Chapter XVII: Conclusion (1)

WITH the reign of Henry the Eighth a wholly new chapter opens in the history of the towns. In the preceding centuries we have traced their gradual rise out of obscure poverty into an illustrious opulence and dignity. Already in the time of Langland the poet’s imagination was arrested by the exalted position of the mayor, the “days-man” who could lay his hand upon the highest and the lowest—on the royal majesty and the mean people of the commune. When, a hundred and fifty years later, another poet pictures the court of Fame, where she sits

“Under a glorious cloth of estate ...
Encrowned as empress of all this world of fate.”[868]

he sees in the crowd of applicants who press round the throne to solicit her favours the men of Dartmouth and Portsmouth and Plymouth, the burgesses and bailiffs of the Cinque Ports, mingling with messengers from Thrace and Rounceval. Nor were their claims to stand in such a court but a fantastic fiction of poetry. We have seen how the commune and the borough—originally in spite of their collective character mere feudal lordships like the rest, introduced under the sanction and protection of ordinary feudal custom and according to the fictions of feudal law—became in course of time a potent force for the rending asunder of the mediæval framework of society. Patronized and encouraged by the king, nourished in great measure at the expense of the baronage, lay and ecclesiastical, these insidious communities of the people had gradually revealed a character of their own alien to the whole feudal tradition. Under the shelter of their walls the forces of the middle class were mustered for battle against the ancient supremacy of the nobility and the Church. Charters “for the accommodation of the burgesses in doing their business quietly” became the cover for their irresistible attack; and the common bell which rang out to assemble the congregation of enfranchised burghers perpetually announced in every borough of the kingdom the ultimate triumph of “the common people of the realm.”

We have also noted the manner in which during these centuries the boroughs remained strongholds of a robust faith in political freedom.[869] Theories of liberty taught by statesmen and philosophers, and debated by barons and knights in their own manner at Runnymede, on the battle-field, or in the council chamber, assumed in the towns homelier forms, and became the vulgar property of the people. The burgher too had his notion of an ideal freedom—a freedom which had never entered within the range of his experience, but in which he still believed with a transcendent faith. In what manner the faith had come to him it is hard to say, through what legal fiction, from what mysterious tradition, by what dominant instinct of race. To quell the enemy and the accuser he might call to witness Domesday or Magna Charta, or liberties registered in the Old Red Book of the town “as we do think,” or in the customs of the elders; or for lack of better authority, the fable of a lost charter of the Saxon House, or a shadowy local legend, or tale of freedom “long before the Conquest,”[870] served as evidence of repute. But for the believer testimony was superfluous; the very vagueness of his faith was not without advantages, since the fancied world of the past might be adequately furnished with types of all that was desired in the present. Imagination was stimulated by the rivalry of factions, and political discussion never ceased. No doubt the vulgarization of the notion of freedom, thus thrown into the market-place for burghers to cut and trim to their own needs, has had a permanent effect on English thought.[871] In communities where strictly personal ambition in government was reduced to its lowest expression, where the only possible tyranny was that of a class or of a group, and where the whole society of burghers was nourished on a tradition of equal and indestructible rights, the privilege coveted by ordinary folk was not the pleasure of exercizing authority, but the right to suffer no coercion. Among the townsfolk the “gentleman” was not the man who ruled his neighbour, but the enfranchised equal among his fellows. It may not be altogether fanciful to detect, in the noble translation of a church collect, not only the fine intuition of the scholar, but an echo of the spirit of free and equal liberty that was quickening among the people at large. If the phrase “Cui servire est regnare” carried to English ears a foreign thought, the English words introduced a new and characteristic meaning—“Whose service is perfect freedom.”

Lastly we have seen how chequered was the fate of liberty—how often it was obstructed and impaired in its passage through the market-place and the bye-lanes of the city, driven from shelter to shelter, banished from the Guildhall, mocked by a false homage. Between the twelfth century, when the trading communities had represented a new democracy and led the attack on the then established magnates of society; and the sixteenth century, when a ruling oligarchy had been formed out of their ranks, a vast change had taken place in the political relations of the prosperous middle class. In their conduct of the great struggle for emancipation from the county potentates, feudal or official, and in their development of a general freedom of trade, the more prosperous burghers who had first come to the front in affairs had proved the champions of a new liberty. The strong government which they had established through the administration of a select body of experts had abundantly justified itself in setting the independence of the towns beyond attack; and long before the fifteenth century had opened the boroughs, represented by their magistrates and councillors, held an impregnable position. Meanwhile, however, the wave of industrial progress began slowly to lift up out of their dumb helplessness the masses who had till now learned obedience of poverty and despair, for “While hunger was their master would none strive.” Imperceptibly the whole scene was changed, and a new conflict was seen to be preparing. By the slow changes of time what had been the democracy of 1200 had become the oligarchy of 1500. On the one hand the plutocrats of the boroughs had made their way into the circle of the privileged classes; in a thousand points their interests now coincided with those of the officials and the gentry in the counties; and their conservative instincts had won the confidence and sympathy of the court. On the other hand the humbler sort of traders and artizans, congregated more and more thickly at the busy centres of industry, made familiar with the uses and methods of association, and impatient both of tyranny and of want, were beginning to form a new democracy, and to constitute to the comfortable classes an alarming social danger. In every borough the problems which confront the modern world were formulated. On all side agitators proclaimed the right of the workers to have a voice in the organization of trade, and the right of the common burghers to share in the control of municipal affairs. The demand of the people that government should really be carried on by their consent, so easily stifled in the thirteenth century, became in the fifteenth loud and persistent; and riotous confederacies of labourers and artizans added excitement to the political demonstrations in the streets. A new terror invaded the council-chamber of the Guildhall—the terror of the mob. While the craft-masters hastened to fortify the guild against the forces of misrule, town councillors made strong the borough administration in the interests of good order. The history of the municipalities in the fifteenth century is far from indicating an era of political apathy, or of mere civic indolence and corruption. In the records of the trade fraternities we see the opening of an industrial war. In the constitutions and ordinances of the towns we see the foreshadowing of a political revolution. The original struggle with feudal forces had closed in triumph for the boroughs, and a new conflict now takes its beginning. Faction fights, crafty intrigues, intricate constitutional changes, these signalise the opening of a new controversy—the controversy between the middle and the lower classes.

At the very moment however when this division of social forces had declared itself, and when it seemed as though the attention of England was to be concentrated on the new social problem, the whole movement was suddenly arrested. All speculation as to what might have happened in the course of a natural evolution is utterly vain. It is probable indeed that the poorer classes, unfed, untaught, and undisciplined, were at that time wholly unprepared to enter on any struggle for industrial and political emancipation, and if the battle had been really fought out, must have suffered a crushing defeat. Centuries of discipline have been needed to consolidate their forces, and very possibly the course of freedom was best served by delay. As a matter of fact however the social question was cast aside by external and arbitrary forces. It was engulfed in the political revolution inaugurated by the early Tudors. So violent was the change that it is only in our own age that the controversies which were opening in the fifteenth century have again taken the foremost place.

