were the only rule of faith, and asserting the right of private judgment. Under the vigorous rule of the third Edward, the authority of the Pope in the realm was materially curbed, and enactments made declaring John's submission illegal, lacking, as it did, the assent of the representatives of the people, and making it penal to publish bulls, or any other Papal instruments, in the kingdom without the consent of Parliament.

Nevertheless the Lollards were looked upon as heretics by the authorities of the Church, and in 1377, Wyclif was cited to appear before the Primate and Bishop Courtnay in St. Paul's Cathedral. He went thither accompanied by his patrons, John of Gaunt and the Earl Marshal (Lord Henry Percy), when the latter, in consideration of the age and feebleness of the venerable reformer, desired him to be seated, "which," says Foxe, "eftsoons cast the Bishop of London into a furious chafe," which resulted in an altercation, the abrupt breaking up of the assembly, and the rush of the London mob, with whom the Duke of Lancaster was not then popular, to his palace of the Savoy, where they murdered a priest, but were dispersed by the Lord Mayor.

After the murder of Archbishop Sudbury and the elevation of Courtnay to the primacy, he called a synod together at the House of the Preaching Friars, London, at which the new bishop (Braybrooke) attended. Soon after their assembling, a shock of an earthquake occurred, which alarmed the ecclesiastics, but Courtnay adroitly turned it to account, saying that earthquakes were but the expulsion of noxious vapours from the earth, and it was a sign that Heaven looked with approval on their efforts to expel noxious doctrines from the Church, and the meeting very speedily pronounced fourteen of Wyclif's tenets erroneous or heretical.

This was, however, but the seed-time of religious liberty; the seeds, nevertheless, in spite of opposition, fructified under Henry VIII. and his daughter Elizabeth, grew apace under the Commonwealth, and the harvest was reaped after the expulsion of the second James.

Intellectually, too, Braybrooke was the contemporary of the transition from ignorance to learning. Chaucer, in his _Canterbury Pilgrims_, and Gower in his _Confessio Amantis_, were laying the foundation of our modern language and literature; and Faust, Gutenberg, and Schœffer were establishing their printing presses in Germany, to be introduced into England by Caxton in the next century, to aid in the diffusion of knowledge, and in the liberation of the people from political and spiritual thraldom.

When Braybrooke, half a millennium ago, was elevated to the episcopal bench, London was a comparatively small city, encircled by two miles of walls, gates, and ditch, with but one bridge over the Thames—that built by Peter of Colechurch, with its movable centre for the passage of vessels. The Tower was the Court and king's residence; with Baynard's Castle, in Thames Street; the magnificent Palace of the Savoy, the Monastery of the Knights Hospitallers, in Clerkenwell, and many another noble edifice lay in ruins, demolished by the Wat Tyler insurgents; the city was crowded with monasteries and churches; and the streets presented a mingled crowd of nobles, monks, friars, priests, and merchant burghers.

His cathedral was that which had risen on the ruins of the one destroyed by fire in the reign of the Conqueror, which had been 200 years in course of erection, and now stood forth a grand building, covering four acres of ground, with its Norman nave, two transepts, its pointed Gothic choir, its spire, 510 feet in height, and its beautiful Ladye Chapel, majestic in its magnitude, and beautiful in some of its details; with St. Paul's cross outside, where, every Sunday, some eloquent friar or priest addressed the citizens; and where many a memorable political sermon has been preached. On the northern side, near Warwick Lane, stood his residence, the Bishop's palace, described as being "a stately and spacious pile."

Internally he found the ecclesiastics in a lax state of discipline, and "the house of God a den of thieves." The cathedral was devoted more to secular than to religious uses. "The south alley for usury, the north for simony, and a horse fair in the midst, for all kinds of bargains, meetings, brawlings, murthers, and conspiracies; and the font for the payment of money;" which were associated with the shooting of arrows, ball playing, and deeds even more reprehensible than these. These abuses he set himself to correct, and effected a great reformation. The sacred edifice was also a sort of theatre, where mystery and miracle plays were performed, the stage consisting of three platforms, the upper representing the Creator, surrounded by angels; the second occupied by apostles, saints, and martyrs; and the lower presenting the mouth of hell, vomiting flames and smoke, and resounding with the shrieks of the lost. But it pleased the taste of the age that the monarch of the nether regions should correspond with the clown of the modern pantomime; and in the midst of solemn passages, the devil, with a troop of his imps, would issue forth, to perform all sorts of antics, and regale the ears of the audience with drolleries, filth, and what would now be considered blasphemy. With these representations the bishop did not interfere, considering them the only mode of appealing to the hearts and consciences of the ignorant multitude; unless, indeed, he sanctioned the petition of St. Paul's Players to Richard II., to prohibit ignorant and inexperienced persons from "acting the History of the Old Testament to the prejudice of the clergy of the Church." A favourite device of these plays was the descent of a white dove from an aperture of the roof, with the swinging of censers, to represent the descent of the Third Person in the Trinity.

On the surrender of the chancellorship by Sir Richard Scrope, 1382, "Robert Braybrooke, Bishopp of London," says Speed, "was made chancellor in his place. This act of the King's was displeasant to the whole realme, and one of the first things by which hee fell into dislike, it being among the infelicities of King Richard that those times were too full of sower and impatient censors for a Prince of so calme a temper, and as yet unseasoned in yeares, but hee onely held the office a yeare."

The distinguishing characteristic of Braybrooke's career was his unrelenting persecution of the Lollards. It was enacted, 5 Richard II., that any person preaching against the Catholic Faith should be imprisoned until he could "justify himself;" and 2 Henry IV. that all persons "suspected" of heresy should be imprisoned until they were "canonically purged," or until they abjured their errors, and that if they persisted in their heresy they should be delivered to the secular arm and "burnt to death before the people." Toleration was a word not known in that age. The oppressed ever cried out for liberty of conscience, whether Romanist or Reformer, but when they became the dominant power they were alike intolerant; and the cruelties of the bishop to the Lollards must be ascribed to the spirit of the age, backed by his own intense conviction that the Romanist was the one "sole Apostolic Church," and that to destroy the enemies who were beleaguering her was doing a service to God.

The bishop appears to have always been on friendly terms with the citizens of London, and was, with the Duke of Gloucester, instrumental in the reconciliation of King Richard and the Corporation after their serious quarrel about a loan of £1,000, afterwards heading a procession of 400 citizens on horseback to tender their submission, on which occasion a fountain of wine was set playing at the door of the cathedral, and the streets presented an animated spectacle, with streaming banners and tapestries hanging in front of the houses, the whole enlivened with instrumental music.

Notwithstanding his conservative sentiments, he welcomed the landing of Bolingbrooke, assisted actively in the deposition of Richard, was one of the signers of the document consigning him to perpetual imprisonment, which meant death, within the walls of "bloody Pomfret," and crowned the usurper; afterwards conducting a service in St. Paul's, at which King Henry was present, when the corpse of the murdered Richard was exposed there, to certify to the citizens that he was really dead, and obviate the possibility of revolts in his name.

Bishop Braybrooke died in the year 1404 (his epitaph says 1405), and he was buried in the Ladye Chapel of his cathedral, under "a faire marble stone inlaide with letters made every one of a several piece of brasse." Two-and-a-half centuries after his burial the cathedral was destroyed in the great fire of London, and on the removal of the rubbish for the rebuilding the tomb was found open, with the slab broken. "The body," as Camden states, "was found entire, the skin still inclosing the bones and fleshy parts; only in the breast there was a hole (made, I suppose, by accident) through which one might view and handle his lungs. The skin was of deep tawny colour and the body very light, as appeared to all who came to view and touch it, it being exposed in a coffin for some time without any offensive smell: and then reinterred."

A Brave Old London Bishop: Fulco Basset.

At the period when this prelate lived, England was struggling to free itself from the shackles of its Norman and Angevin rulers. The feudal system had been introduced at the Conquest, which constituted the king the absolute master of the land; the barons were his vassals, holding their lands by tenures of military service, and the great mass of the people were either vassals of the barons, holding portions of land by knight's service, or were mere serfs, excepting some merchants and traders in the cities and towns, who enjoyed a modified species of freedom, for which special charters were granted by kings. The citizens of London have ever been famous for the bold and resolute way in which they have preserved and defended the liberties and immunities granted in such charters, and when Basset became their bishop they gladly welcomed him as one who would not be backward in lending them his countenance and assistance in any attempted invasion of their chartered rights.

Beyond this permissive freedom, however, they aimed at something further; the notion that kings were not the masters, but the servants, of the sovereign people had been bruited abroad, and the initiative had been taken by the barons, who revolted against the tyranny of John, and extorted from him the Magna Charta, in which they were backed by the Londoners and the merchants of other large towns; but the peasantry and labourers were too much down-trodden in serfdom to make any assertion of their natural rights, and it was not until more than a century afterwards that they, under Wat Tyler, Jack Cade, and other leaders, began to put forth the strange notion that they also were men with natural rights, which they ceased not to reiterate, until a couple of centuries afterwards they established their claims at Marston Moor and Naseby and Worcester.