For from the moment when the history of national politics begins under the Tudor kings, the whole character and significance of the local centres of government undergo a profound change. Henry the Seventh, as we have seen, had laid the foundation of a vast commercial policy; but until the reign of Henry the Eighth, England, unconscious of its capacity and of its destiny, stood aloof from European affairs; and with her small population, her inadequate navy, her somewhat old-fashioned army, her feeble political influence, was little more than an upstart in the august society of continental nations. From this position she was raised by the genius of Wolsey into a State of which it might be said that its Crown “is this day more esteemed than the Emperor’s Crown and all his Empire;” and of whose minister a Venetian ambassador reports that “he is seven times more powerful than the Pope.”[872] In a very few years England, courted by French and Spanish kings, and able to treat on equal terms with Pope and Emperor, boasted of being mediator and arbiter of European politics. The pride of a great mission exalted the imagination of her people, and a poet of the Renascence in his vision of “all manner of nations” who dwelt on the field of fame, marked the gate of chalcedony which gave entrance to “Anglia.”

“The building thereof was passing commendable;
Whereon stood a leopard, crowned with gold and stones,
Terrible of countenance and passing formidable, ...
As fiercely frowning as he had been fighting.”[873]

By the royal courage and appetite of Henry the Eighth, bent on making the whole people his accomplices for the carrying out of his personal will, the work of Wolsey was continued, though in a very different temper, and the national pride and confidence pushed to the highest point. If the policy of Cromwell had been fully carried out, the history of the Reformation and the fortunes of Europe might have been reversed by the intervention of England. We can well understand that amid these tremendous schemes local aspirations were forgotten and local quarrellings silenced. To perfect the policy of the new Monarchy the destinies of the several towns were submerged in the destinies of the whole Commonwealth. Sovereigns no longer viewed with interested regard or with indifferent tolerance, as of old,[874] the growth of borough franchises and the developement of local governments. Street riots were no longer matters of the parish, but of the State. The king’s hand was stretched out over the wealthy corporations whose liberties had grown into such vast proportions, and like the baronage and the Church, the boroughs were laid prostrate before the throne.

For under the Tudor system of government the king was the necessary centre of every interest in the country.[875] He alone could impose a common policy and give expression to a national will. To him all classes looked to defend their cause and ensure their prosperity, in the implicit faith that he lived for them alone and to perform their will. In the royal power lay the one force by which England could be held together. At an earlier time, indeed, the common folk had repudiated the doctrine of the king’s absolute supremacy as it was now understood. “They say that the king should live upon his commons, and that their bodies and goods are his: the contrary is true, for then needed him never to set Parliament and to ask good of them.”[876] But now new maxims were scattered abroad—“that the king can do no wrong, however much he may wish to do it; that not only the property but the persons of his subjects are his own; and that a man has a right to no more than the king’s goodness thinks fit not to take from him.” Parliament almost ceased to exist, until in course of time, packed with members carefully nominated, and by the craft of the king elaborately duped, it was turned into a mere instrument by which the most ruthless acts of royal aggression could be given the stamp and semblance of law.[877]

The new centralized government was carried on by means of a vast official system which extended from the highest to the lowest departments, and reached out to the farthest limits of the country. In its efficient form it was practically the creation of the first Tudor king. With Warwick the baronial leaders of an earlier time had passed away; and the weakened remnant of the baronage which emerged from the civil wars had been carefully depressed by Henry the Seventh. At the council-board their places were taken by officials who received their orders directly from the king; and when the barons returned to office and council they returned as fellow servants with the new officials, and holding the same functions. Henry the Eighth carried out the same policy. The great nobles might complain of “low-born knaves” who surrounded the king; but when the minister “clapped his rod upon the board” silence fell on an obsequious council—and barons and commons alike trembled before the son of an Ipswich merchant or a Putney blacksmith.

For the tremendous power of Wolsey or of Cromwell lay in the fact that the whole hierarchy of officials, from the most exalted to the most base, was directly responsible to him. Every figure of any importance in the country was perfectly well known to the minister at the head of affairs, and on every subordinate through the length and breadth of the land the court kept vigilant watch. If an official at any point disagreed with the opinions held at head quarters he was forthwith turned out of office, and the ease with which Henry and his successors made national revolutions is the measure of the absolute perfection to which the machinery of their administration had been brought. In the boroughs it is impossible to exaggerate the effect of this political revolution. The consequence to which the towns had risen made of them all-important centres of administration for the maintenance of general order. Two-thirds of the members of Parliament were sent from the boroughs, and the control of these members, therefore, meant the control of the House of Commons. For a two-fold reason, therefore, the tendency long shewn by the Court to sympathize with the governing oligarchy in the municipalities inevitably took from this time a new force. Under the oligarchic system of administration the towns could be held for the king by a mere handful of loyal officials; and the influence of the Crown was naturally flung on the side of the representatives of good order, as it was understood by the government. In the interests of the whole State a new policy was developed. Municipal independence was struck down at the very roots, and the free growth of earlier days arrested by an iron discipline invented at Westminster, and enforced by a selected company of Townhall officials, whose authority was felt to be ultimately supported by the majesty of the king himself. The number of the town councillors was constantly diminished, and the liberties of the commons curtailed. Under the new conditions the individual life of the borough ceased to have the same significance as of old, and an era opened in which its highest destiny was to be employed as an instrument of the royal will for national ends, and its only glory lay in forming one of the members of a mighty commonwealth. To follow out the internal record of municipal politics on the old lines, as though the story of the sixteenth century were the natural consequence of their earlier course of developement would be radically false; and I therefore pause on the threshold of the new state of things. The history of the boroughs as schools in which the new middle class received its training for service in the field of national politics, and as the laboratories in which they made their most fruitful experiments in administration, ends before the close of the fifteenth century. It may be that as the working class in its turn rises to take its place alongside of its predecessors on the stage of public affairs, the towns will again become centres of interest in the national story, as the workshops of an enlarged political science.

INDEX

INDEX

A

Abingdon, money given towards bridges at, 75-6;
Guild of Holy Cross, 215;
supplies Southampton with bends of elms for ploughs, 289

Accounts of towns, adornment of, 260;
change in manner of keeping and auditing in Lynn, 411;
of Norwich, 370, _note_ 4;
royal, auditing and signing of, 15, _note_ 1

Admiral of the Fleet, 323

Admiralty, courts of, 319, _note_ 2

Adventurers, merchant, Guild of, 112;
results of their monopoly of cloth trade, 91-92

Agriculture, law for protection of, 99

“Alablaster man” of Nottingham, 54, 326

Alberti, Society of, 290

Alcock, Bishop of Rochester, 14

Aldermen in Canterbury, 156, 276, 279, _note_;
Gloucester, 287;
Lincoln, 279, _note_;
London, 279, 375, _note_ 2;
Lynn, 421, 422;
Norwich, 362, _note_ 2, 380;
Nottingham, 309, 339, 340;
Oxford, 245, _note_ 2, 278, _note_ 2;
Shrewsbury, 286;
Southampton, 307-309, 312, _note_

Andernach, mill-stones brought from, 406, _note_ 1

Andover, dispute between great people and community in, 245, _note_ 4;
common lands, 237;
leet jury, 229;
merchant guild, 193, _note_ 1, 198, _note_ 1, 199

Anne of Bohemia, Nottingham given to, 330

Appleby, its school, 14, _note_ 2

Apprentices, their duty during harvest, 64;
escape from town and become free traders in suburbs, 96-97;
regulations concerning, 99, _note_ 2, 102-104, 108, 120, 212,
_note_ 1

Artizans, guilds of, 112;
subjected to town authorities, 151-152;
question as to their admission to guild merchant, 192-193, 199

Ashburton, its school, 13, _note_ 2

Ascham, his rebuke of noblemen’s sons, 23

Assembly, the common, 226, 247-249;
of Hereford, 225;
of Sandwich, 225-227, 430;
select committee of, 353;
of Norwich, 365, 371-372, 377-379;
its Rolls, 370;
of Nottingham, 341, 347-348, 352-353

Assize of beer, 35;
of bread, 35;
of wine, 35;
of breadth of cloth, 67, _note_ 2

Atwill, John, mayor of Exeter, 180

Atwood, Thomas, town clerk of Canterbury, 263, _note_ 2

Atwood, William, one of counsel of Canterbury, 263, _note_ 2

Aylesbury, charge against miller of, 31-32

B

Babington, Sir John, 329, _note_ 1

Bablake, church at, 203, _note_ 3;
payment of its warden and priests, 206

Bablake Gate, Coventry, 207

Bachelors, fellowship of the, among Exeter tailors, 172

“Bachery, Le”, Guild of, in Norwich, 389, 392

Bailiffs, modes of election of, 275, _note_ 3, 276;
of Canterbury, 227, _note_ 2, 276, 283-284;
of Ipswich, 223-224;
of Lincoln, 250;
of leets in Norwich, 361-364, 373;
of Shrewsbury, 285;
of Southampton, 305, 309;
of Winchester, 286;
of Yarmouth, 434

Bakers of Canterbury, 46;
of Exeter, their ordinances, 179;
of London, withdraw outside boundaries, 45;
punishment of fraudulent servants among, 117, _note_ 2;
their right of search transferred to mayor, 149, _note_ 1

Ball, John, 211

Baltic, trade with Southampton, 289

Banbury, its school, 17

Bardi, Society of, rent part of tenement in Southampton, 290

Bargate Tower, Southampton, 310

Barge, the town, of Lynn, 410

Barnstaple, use of seal of commonalty in, 233, _note_ 1

Bartholomew of Baddlesmere, custos of Bristol, 267

Bartone, Brother William, his connexion with strike of shoemakers’
journeymen in London, 125

Bate, Andrew, 60

Bate (brother of Andrew), town clerk of Lydd, 60

Bath, merchants become Knights of the, 79

Bayonne, swearing-in of citizens at, 230, _note_ 1

Beam, right of keeping, 27

Beaufort, Cardinal, 292

Beer, sent from Kent to Flanders, 89

Bell, the common, 226;
made for Ely Cathedral, 54;
metal for, got from Lincolnshire, 54, _note_ 1

Bell foundry at Nottingham, 326

Bellman of Guild of S. George in Norwich, 384

Benedict, son of Aaron, his mayoralty in Southampton, 307

Bequests to town corporations, 75-76

Berford, Simon de, 400

Berkeley, Lady, founder of first lay school, 16, _note_ 2

Berkeley, Sir Maurice, 79, _note_ 2

Berne, North, its trade with Lynn, 404

Berwick-on-Tweed, interest of its burghers in municipal affairs, 234,
_note_ 3

Beverley, weavers excluded from franchise in, 142;
aldermen of trades assent to governors’ ordinances in, 185, _note_ 2

Bingham, William, founds school, 14, _note_ 2

Birmingham, its Guild of Holy Cross, 213-214;
land and rights of common, 237;
members of Corpus Christi Guild, Coventry, at, 206, _note_;
town hall, 213

Biscay, its trade with Southampton, 289, 291, _note_ 3

Black Sea, trade of Southampton with, 291

Blackburn, Nicholas, Admiral of Fleet, 323

Blackheath, Nottingham men sent to help King at, 334

“Blackleg” labour, London saddlers accused of encouraging, 163;
law in London against, 165

Bonet, Richard, 124

Books of Courtesy, 3-10;
of towns, 258;
of Dartmouth and Wycombe, their binding, 230, _note_ 2;
Black Book of Hythe, 230, 257, _note_ 4;
of Sandwich, 258, _note_ 3;
Doomsday, of Dorchester, 258;
Red, of Nottingham, 334, 337, 355-356;
White, of Norwich, 258, _note_ 3;
of Sandwich, 258

Boose, Richard, of Aylesbury, 31-32

Bordeaux, effect of its loss on Bristol trade, 91

Boroughs, results of their external relations, 1-2;
independence, 2, 3;
their life in fifteenth century, as pictured in songs, 6-12;
results of extension of Statute of Mortmain to, 215;
disputes about property in, 238.
_See_ Towns

Bosworth, battle of, 330

Bowyers of London, 119

Box, the common, of Southampton, 314

Bramston, Roger, mayor of Wycombe, 260, _note_ 4

“Brasylle, the Island of”, Bristol ships sent in search of, 73

Bread, assize of, 35

Bredon, Friar John, agitator in Coventry, 125, _note_

Brewers, Piers Ploughman’s picture of, 38;
their early wealth, 60-63;
forbidden to hold offices in towns, 62, _note_ 1;
of Kent, 89;
of Nottingham, 38

Bridges, at Abingdon, 75-76;
kept in repair by Guild of Holy Cross at Birmingham, 213;
of Nottingham, 322, 324, 341

Bridgenorth, priests forbidden to keep school at, 18;
no burgess to be made serjeant, 271, _note_ 3;
chief officers elected by special jury, 275;
its “Great Court” of Twenty-four, 275, _note_ 4

Bridgewater, its guild merchant, 214;
Guild of S. Mary or Holy Cross, 214, 215;
town clerk, 261

Bridport, its suburban manufacturers, 97;
use of paper for accounts, 259;
twelve jurors, 278, _note_ 1

Bright Waltham, manor of, communal organization of its villein
tenants, 232, _note_

Bristol, its Guild of Kalendars, 13, _note_ 2;
rivalry with Gloucester, 42;
school, 13, _note_ 2, 20;
treaty with Southampton, 53;
trade, 73;
sends ships on voyages of discovery, 73;
fine merchants’ houses, 74;
plate left by grocer of, 74, _note_ 1;
decline of its wool trade, 91-92;
complaint of weavers against employment of foreigners, 92;
law against employment of women at loom, 96, _note_;
decay of wealth, 104, _note_ 3;
coruesers, 119, _note_;
guilds ordered to keep the peace, 153;
robes of officers, 257, _note_ 3;
quarrel about customs, 266-267;
taken into King’s hand, 267;
appointment of custos, 267;
Council of Forty-eight, 268;
Council of Forty, 268, 278, _note_ 2;
charters, 268;
influential families, 267-268;
troubles from neighbouring lords, 328;
guildhall, 37;
guild merchant, 198, _note_ 1;
mayor, his supervision of trades, 37-38;
feeling of burghers for mayor, 228;
merchants, in Corpus Christi Guild at Coventry, 206, _note_;
town clerk, 20, 264, _note_ 1;
coroner, 267

Brittany, its trade with Bristol, 73;
with Southampton, 289

Brodhull, Court of, 428, 433

Brokers, their duties and payment, 34

Bromsgrove, its decay, caused by growth of free-traders, 97, _note_ 3

Brown, Thomas, Bishop of Norwich, 392

Bruges, mayor of Lynn sent as ambassador to, 422

Bull-baiting, attendance of municipal officers at, 256

Burellers of London, their quarrel with the weavers, 161-162;
of Winchester, contribution made to ferm by, 154, _note_ 1