Thurstan Basset came to England at the Conquest, whose descendant Ralph (_temp._ Henry II.,) by his great abilities raised the family to distinction and wealth, and was the author of many salutary laws, notably that of Frank Pledge. From him issued three baronies by writ, those of Basset of Sapcoate, 1264-1378; Basset of Drayton, 1264, in abeyance 1390; and Basset of Welden, 1299-1410.

Thomas, his second son, was founder of the Wycombe branch, whose eldest son, Gilbert, had issue by Egeline, daughter of —— Courtney, three sons—Gilbert, Fulco, and Philip—all of whom succeeded to the paternal estates, one after the other.

Fulco was born at the end of the 12th century, was brought up to the Church, and became Provost of Beverley, 1206-1238; Rector of Cottesbrook, Northants, which he resigned, 1239; Dean of York, 1239-1242; Bishop of London, 1241-1258, but not consecrated until 1244, in consequence of a vacancy in the See of Canterbury. He died of the plague, 1258, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.

In the year 1250, he had a warm altercation with the Archbishop of Canterbury, relative to metropolitical visitation, to which the archbishop had an undoubted right, but which Basset denied. "Comming to London, Boniface (the archbishop) tooke a small occasion to defoce the bishop with fowle and reprochfull speeches, and being resisted by the Dean and Chapter of Paules (who had appealed from his visitation to the Pope), he made no more adoo but excommunicated them every one." The next day he proceeded to the priory of St. Bartholomew, in Smithfield, telling the sub-prior and monks, who came in their copes to meet him, that he had come to visit them, who replied very respectfully that "they knew their bishop (whose only office it was) to be a very sufficient man in his place," and that, "although they were sorry to disappoint him, they could not recognise any other." "This answere so enraged this lusty Archbishop, as not being able to containe his anger within any bounds of discretion, he ranne violently to the Sub Prior, strucke the poore old man downe to the ground, kicked him, beate him and buffeted him pitifully, tore his coape from his backe, rent it into a number of pieces, and when he had so done stamped upon it like a madde man." His followers also fell upon the monks, and a general fight took place; but the Londoners hearing of the fray took up cudgels in behalf of their bishop and prior, when the archbishop took to flight, and got safely across the ferry to Lambeth. "If they (the Londoners) could have met with him, they would surely have hewen him into a thousand peeces." As soon as he got home he excommunicated the whole of the inmates of the priory, and along with them Bishop Basset. Appeals on both sides were made to Rome, the Dean of St. Paul's going thither, followed by the archbishop. A great deal of bribery took place, the Pope pocketing the proceeds from both parties alike, and delaying his decision in order to exact more money, which seems not to have been spared. At length he gave judgment that the archbishop had the right of visitation all through his province, but for the unseemly brawling and fighting in Smithfield he condemned him to rebuild, at his own cost, Lambeth Palace, which was then in a dilapidated condition.

Although he was ever zealous and earnest in his defence of the people against kingly and priestly tyranny, and supported the barons in this and the preceding reign, it was in his old age, when verging upon the grave, that Basset especially made a display of that bravery and sturdy English love of freedom and hatred of oppression which entitles him to the designation at the head of this chapter.

King Henry and the Pope had conspired together to levy a tax on the English clergy, and share the plunder. Rustand, the Pope's legate, with this view, convoked a meeting of the clergy of London, and made his demand in the name of the Pope. Basset rose and replied, in unmeasured terms, on the illegality and oppressive nature of the exaction, finishing by saying that rather than submit to so intolerable a demand he would lose his head, and in this he was backed by his clergy, who passed an unanimous resolution to ignore any such claim altogether. The legate laid his complaint before the king, who sent for the bishop, abused him with vile and menacing language, and threatened him with deprivation and Papal censure. Basset listened meekly to all the king had to say, but when he left his presence he said to those who he knew would carry it to the king, "He may remove my mitre, if it so pleases him, but he will find a helmet beneath it, and he may take away my crosier, but that is easily replaced with a sword."

M. Paris says of him, "He was a noble and honourable man, and, excepting his last slip, the anchor of the whole kingdom, and the shield of stability and defence." Weever also says, "As he was a man of great lineage, and also of ample—both temporal and ecclesiastical—possessions, so he was a prelate of an invincible, high spirit; stout and courageous to resist those insupportable exactions which the Pope's legate, Rustandus, went about to lay upon the clergie."