Burgesses, their monopoly of trade, 40;
early significance of the word, 231-232;
“inn” and “foreign” in Preston, 47;
of Nottingham, fined for not attending meetings, 336;
act with commonalty, 355, _note_ 3;
the “out”, of Southampton, 47, _note_ 2;
_see_ Citizens

Burghers of fifteenth century, their anxiety about manners, 9-10;
ambition and love of learning, 11-13;
public munificence, 74-77;
become usurers and money-lenders, 77-78;
alliance with guilds against oligarchy, 167-168,
184;
their theory about the mayor, 227-228;
traditions of ancient liberties, 235-236;
buy copies of Magna Charta, 236;
punished for speaking against town councillors, 256-257;
_see_ Citizens

Burgundy, settlers from, in Southampton, 289

Butchers, forbidden to kill within towns, 32, _note_ 2;
of London, complaint of corporation about, 44-45

Butchers’ House, Nottingham, 324

Butt, Thomas, M.P. for Norwich, 400

C

Cabot, his voyage of discovery, 73

Cade, Jack, 334

Calendar of Ricart of Bristol, 20

Calle, Richard, marries Margery Paston, 80

Cambridge, school attached to Clare Hall at, 14, _note_ 2;
trade with Rowe of Romney, 61

Candlemakers of London, 45

Candles, “Paris”, made at Southampton, 289

Canterbury, its aldermanries, 283;
aldermen made heads of guilds, 156, 276, 279, _note_;
bailiffs, 227, _note_ 2, 276, 283-284;
bakers, 46;
charter, 284;
cloth trade, 158;
craft guilds, 155-157;
councils, 278, _note_ 2, 283-284;
disturbance caused by Crompe, 62-63;
freedom granted to Lynn merchants, 49, _note_ 2;
friars, 125, _note_;
law about inns, 33, _note_ 1;
“Intrantes”, 47;
jubilee of 1420, 43;
manufacturing trade, its decline, 88;
mayor, 284;
ordinances of 1474, 284;
portreeve, 283;
grammar school, 14, _note_ 2;
“Tollerati”, 47;
traders withdraw outside liberties, 45-46;
town clerk, 263, _note_ 2;
triours, 276;
wards, hereditary ownership of, 276, 279, _note_ 1

Cap-makers resist introduction of fulling mills, 90

Carlisle, extension of its liberties, 40, _note_ 2;
its council, 185;
merchant guild, 185

Carpenters, rule made by guild of, 147

Carracks of Genoa, 302, 305, _note_ 1

Carriers, their introduction into England, 28

Carrow, Prioress of, her disputes with Norwich, 387, _note_

Castle of Nottingham, 323;
of Southampton, 297, _note_ 3;
constable of, survival of his authority, 297

Catalonia, ships of, compete with Jacques Cœur for Mediterranean
coasting trade, 81

Caxton, William, 21

Caxton, Thomas, 261-263

Chandlers of Norwich, 140

Charles VII. (of France) borrows from Jacques Cœur, 82

Charters, privileges given to towns by early, 50-51;
conflicting rights bestowed by two, 51-52;
of incorporation given under Henry VI., 269;
of Bristol, 268;
Canterbury, 284;
Colchester, 282;
Exeter, 180;
Gloucester, 194, _note_ 1;
Leicester, 25, _note_ 1, 258, _note_ 1;
Liverpool, 41;
London, 53, _note_ 1;
Lynn, 421;
Nottingham, 330, 332-334, 339;
Norwich, 371-373, 379, 380, 395;
Oxford, 278, _note_ 2;
Southampton, 306-310;
of cordwainers at Exeter, 179;
of girdlers of London, 143, _note_ 2;
to guild merchant of Lynn, 403, _note_, 404, 405, _note_ 5, 407;
to craft guilds, 141, 143, _note_ 3;
commons petition for their withdrawal, 182, _note_ 1;
registration of, ordered by law, 150, _note_ 2;
of tailors of Exeter, 173-174, 179-180;
of merchant tailors of London, 143, _note_ 3, 182, _note_ 1;
of Fraternity of B. Trinity at Shrewsbury, 173, _note_ 4

Chaucer, his place in estimation of fifteenth-century scholars, 21

Cheese, manufacture of, at Southampton, 289

Chest, the common, of Southampton, 309, 314

Chester, lands of community at, 237;
two councils, 278, _note_ 2;
inhabitants forbidden to leave, 299, _note_ 4;
mayor pays schoolmaster of Farneworth, 19, _note_ 3

Chesterfield, its guild merchant, 203, _note_ 1

Children practise shooting at Southampton, 297-298;
of countrymen not to be apprenticed to crafts, 99, _note_ 1

Chipping Camden, merchant’s brass in church of, 73

Churchyards in fifteenth century, 31, _note_ 1

Cider made at Southampton, 289

Cinque Ports, rights claimed by merchants of, 52, _note_;
their treaty with Southampton, 53;
pay for copying of Magna Charta, 259, _note_ 2;
jurats of, 278, _note_ 1;
tradition of independence, 429;
source of strength of government in, 433;
resolution of Brodhull in 1526 about elections in, 433-434

Cirencester, cloth manufacture at, 68

Citizens, loss of freedom by, for helping “foreign” merchants, 39;
distinguished from community or commonalty, 231-235, 311, 334-336;
of Norwich, 366, 367, 368, 370, 373, 376, 399-401;
“denizen” and “foreign”, of Worcester, 39, 40;
the swearing-in of, at Bayonne, 230, _note_ 1.
_See_ Burghers

Clergy, their admission to guild merchant, 193

Clerk, the common or town, his position and duties, 257-264;
of Bridgewater, 261;
of Bristol, 20, 264, _note_ 1;
of Canterbury, 263, _note_ 2;
of Hythe, 263, _note_ 1;
of Lydd, 60, 262;
of Lynn, 414, 415;
of Nottingham, 19-20, 263, 337;
of Romney, 61;
of Sandwich, 257, _note_ 4, 262, _note_, 263;
of Southampton, 309;
of Winchester, 261;
of Worcester, 259, _note_ 6;
of York, 261, _note_ 1, 263

Clifton church, cross of, repaired by Nottingham goldsmith, 54, 326

Cloth, contractors of, their growth
and wealth, 65;
manufacture of, supersedes business of selling wool, 98-99;
in Yorkshire, 89;
shearers of, resist introduction of machinery, 89;
trade in, law passed in Canterbury to improve, 158;
supervision of, in Norwich, 149, _note_ 1, 385;
Irish, 289

Clothiers, admitted to rank of “gentleman”, 68;
one in Manchester founds a school, 17

“Clothing”, the, qualifications for member of, 62;
its composition, 252;
at Exeter, 181;
at Nottingham, 341, 352-353, 355, 356, _note_ 1, 357

Coal-mines, profits made by Nottingham from, 325

Cobblers, their quarrels with cordwainers, 166

Cœur, Jacques, 81-82

Coin, clipping of, learned from Lombards, 67

Cok, Richard, mayor of Sandwich, 431, 432

Colchester, election by Twenty-four in, 169-170;
land owned by, 238;
number of men assessed for moveables in 1301, 250, _note_ 2;
population in 1377, 250;
mode of election of officers, 276, 282;
charter, 282;
two councils, 278, _note_ 2, 282;
moot hall, 278;
ordinances, 278;
fining of late or absent members, 278, 283

Colle, Henry, of Hythe, 246, _note_ 2

College at Exeter, its foundation, 13, _note_ 2;
at Rotherham, 13

Commons, their petition to Henry VII. about measures, 27, _note_ 3;
petition to have guild charters withdrawn, 182, _note_ 1

“Commons”, “the poor”, their views about gains of merchants, 70-71;
of Exeter, their quarrel with governing class, 170-172

Commonalty, distinguished from citizens or burgesses, 231-235, 311,
334-336;
their interest in matters touching common lands, 234;
lack of security for freedom, 247-249;
exclusion from town administration, 249;
brought into council chamber in fifteenth century, 270;
its seal, 233, _note_ 1;
of Norwich, 366-373, 376, 377, 399.
_See_ Community

Communes of France, 321

Community of the town, reasons for entering, 55;
its services to the guilds, 157-158;
privileges of early, 232-233;
its holding of land, 237-239;
of Lynn, admission of non-burgesses to, 409;
of Nottingham, their rights, 338-343;
election of special juries by, 341.
_See_ Commonalty

Conesford Ward, Norwich, 376, _note_ 2

Constable of Dover, 302, 303;
of castle, survival of his authority in Southampton, 297

Constabularies in Lynn, 279, _note_, 415, _note_ 2, 421

Cooks, regulations for, 36

Cordwainers (shoemakers), their quarrels with cobblers, 166;
guild of, at Exeter, 119, _note_, 179

Corn, encouragement of carriage of, 42, _note_ 2

Coruesers of Bristol, 119, _note_

Cornhill, S. Peter’s, dispute about presentation to, 276, _note_ 2

Coroners of Bristol, 267;
of Ipswich, their election and duties in 1200, 223

Corporation chapel of S. Michael’s, Southampton, 308

Cossal, notice of transfer of coal-mine in, 325, _note_ 5

Cotswolds, wool of, 88, _note_ 3

Councils of towns, their alliances with guilds, 108;
various business of, 254-255;
their variety, 272-274, 277-279;
probable causes influencing their character, 279-281;
upper, result of appointing its members justices of the peace,
254-255;
of Bristol, 268, 278, _note_ 2;
of Canterbury, 278, _note_ 2, 283, 284;
Carlisle, 185;
Chester, 278, _note_ 2;
Colchester, 278, 282;
Coventry, 185, 205, 353, 354;
Exeter, 170, 172, 180;
Gloucester, 287, 354;
Ipswich, 278, _note_ 2;
Leicester, 287, 354;
Liverpool, 278, _note_ 2;
London, 375, _note_ 2;
Lynn, 402, 413, 419-422, 424, 425;
Norwich, 170, 278, _note_ 2, 363-365, 376, 377, 395, 419;
Nottingham, 336, 337-340, 355, 357;
Oxford, 278, _note_ 2;
Pontefract, 278;
Sandwich, 430, 432-434;
Shrewsbury, 285, 286;
Southampton, 280, 308, 309;
Wells, 278, _note_ 1;
Worcester, 278, _note_ 2;
of Eight among Exeter tailors, 173;
of Fifteen ordered by provisions of Oxford, 253;
Privy, writ sent to Nottingham by, 278, _note_ 1;
people of Norwich summoned before, 391

Councillors in early town government, 228;
of Nottingham, 339-341, 355;
town, various methods of electing, 277

Countrymen, their various difficulties, 98-99;
town employers contract for work with, 105-106;
policy concerning employment of, in Norwich and Worcester, 106

Courts of Admiralty, 319, _note_ 2;
of aldermen, at Norwich, 362, _note_ 2;
of arbitration, their importance to craft guilds, 114, _note_ 1;
of Brodhull, 428, 433;
consistory, clerks of, forbidden to be mayors, 171;
the great, of Bridgenorth, 275, _note_ 4;
of King’s Bench, 238;
the Pye-powder, statute of 1477 about, 393, _note_ 2.
_See_ Leet

Coventry, grammar school at, 14, _note_ 2;
attempts free trade, 53, _note_ 4;
laws about apprentices in, 99, _note_ 2, 102, _note_ 1;
Bablake gate, 207;
Drapery hall, 207;
wages of journeymen, 104, _note_ 1;
election of keepers among the smiths at, 118, _note_ 1;
the White Friars in, 125, _note_;
obtains right to have no guild, 144, _note_ 1;
rules about punishment among guilds in 1518, 151, _note_ 2;
complaint against craftsmen who would not contribute to pageants,
154, _note_ 2;
drapers and mercers, 183, 204, _note_;
election of officials, 205, 207, _note_ 2;
craftsmen who held office, 207, _note_ 4;
guild of S. Catherine, 203;
of Corpus Christi, 204, 206, _note_;
of S. George, 208;
of S. John Baptist, 203;
merchant, 193, _note_ 1, 203-204;
of Trinity, 14, _note_ 2, 19, _note_ 3, 203-213;
union of guilds, 203;
attempts to set up craft-guilds in, 208-209;
rhymes nailed by commons on church door, 211;
dyers in, 207, _note_ 4, 208, 210, _note_ 2;
regulations for crafts made at leet court, 212, _note_ 1;
apprentices’ fines, 212;
ferm, 206, 216;
land of community, 238;
petitions to have aldermen of wards, 279, _note_;
procedure in leet, 345, _note_ 3;
common council, 353-354;
Queen Isabella’s land, 202-204;
mayor, 205, 207, _note_ 2;
town hall called S. Mary’s Guild, 203

Cowes, control of mayor of Southampton over, 319

Crafts, their anxiety to protect industry, 100;
attitude towards countrymen, 99, _note_ 1, 100-101;
journeymen of, their combinations for self-protection, 101.
_See_ Guilds

Crompe, brewer at Canterbury, 62-63

Culham Ford, bridge over, 75-76

Customs of Bristol, quarrel about, 266-267;
of Southampton, leasing out of, 68, 291

“Customs” of Norwich, 364

Custumals of towns, copying and translation of, 257-258

D

Dacia, its trade with Lynn, 404

Dartmouth, binding of its corporation books, 230, _note_ 2

Dean, Forest of, its rovers, 42, _note_ 1

“Decennaries”, appointment of, 34

Delf (canal), 435

Dengemarsh, 60, 237

Denmark, its trade with Bristol, 73;
settlers from, in Southampton, 289

Dereham, work done for Norwich dealers at, 105, _note_ 2

Deritend, school of guild at, 13, _note_ 2

Devonshire, Flemish weavers in, 94

“Discreets” of Southampton, 308, 309

Dogget Rolls of Ipswich, 259

Doncaster, S. George’s Church at, merchants’ marks in, 71, _note_ 3

Doomsday Book, extracts made by town clerks from, 259;
of towns, 258

Dorchester, its Doomsday Book, 258, _note_ 3

Dorset, Marquis of, 206, _note_

Dover, constable of, 302, 303;
central government of Cinque Ports at, 428;
hornblowing, 430, _note_ 2;
election of jurats, 434, _note_ 2