In the year 1256 he commenced the erection of the church of St. Faith, under St. Paul's cathedral, founded a charity in St. Paul's for the repose of his soul, and bequeathed to the cathedral a golden apple, two carved chests for relics, some vestments, and a few manuscripts.

An Old London Diarist.

In the sixteenth century there dwelt in the parish of Holy Trinity the Less, Queenhithe, a worthy and honest citizen, one Henry Machyn, a member of the Merchant Taylors' Company. He was born about the period of the accession of Henry VIII., and lived until after the accession of Elizabeth, dying, it is presumed, in 1563, of the plague which visited London in that year, when his diary comes to an abrupt conclusion.

The age in which he lived was a most important period, that of the transition from Popery to Protestantism, accompanied by the discords, troubles, evil passions, and cruelties incidental to transitional epochs. During his life, he witnessed not less than three changes in the national faith: First, the rejection of the Papal supremacy, the suppression of monasteries, and the establishment of the reformed religion under Henry VIII.; secondly, a return to the old Papal allegiance and faith at the accession of Mary; and thirdly, the final downfall of Popery, under Elizabeth. Our diarist, although, like the Vicar of Bray, he seems to have accommodated his conscience to the prevailing religion, evidently had a leaning towards the old faith, which is manifested by the gusto with which he describes the Church ceremonies and regal pageants of Mary's reign, and the "sarve them right" sort of style in which he records the pillorying, whipping at cart-tails, and lopping off the ears of utterers of "haynous wordes aganst the Queen's magesty," as compared with the somewhat despondent tone of the entries after the accession of Elizabeth.

It would appear, although not stated, that he was a purveyor of trappings for pageants and funerals, heraldic painter, and undertaker in general; his place of business was near to the Painterstainers' Hall and the College of Arms; and it is supposed that he kept several workmen employed in emblazoning flags, pennons, escutcheons, etc., for public processions and spectacles.

The diary at the beginning appears to have been nothing more than a trade record, consisting almost entirely of notices of funerals and the pomp thereof, most probably those which he conducted himself. Afterwards he notices other pageants—Lord Mayors' Shows, Royal processions, guild companies' displays, etc., in most of which he would probably have some professional connexion. Subsequently he records notable events outside his profession, such as "preching at Powlle's Crosse;" changes in religion; proceedings of Queen Mary, her marriage, etc.; the punishing of heretics on the gallows and at the stake; standings in the "pelere;" "rydyngs in Chepe;" penance in churches; and sundry other events of a similarly lively character, which were marked features of the time.

The diary is remarkably free from egotism, being written throughout in the third person, even when speaking of himself or family, which is very seldom. The following entries relate to himself and family: 1. 1550, the funeral of his brother—"30th November was bered Crystoffe Machyn, Marchand Tayllor in the parryche of Sant James and broder of Henry Machyn: the Cumpene of Marchand Tayllors behyng at the berehyng and the Compene of the Clarkes syngyng and—Maydwell dyd pryche for hym." 2. The birth of a daughter. September 25th 1557; he writes that his wife was "browth a 'bed with a whenche," that she was attended by his "gossip Master Harper," who was surgeon accoucheur to the Queen; and that two days after was "chrysten'd Katheryn, doythur of Hare (Harry) Machyn;" further that "Mistress Grenway, an Altherman's wife, and Masters Blakwelle and Grenwell" were the sponsors. 3. A notice of his own doing penance, but recorded in the third person and with a Frenchifying of his name. "November 23rd, 1561: the third yere of Quen Elesabeth, dyd preche at Powlle's crosse, Renager, yt was Sant Clement Day; dyd syt alle the sermon tym Henry des Machyn for two (words) the wyche was tolde hym, that Veron, the French—the precher was taken wyth a wenche, by the reporting, by on (one) Wylliam Lawrence, dark of Sant Mare (Mary) Maudlen, in Mylke Streete; the wych the same Hare (Harry) kneelyd down before Master Veron and the byshopp, and yett (they) would nott for (forgive) hym for alle ys fryndes that he hadde worshepefulle." 4. Marriage of his niece. July 7th, 1562, "that Symon Smith browth to the Gyldhalle, Kynlure Machen for to have lyssens (licence) to have her a husband, Edw. Gardener, Cowper ... dowther of Cristofer Machyn." These are all the references to himself and family, but there is a memorandum on one of the sheets of a business nature, which indicates his having been an emblazoner of arms: "Rember yt my lade (Lady) Masum byll for armes,"—the rest illegible.