Drapers admitted to rank of “gentleman”, 68;
of Coventry, 183, 204, _note_;
of Shrewsbury, their school, 13, _note_ 2;
their guild, 144, _note_ 2, 173, _note_ 4

Drapers’ house, Nottingham, 325

Drapery hall, Coventry, 207

Drogheda, merchants of, in guild at Coventry, 206, _note_;
its trade with Southampton, 289

Droitwich, cause of its decay, 97, _note_ 3

Dublin, merchants of, in guild at Coventry, 206, _note_

Dye, scarlet, English cloth sent to Italy for, 326

Dyeing, at Nottingham, 326

Dyers in Coventry, 207, _note_ 4, 208-210

E

Easingwold, town clerk of Nottingham, 263-264

Edmund Crouchback, his charter to Leicester, 25, _note_ 1, 258,
_note_ 1;

Education in the fifteenth century, 12-23;

Edward I. summons councils to get money for Welsh war, 332;
his charter to Nottingham, 334

Edward II., his grants to Nottingham, 333

Edward III. fixes price of wine of Gascony, 139;
his charter to girdlers of London, 143, _note_ 2;
grants bridge over Trent to townspeople of Nottingham, 324;
demands soldiers from Norwich, 366

Edward IV., his charters to Exeter tailors, 173-174;
to Fraternity of Trinity at Shrewsbury, 173, _note_ 4;
judgment in the disputes at Exeter, 176-177, 179-180;
his patent to York about election of mayor, 186;
appeal of Plymouth guild merchant to, 220;
Lydd sends men to his help, 263;
his charter to Colchester, 282;
reduces ferm of Nottingham, 328;
renews its charter, 330;
gives election of common council of London to trading companies,
375, _note_ 2;
peace made by Sandwich with, 431

Elizabeth Woodville, coronation of, 79, _note_ 2;
Nottingham granted to, 330, _note_ 1;
confirms its charter, 339, _note_ 2

Ely, its cathedral bells, 54

Elys, Thomas, his benefactions to Sandwich, 16, 75

Employers, illicit industry carried on by, 88;
settlement in country districts, 88;
their attitude towards foreigners, 92-94;
towards countrymen, 100-101;
foster “uncovenanted” labour, 102;
in Norwich, responsible for their servants, 101, _note_ 2;
of towns, contract with country folk for work, 105-106

Engrossing, 39

Erasmus, his estimate of schoolmasters, 22, _note_

Erith, clay got from, 54

Evesham, cause of its decay, 97, _note_ 3

Ewelme almshouse, 14, _note_ 2

Exchange, dry, denounced by Church and people, 69

Exchange, the King’s, Jews replaced by members of Pepperers’ Company
at, 69, _note_ 1

Exeter, ordinances granted to bakers, 179;
“the clothing”, 181;
college, 13, _note_ 2;
condition under Shillingford, 168-169;
quarrel between commons and governing class, 170-172;
official, its Lancastrian sympathies, 173;
Henry VII.’s charter to, 180;
common council, 170, _note_ 2, 172, 180;
cordwainers’ guild, 119, _note_, 179;
hospital, 75;
mayor, election of, 169-171, 180;
sworn on Black Book, 230, _note_ 1;
his fellowship, 168, 172;
recorder, 168, 171, _note_;
style, 180;
tailors’ guild, 172-181, 184;
twelve men, 169-170;
twenty-four, 170, 172;
thirty-six, 171

Exeter, Hugh Oldham, Bishop of, 17

“Extravagantes” in Romney, 47

F

Fairs, their origin, history, and decline, 25;
grants of, 26;
of Leicester, 25, _note_ 1;
of Lenton, 348, _note_ 3;
of Southampton, 293;
of Wayhill, 66;
of Winchester, 66, 292;
of Wycombe, 25, _note_ 2

Fairford, Henry VIII. at, 68

Fallande, Richard, his tablet in Hospital Hall, Abingdon, 76, _note_ 1

Farneworth, payment of schoolmaster at, 19, _note_ 3

Farriers, rule made by guild of, 146-147

Fastolf, Sir John, 79, _note_ 2

Fastolf, Richard, 79, _note_ 2

Ferm of Coventry, payment of, 206;
in arrears, 216;
of Nottingham reduced by Edward IV., 328, 330;
its amount, 332;
of Southampton, amount of, 300;
part settled on successive queens, 300;
in arrears, 300, _note_ 2, 301-302;
arrear remitted, 303, _note_ 1;
difficulties in raising, 304;
reduced, 305, _note_ 1;
of Winchester, contribution of burellers to, 154, _note_ 1

“Fermour of the Beme”, 28

Festivals, enforced contributions to, 154, _note_ 2;
attendance of municipal officers at, 256

Fishmongers, regulations for, 36;
of London, plate pawned to one, 78

Flanders, its manners and wealth in fifteenth century, 5;
beer sent from Kent to, 89;
weavers from, in England, 90-91;
settlers from, in valley of Stroud, 88;
in Southampton, 289;
trade with Southampton, 288, 291, 294

Florence, the Bardi and Alberti Societies of, 290

Food, regulations of its price, 35-37, 43

Fordwich, its Kalendar, 258, _note_ 3

Foreigners, their position in towns, 90-96;
in Norwich, 320;
fine paid by, in Romney, 91, _note_ 1;
tax on, in Sandwich, 91, 320, 429;
in Southampton, 289, 293, 320

Forest laws and officers, exemption of Nottingham from, 328

Forestalling, 39, 50, 54;
at Nottingham, 50, _note_ 1

Fork, first mention of, in England, 74, _note_ 1

France, its wine trade with Bristol, 73;
appointment of guild officer in, 130;
settlers from, in English towns, 320;
communes of, 321

Franchise in Lynn, settlers not obliged to take up, 408.
_See_ Freedom

Franchises of Norwich forfeited, 367, 389, 391-393;
restored, 391, 394;
of Nottingham forfeited, 332

Fray, John, 391

Freedom of borough obtained by becoming member of craft, 186;
terms of admission to, in Nottingham, 325;
loss of, for helping “foreign” merchant, 39;
traders of Norwich ordered to take up, 400

Freemen generally members of craft guilds, 190;
their right to attend meetings, 224;
of Norwich must belong to craft guild, 383

Friars, 125, _note_

Fry, Thomas, 79, _note_ 1

Fullers of Coventry set up fraternity with tailors, 208-209

G

Game laws, men presented for breaking, 246, _note_ 2

Games, attendance of municipal officers at, 256

Gascony, its wine, result of fixing price of, 139;
its wool trade with Southampton, 290;
trade of Lynn with, 404

Gate, the Water, at Southampton, 291, 294, _note_ 1

Genoa, its relations with Jacques Cœur, 81;
trade with Southampton, 289, 291;
carracks, 302, 305, _note_ 1

Genoese, grant of Henry IV. to, 290;
merchants at Southampton, 290, 291;
Southampton burnt by, 295

“Gentleman”, drapers and clothiers admitted to rank of, 68

Gentry, country, marry traders, 78-80;
take office in municipal government, 79

German, a, town clerk at Winchester, 261;
merchants, their organization at Lynn, 404

Germany, appointment of guild officer in, 130;
trade with Southampton, 291, 294

Giles, Karoll, 20

Girdlers of London, Edward III.’s charter to, 143, _note_ 2

Girdler Gate, Nottingham, 326

Gladman, John, his insurrection, 392-393

Gloucester, its trade, &c., 42;
charters, 194, _note_ 1;
guild merchant, 194;
common council, 287, 354

Gloucester, [Humphry] Duke of, befriends Norwich, 387, 392

Gloucester, [Richard] Duke of, his services to York, 261, _note_ 1

Gloucester, John of, makes bells for Ely cathedral, 54

Glover of Leighton Buzzard, adventures of a, 31-32

God’s House Meadow, Southampton, 314

Godstede, William de, 283

Gold, fear of government lest merchants should diminish stock of, 69;
its exportation forbidden, 69 _note_ 3

Goldsmith employed to weigh bread at Sandwich, 37-38;
of Nottingham repairs cross in Clifton Church, 54, 326

Gorse held by Romney, 237

Gospels, portions of, copied for swearing-in of officers, 258

Greek learned by town clerk of Nottingham, 20

Green, Godfrey, 80, _note_ 4

Gregory, town clerk of Nottingham, 337, _note_ 3

Grendon, Simon, of Exeter, 75

Grocers of Bristol, plate left by one, 74, _note_ 1;
of London, laws about their apprentices, 102, _note_ 2;
control claimed by, 116, _note_ 1;
protest against powers of oligarchy, 117, _note_ 4;
appointment of wardens, 118, _note_ 2.
_See_ Pepperers

Grocyn, his education at Bristol, 20

Gryme, Richard, of Southampton, 302

Guilds, schools founded by, 13;
social-religious, 213-217;
system of indirect election, 253;
at Deritend, 13, _note_ 2;
at Hull, 69, _note_ 2, 182, _note_ 2;
at Lynn, 405, _note_ 2, 425;
in Newcastle, 185-186;
at Shrewsbury, 49, _note_ 1;
at Southampton, 293;
at Stratford, 13, _note_ 2;
at Walsall, 183;
at Warwick, 186;
of merchant adventurers, 112;
of artizans, 112;
“Le Bachery” in Norwich, 389, 392;
of S. Benedict at Lincoln, 144, _note_ 2;
of S. Catherine at Coventry, 203;
of “common and middling folks” at Lincoln, 271, _note_ 3;
of Corpus Christi at Coventry, 204-206, 209;
at Hull, 144, _note_ 2;
at Lynn, 405, _note_ 2;
of Holy Cross at Abingdon, 215;
at Birmingham, 213-214;
at Bridgewater, 215;
of S. George at Coventry, 208;
at Norwich, 384-385, 389, 395;
of S. George and S. Christopher at York, 205, _note_ 1;
of S. John at Coventry, 203;
at Hull, 144, _note_ 2;
of our Lady and S. George at Plymouth, 220;
of S. Lawrence at Ashburton, 13, _note_ 2;
of S. Mary at Bridgewater, 214-215;
at Coventry, 203;
of S. Nicholas at Worcester, 13, _note_ 2;
of palmers at Ludlow, 13;
of young scholars at Lynn, 13;
of Trinity at Coventry, 14, _note_ 2, 19, _note_ 3, 203-213;
at Hull, 144, _note_ 2;
at Lynn, 217, 404-407;
at Shrewsbury, 144, _note_ 2, 173, _note_ 4;
craft, their origin, 113, 114;
exclusive character, 99;
alliance with town councils, 108;
aid burghers in strife with governing body, 167-168, 184-187;
various forms, 110-113;
charitable works, 113, _note_ 2;
courts of arbitration, 114, _note_ 1;
protection of members, 114, _note_ 2;
composition, 115-117;
difference from modern trades unions, 115-116, 134-136, 159-160;
government, 117-120;
laws concerning hired workers, 121-123;
organization, 128-129;
rule of oligarchy in, 129-131;
part taken by members of, on appointment to town offices, 130-131;
founded by order of town, 135, 155;
attitude towards the public, 136-138;
struggle for control of prices, 139-140;
charters, 141, 143, _note_ 3;
relations with town and State, 143-154, 181-189;
shelter themselves under form of religious association, 144-145;
enforced contribution to feasts, 154, _note_ 2;
increase in number, 155;
combinations, 156, 157, _note_ 1;
relations with municipality, 157-158;
victory in the strife with town, 159-160;
greater and lesser, 160;
struggles between, 160-166;
their alliance with burghers against ruling oligarchy, 167-168;
freedom of borough often obtained by becoming member of, 186;
freemen of borough generally enrolled in, 190;
relations with guild merchant, 191-199;
at Beverley, 142;
in Bristol, 153;
at Canterbury, 156-157;
at Coventry, 151, _note_ 2, 207-211;
of Newcastle, 185-186;
in Norwich, 144, _note_ 1, 381-4;
at Sandwich, 155;
at Southampton, their duties, 299;
of bakers at Exeter, 179;
in London, 149, _note_ 1;
of carpenters, 147;
of cordwainers at Exeter, 119, _note_, 179;
of drapers at Shrewsbury, 144, _note_ 2, 173, _note_ 4;
of farriers, 146-147;
of joiners and lorimers in London, 163-164;
of kalendars at Bristol, 13, _note_ 2;
of masons, 147-148;
of mercers of Shrewsbury, 182, _note_ 1;
of painters in London, 163;
of saddlers in London, 162-164;
of spurriers, 147;
of tailors at Exeter, 172-181, 184;
in London, 143, _note_ 3, 149, _note_ 1, 182, _note_ 1;
at Lynn, 151, _note_ 1;
of weavers in Leicester, 122, _note_ 1;
in London, 141-142, 162;
in Newcastle, 102, _note_ 2;
in Nottingham, 141, _note_;
merchant, its early history, and composition, 191-193;
organization, 193;
independent position, 194;
monopoly of trade, 40;
struggle with crafts, 191;
Gross’s theory of its decline, 191-197;
obscurity and local variety of its history, 197-201;
its successors in fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 201-202;
of Andover, 193, _note_ 1, 198, _note_ 1, 199;
of Bridgewater, 214;
of Bristol, 198, _note_ 1;
of Carlisle, 185;
of Chesterfield, 203, _note_ 1;
of Coventry, 203-204;
of Gloucester, 194, note 1;
of Lichfield, 213, _note_ 3;
of Lynn, 184, 196, _note_ 3, 198, _note_ 1, 217, 403;
of Nottingham, 332;
of Plymouth, 220;
of Reading, 203, _note_ 2;
of S. Albans, 203;
of Southampton, 198, _note_ 1, 207, _note_ 3, 305;
of Totnes, 33, _note_ 2, 220

Guildhall, _see_ Hall

Gun made for Lydd, 54, _note_ 1

Gunner, payment of, by Southampton, 298

H

Halifax, cloth-makers at, 89

Hall, the drapery, at Coventry, 207;
guild, its storage rooms, 34;
of Bristol, 37;
of Lynn, 406;
of Nottingham, 325;
of Southampton, 310, 312;
of York, 205, _note_ 1;
town or guild, of Birmingham, 213;
town, of Coventry, called S. Mary’s Guild, 203

Hamble, court of Admiralty held at, 319, _note_ 2

Hanse, its trade with Lynn, 404

Harpe, held by Romney, 237

Hastings, metal for gun got from, 54, _note_ 1

Haverford West, interest taken by its burghers in municipal affairs,
234, _note_ 3

Hawk, town clerk of Norwich, 390

Hawleys, the, of Dartmouth, 73

Hazard, John, coroner of Bristol, 267

Henley, Walter of, 133

Henry I., his grant of liberties to Southampton, 306

Henry II., his charter to Gloucester, 194, _note_ 1;
to Southampton, 306;
to Nottingham, 331

Henry III., his charter to Liverpool, 41;
to Gloucester, 194, _note_ 1;
to Oxford, 278, _note_ 2;
to guild merchant of Lynn, 407

Henry IV., his Act about apprentices, 104, _note_ 3;
charter to Liverpool, 41;
to Nottingham, 333;
to Norwich, 373;
to Southampton, 307, 309;
confirms decrees of committee of eighteen in Lynn, 414;
grant to Genoese traders, 290;
grant for fortification of Southampton, 292

Henry V., loan of Cardinal Beaufort to, 292;
his letters patent to Lynn, 409;
to Southampton, 307;
confirms decrees of committee of eighteen in Lynn, 414;
appeal of people of Lynn to, 417;
confirms guild of S. George in Norwich, 384;
his charter to Norwich, 379-380

Henry VI., charters of incorporation given under, 269;
loans from Lynn to, 423;
supported by Nottingham, 330;
charter to Nottingham, 333-334;
to Southampton, 307-308

Henry VII., depression of trade in his early years, 87;
effects of his commercial treaties, 87;
brings over Flemish weavers, 94;
repeals Act of Henry IV. about apprentices, 104, _note_ 3;
charter to Exeter, 180;
to merchant tailors of London, 143, _note_ 3;
grants to Southampton, 293;
Nottingham sends deputation to, 331

Henry VIII. entertained at Fairford, 68;
forbids emigration from Chester, 299, _note_ 4

Hereford, its in-borough and out-borough, 40, _note_ 2;
customs, 225-227;
law about steward, 261, _note_ 2

Heydon, John, of Baconsthorpe, 387, 389, 393, 394, 395, _note_ 1

Hill, Nicholas, image-maker of Nottingham, 326

Hoastmen, complaint of London corporation against, 140, _note_ 3

Holbein, his “Dance of Death”, 57

Holidays, disputes about, 88;
trading on, forbidden, 133

Hollingbrokes, the, of Romney, 59, _note_

Holme, Abbot of, his disputes with Norwich, 387, _note_, 391-392

Honywodes, merchants at Hythe, 29

Horn, the common, of Sandwich, 227

“Hornblowing”, 430

Horseho held by Romney, 237

Hospital of S. Julian, Southampton, 295, 314-315;
of S. Thomas the Martyr, at Sandwich, 75;
founded by Simon Grendon at Exeter, 75;
of S. Paul, Norwich, its dispute with the town, 387, _note_

House, the audit, of Southampton, 310;
the butchers’, in Nottingham, 324;
the common, its storerooms for wool, 3;
the drapers’, in Nottingham, 325;
the mercers’, in Nottingham, 324-325

Houses in Nottingham, 327;
contrast between English and French, 84;
of merchants in Bristol, 74

Huddersfield, cloth-makers at, 89

Hull, its grammar school, 14;
merchants, 69, _note_ 2;
guilds at, 144, _note_ 2;
use made of them by county magnate, 182, _note_ 2;
royal charters to guilds, 182, _note_ 1;
trade with Nottingham, 324, 328

Hythe, its condition in early fifteenth century, 29-30;
Black Book, 230, 257, _note_ 4;
use of paper for accounts, 259, _note_ 6;
lands of community, 237;
perambulation on Holy Thursday, 30;
pestilence, 30;
its town clerk, 263, _note_ 1

I

Iceland, Bristol merchants in, 73

Illuminator of Nottingham, 326

Image-maker of Nottingham, 326

Incorporation, charters of, given under Henry VI., 269

“Inferiores” of Lynn, 407-409, 412, 413, 420-425

Ingoldsby, John, 303, _note_ 2

Inns provided by the towns, 33

Inn-holders, profit allowed to be taken by, 36

“Intrantes” in Canterbury, 47

Ipswich, its coroners, 223;
early form of government, 223, 224;
land of community, 237;
powers assumed by oligarchy, 240-241, 252;
portmen, 223, 250, 252;
dogget rolls, 259;
two councils, 278, _note_ 2;
agreement made by barber taking apprentice at, 120, _note_ 1

Ireland, its trade with Liverpool, 41, _note_;
smuggling trade with Gloucester, 42;
cloth, 289

Iron works at Nottingham, 326

Isabella, Queen, her land at Coventry, 202-204

Italy, cities of, their commerce with Southampton, 290-291, 320;
English cloth sent to, to be dyed scarlet, 326;
merchants from, obliged to buy only in London, Southampton, or
Sandwich, 293

J

Jews at King’s exchange, 69, _note_ 1;
school for, at Bristol, 13, _note_ 2

Joan, Queen, 304, _note_ 2

John, King, his charter to Gloucester, 194, _note_ 1;
grant of privileges to Southampton, 306;
“palaces” of, in Nottingham, 327;
frees Nottingham from forest laws and forest officers, 328;
charter to Nottingham, 332;
to guild merchant of Lynn, 404

John of Horncastle, bailiff of Bristol, 267

John the Taverner, mayor of Bristol, 267

Joiners, guild of, in London, 163-164

Journeymen, their combinations for self-protection, 101;
protection of, in guild, 103;
regulations about their wages, 104, _note_ 1;
position in craft-guilds, 119, 128-129;
protection by town authorities, 120;
laws about, 121-123;
strikes of, 123-127;
unions of, 129

Jubilee of 1420 at Canterbury, 43

Jurats of Cinque Ports, 278, _note_ 1, 434;
of Lynn, 407, 409, 421

Juries, system of, in towns, 228-229;
special, 229, _note_ 2, 275, 276, 341;
of forty-eight of Nottingham, 356-358;
of wards and leets in Norwich, 381.
_See_ Leet, Mickletorn

Justices, their right to order election of discreet men for town
officers, 249, _note_ 2;
of the peace, appointment of members of upper town council as,
254-255;
in Nottingham, 339, 340;
in Norwich, 362, _note_ 2;
in Southampton, 307, 309

K

Kalendar of Fordwich, 258, _note_ 3

Kalendars, guild of, at Bristol, 13, _note_ 2

Kent, its decline in wealth during Hundred Years’ War, 88, _note_ 3;
brewers of, 89;
popular movements in, 429

Keyhaven, court of Admiralty held at, 319, _note_ 2

Kidderminster, cause of its decay, 97, _note_ 3

King’s Bench, court of, 238

Kipton Ash, its market, 404, _note_ 1

L

Labour, effects of war and rivalry between England and Netherlands on,
87;
difficulties caused by industrial changes, 87-90;
by foreign immigration, 90-96;
problem of, 107-109;
“blackleg”, London saddlers accused of encouraging, 163;
law against, 165;
“uncovenanted”, fostered by employers, 102

Labourers, unskilled, 103-104;
country, difficulties of their transfer to towns, 98-99;
legal hours of work, 133;
of Norwich, their condition before 1340, 101

Lammas lands of Colchester, 238

Lancaster, Nicholas, town clerk of York, 263